Pleasantries.

Today Marthe and I took a brisk half hour walk into town to do BUSINESS! "It's business time."

The first stop was the Tourism Office.
Painted pink of course.

Marthe took care of things in fluent french. She asked about bus departures for the town, Aix en Provence. I intend to visit with another LIA teacher for a weekend in the near future.

The next stop was the regular Wednesday market. Colour, noise, dogs, bicycles, old ladies with baskets on wheels, etc.

Ah, time to pause at an outdoor café. I have been to told to enjoy the sun while it is here. The winter is impending.

Marthe suggested that we buy fish for lunch. What a splendid idea!

" Do you want to do a circuit of the market, Viki?"

"Er .... yes please."

Onward on foot to pick up Marthe and Hervé's little jeep that was in at the garage getting fixed. The garage owner, Claudio, was argentinian. His eyes were chocolate brown, longish hair tied back in a ponytail, and he sported a gentle, jovial and very chatty disposition. He spoke english very well. His son had spent a year in NZ as a woofer.

Marthe took the opportunity to inform him that I don't like rugby. That prompted a good laugh from both of them. I could see why he had become a good friend to both Marthe and Hervé.

Both Hervé and Claudio like motorbikes. Hervé has two. This is one that Claudio had at the back of his garage. Hervé chuckled when he learnt that I had taken a photo of it. "It doesn't GO."

Lunch: fresh, softly cooked fish with potatoes sprinkled with olive oil. Accompanied with a small glass of red wine.

I spent a fine couple of hours making some VERY INTERESTING purchases at a local shop that I had noted the previous day. I guess you could say that it is similar to our Salvation Army shops. 

My hosts have 3 vehicles. Each serves their purpose. One for holiday excursions, one for skirting mountain roads and one for "about town."

My hostess is exceptionally clever. She obtains carded wool. She then spins, washes, natural dyes and knits. She runs this as a part time business. I love the colours that she dyed today. They hang to dry like a rainbow of happiness.

Everywhere I turn, I am surrounded with intricacies and suchlike of everything to do with wool. I am quite at home, as a long time ago, I did pretty much the same as Marthe. Only I didn't run it as a business. My three young urchins, in their younger years, had some pretty damned amazing home-knitted garments. 

Marthe is in the process of knitting some awesome socks. Her hands weave magic as she makes knitting on four needles so easy. How she manages to talk, count rows and stitches at the same time, I DON'T KNOW!

Stacks of clean, carded wool and a home knitted garment on a manequin.

Whilst walking to the supermarket, I was delighted to find a gorgeous cemetery. Note to self: come back here for a walk. Why is it that cemeteries have a great view????

The supermarket was interesting. I ended up spending about an hour there. It's one of those SUPER SUPER HUGE "sell-everything" kind of a supermarket. Whilst there, I smiled when the lady's voice came over the loud speaker: Come and get your kiwifruit. Fresh from New Zealand." I wonder what would have happened if I had announced to everybody that I was a kiwi fresh from New Zealand as well!!!

The queues for the cashiers were quite long. I was quite put out when the cashier indicated that there was something wrong with the vegetables that I wanted to purchase. I couldn't make out what she was trying to tell me. (Why must the french speak their language as if it's a race and as if each paragraph all belongs in the same breath without a single pause?) I marched back to the vegetable department, not really knowing what I was needing to do. Fortunately, my french was good enough to find out from someone that it was necessary to weigh and label the vegies myself. On my return to the cashier, the man waiting in the queue was thoroughly "gnawed off!"

When I am no longer with my host family, I may need to get my dinner from the adjoining café to the supermarket. What do YOU think? Expensive?

I cooked a chicken stir fry for dinner, amidst cries of deep appreciation.I swear the quality ingredients can make even a chicken stir fry taste a little exotic.

After dinner, I showed Hervé my goals for my stay in France. After reading that it was necessary to improve my language acquisition by watching french cinema, he snapped on the TV and made me watch the national "soap" programme. He was delighted. It was then that I realised that he had been missing his nightly ritual, because of the courtesy to me to dine at the dinner table. He patiently explained the intricacies of the characters and the plot development.

And so another day comes to an end.
Lucky that I didn't have to go to school today.
Tomorrow I meet with the english teachers at a midday meeting to decide how they will utilise me best over the coming months.
 Eek!