This is a special holiday edition of the Frog Blog that is being brought to you live from the Gard, where it is I can assure you, really rather hot. It’s bloody marvellous. But before I come to describing the place, I’d best bring us up to date. Last Friday evening we had our pre-practise dinner at Musique en Herbe, and it was a very pleasant evening all told. Until we got to actually rehearsing, anyway. At that point, it became evident that a Musique en Herbe rehearsal is a bad idea when drunk. It’s not that we played particularly badly, it was more an uninhibited tendency to utter the sort of comments you maybe would have kept to yourself when sober. Tempers were frayed by the end and it was not a happy few hours all told.
Luckily the rehearsal the following afternoon was more tolerable and productive, although all signs still point to the imminent gig being a train wreck. That evening, there was an event in Milhac – a ‘BBQ Dansant’. It’s apparently the third year running that it’s taken place but we’d somehow managed to miss it until now. We got down there at around 8pm by which time there was a crowd of around 30 people enjoying a few drinks. Amongst them was Philippe, whom we’d not seen in months despite repeated efforts. He was on fine form – ie, quite thoroughly pissed. He was at the ‘happy but staggering and knocking things over’ stage, having apparently been there drinking solidly since noon.
As the evening wore on it got busier and busier and a DJ started to play some extremely cheesy french musique. (I’m ashamed to say that, thanks to Musique en Herbe, we actually knew quite a number of the songs very well). We grabbed ourselves some food and tried, unsuccessfully, to get Phillippe to eat too. He however was far too busy dansing like a lunatic at that point.
In the end it turned out to be a really lovely evening. They had a bubble machine and the whole sky was filled thousands of bubbles while everyone danced beneath. We made it to around 12.30 or so and then made our way home. We offered Philippe a lift but he apparently needed to talk to everyone very emphatically about ISIS at this point, so wasnt ready to leave. ‘Talking about ISIS’ is, we’ve come to learn, the final stage in the Philippe drunkeness cycle before he crashes. Why, we dont know, but it is.
The following afternoon, we got to discover for ourselves just how bad Philippe’s hangover was. He, like us, had been invited to a BBQ around Gael & Corinne’s place. They currently rent Philippe’s gite as the house they’ve bought is effectively a ruin so they’re doing it up gradually. It’s right on the edge of Mazeroux and this was the first time we’d been to see it. My immediate thought was ‘rather you than me’: the house is just a shell and there’s an incredible amount of serious, structural work to be done. But they seem to be taking it all in their stride and keep chipping away at it slowly. It was a really hot afternoon but we were under an awning and it was pleasant to be outside. Manu & Mathilde came too, along with their kids. And a subdued Philippe, who needed a couple hours on the water before feeling ready for a beer, which he nursed slowly.
After a full-on weekend, we kept the pace going on Monday. Our friends Ridgit are in town again, so they came over for a meal. We were outside for most of the time as it was a lovely hot afternoon, but by nightfall it dropped so we moved inside to eat. Both Bridget and Rich are well, but devastated by Brexit and desperate to get out of the UK for good. It’s now just a case of Bridget finding a way of taking early retirement and then they’ll be over full-time.
Tuesday was much quieter day that we spent gently preparing for our trip. Lucien and Mauricette are on cat duty and Bryan and Carol are on houseplant/veggie plot duty, as we didnt think it wise or fair to ask an ex-policeman to water our special crop. So anyway, on to the holiday so far! We left Port 80 a bit after 9am on wednesday, more or less on schedule.
We’d been on the road for around two hours when we had a little hic-cup. We’d stopped at a motorway toll booth and were just pulling off again when we hit the kerb with a bit of a nasty jolt. The impact was bad enough to know we needed to inspect the car, so we quickly pulled into a car park to the side and got out. It wasn’t good news. The back tyre was punctured and deflating before our eyes. Also, the front tyre had a worrying bulge in it and its hub-cab was warped.
