It’s now 10am Sunday morning.
We arrived in Bugarach yesterday at about 6:30pm. It’s beautiful. I’ll be posting pictures.
The little village is nestled amongst green velvety mountains at the bottom of a huge outcrop of rock called the “Pic”. It took us absolutely ages to get here on a single track road winding through Stella Artois villages.
The fete is on and the tiny town is buzzing with people in high spirits. I was rugby tackled on the way from the house back to the car whilst unloading. The guy came back later and invited us all to go for an aperitif with the locals.
There are only a few streets; maybe three or four. The town square is a stone’s throw from the front door (no, literally – about 20 metres). The locals use the ludicrously narrow walled corridor at the front as the main street. They passed the kitchen window in droves as we prepared our evening meal.
We had had to park the car some way from the house due to the busy street. We then laboriously transported the luggage and supplies up the steep hill from the main road up to the town.
We needed to find the house owner’s friends; they found us going through our paperwork and looking lost. Our brains were totally jangled after the journey. I was spaced out and Cherie seemed a bit panicky. They introduced themselves, and we introduced the adults in the party. Cherie said, “These are the children. They don’t have names. They might have in an hour.”
The house affords inspiring vistas of the mountains. I am sitting on our spacious bedroom balcony looking out over the hills whilst I write this, with the cloud shrouded Pic looming mysteriously to my left.
With a cup of coffee of course.
The weather is not great. It is quite cold and very cloudy. I think it must have rained during the night as the outdoor furniture is sprinkled ominously. I hope it will improve today.
We slept surprisingly well last night and were awoken at about eight by the sound of a cockerel or two. William and I used binoculars to see if we could see the wild boar we’d been told about whilst we had breakfast. (Lion bar cereal – it’s the future).
The fete was in full swing last night. A band was started up just after we’d dragged our sleepy selves to bed. The volume on their instruments went up to 11 ;-). Usually, I would have been pacing around the bedroom shaking my fist and shouting, “Shut up, you bloody blooders!”. But I did not. The quality of the music was top class. I was really impressed. They did “Love Shack” live far better than the B52s! The female lead singer had such a terrific voice. Their numbers were mostly English songs with a few American ones and the odd Euro trash that I’d never heard of. They even did a number by Chumbawumba, one of the local bands from where we’re from in the UK. In fact, we’ve been to see Chumbawumba this year performing the music and comedy lyrics for a play about the industrial revolution.
One thing, we have no internet. We have a mobile phone signal but only GPRS data – which is pants. So I can’t post this blog until I reach civilisation.
I’m hopeful about the weather. The clouds are thinning, the sky is getting blue and who knows, the sun might make an appearance.