We managed to get the spare wheel on in place of the punctured tyre but were in a quandary about how to proceed. The spare wheel is a temporary one and it stated explicitly on it not to exceed 80km/h. We also worried the front one could go at any time, so we decided the motorway was just too dangerous and made a few revisions to our route. Perhaps unwisely, we turned on our sat-nav for help at this point. The problem with our satnav is it’s so obsessed with shaving even the tiniest of distances off the journey that it will have you turn off a main road and wind your way through a morass of narrow lanes, only to rejoin the same main road a kilometres later.
In between the satnav and a map of France, we plotted out a course and made our way there gently at 80km/h. Actually, given the sinuousness of the roads, it was rare that our reduced speed limitation was an issue. It also meant that we could better take in the scenery, which was really spectacular as we crossed over mountains and through various pretty towns. We had one heart-stopping moment where we saw gendarmes randomly pulling over cars. France is still in a state of emergency and I’ve heard reports of random searches occurring on main roads. We’d of course bought some supplies with us too so started to panic. In the end, the car immediately ahead of us was pulled aside, but we slipped through, unmolested but decidedly rattled.
All told, what was supposed to be a 6.5 hour car ride ended up taking us 9 hours. On the plus side, it was far and away the most fuel-efficient car journey we’ve ever managed. At just 5 minutes from our destination, a car came hurtling down the middle of the road towards us and neatly took out our wing mirror as it passed. The driver just carried on, either oblivious or uncaring, but luckily we found that the mirror wasnt broken and clipped back in. We laughed this off as best we could, as well as a last minute effort to lead us astray us by the satnav, and finally reached Nadine & Jean-Claude’s house at 7pm. We all immediately agreed it was cocktail hour. We had a lovely evening with them out on their terrace where it remained a comfortable temperature all night. We followed this with dinner of chicken provencale and then hit the hay.
Their house is in a small village called La Bastide d’Engras and is about 15 minutes from the very pretty town of Uzès. It’s here. It is a small and compact little village with around 200 inhabitants, and they have a lovely large old house with a small enclosed garden, and a swimming pool. Photos will follow, I promise. For now, you’ll have to have my description. The garden has three established olive trees, and a blackberry tree – something i didnt know existed – as well as a few other small fruit trees. There’s a plant that’s popular in the Dordogne called oleander. If you dont know it, it makes lots of small pretty flowers. But it can’t survive a Dordogne winter so people have them in pots and bring them inside when it gets cold. Down here in the Gard, they’re everywhere, including several in their garden. And they’re not plants, they’re trees.
The house itself has high-ceilings and despite the fierce sun outside, is nice and cool. The neighbours are close by and it’s on a road so it’s somewhat noisier and more bustling than the Dorodgne (not hard, I know) but by all accounts the locals are all extremely friendly.
We were woken early the next morning as the house across the road was having some fairly major work doing, but luckily it was only for the day. After breakfast, we placed a call to a local garage who booked us in that afternoon to replace our two knackered tyres. That done, we went to collect their horses and move them to a nearby field where they’re staying while we look after them. We had a lesson in how to do so then came back to the house to go over other practicalities.
We had homemade pizzas for lunch then took it easy by the pool until we went into town to sort out the car. While it was worked on, we went into Uzès itself and had a quick tour around. It’s a really gorgeous town with a large central square like an italian piazza. The car didnt take long and then it was back home for an apéro-dinatoire out on the terrace. Nadine and Jean-Claude are great company, and we’re all very like-minded so the discussions are always interesting. It was good we got to spend a little time with them before they set off.
We slept a little later this morning and Nadine and JC set off right after breakfast, having left us with lots of suggestions of places to visit. This includes the nearby town of St Quentin de la Poterie, where it was market day. We went early in the morning but it was already 25 degrees and climbing steadily. We scored some little gifts for our plant/cat sitters, did a small shop for supplies and then came back to the house, where we’ve been ever since, lounging by the pool. The forecast is for 33 and sun every day we’re here, so there will be lots of this in our immediate future. Speaking of, my book beckons so I shall leave it there. Sometimes, it really is beau, la vie.