Angel before being thrown out of the Abbey
Me - Canal du midi bike ride
Bike ride on canal before his chain broke
Tony at St. Guilhem de-desert
Wednesday, August 11
Tony Wernert arrived by train from Paris the evening of Wednesday, August 11th. For anyone who doesn’t know, he is married to my husband John’s cousin, Kay. They have been our very close friends since they moved to San Francisco from Colorado maybe 15 years ago. Tony just retired from his job with the California state court and decided to do a traveling summer. Kay is still working very, very hard as the director of Marin County Head Start and she also is very involved on the national level with the program. Tony has been visiting family and friends in the Ohio, Michigan, Missouri areas before the “highlight” of his summer – France with me. I’m glad to have him. He’s lots of fun and is a very adventurous traveler. He’s also very handy with the walking of the three dogs here.
On Thursday we did three of my favorite things that I had already done - Clamouse cave, the village/Abbey of St. Guilhem le desert and then swimming in the Herault River. I won’t be posting pics of these since they would probably look the same as last ones – but we had a wonderful time and it was great sharing something I’d enjoyed so much with someone else. This time we took Angel along and carried her on my back in her carrier during the cave tour – noticed that it was a lot more exercise than doing it without her. She was very well behaved until we got to the part of the tour where they play choral music and do a light show. On my first visit lots of little children cried during this event, this time it was one dog whining (luckily not too loudly).
Tony enjoyed St. Guilhem Abbey but Angel and I got thrown out by a foreign nun. Angel was guilty of being a dog. Swimming in the river was just as wonderful as before – oops it was better because this time I had water shoes on and the rocks didn’t hurt so much.
Thursday Tony and I went for a bike ride on the Canal du Midi. Tony loves to bike ride and that was one activity he was really looking forward to. I am ok as long as it is pretty flat and the weather isn’t too hot. The canal ride meets these criteria as it is a little bit rough due to the tree roots a rain making mud (now hard) but it is definitely flat and cool because it is lined with lovely old trees. We rented bikes and took off. We rode along enjoying ourselves and watching the boats going through the canal locks etc. As we approached the first village along the river, frankly I was just hitting my “stride”, Tony’s bike suffered a major mechanical problem – the chain dislodged and couldn’t be reconnected because one of the links was badly bent. There wasn’t any bike repair in the town so Tony took my bike and rode back to the rental shop and I stayed in a café and guarded the broken bike. After about 1 ½ hours a mechanic from the rental shop arrived on a motorcycle and fixed the bike enough to get it back to the shop. Then Tony got there in the car and we ate lunch – having wasted most of our bike riding time. Oh well, the part we did was fun and I hope to do it again before I leave.
That night we went to a restaurant that had been recommended by my friends Bill & Marie Cerino. They told me they had enjoyed it during the recent visit to France. When they told me this I thought it was probably located somewhere here but nowhere close to me. Surprise, surprise I discovered it in a village about three minutes from here one day when the freeway I was on ended abruptly, traffic was dumped into the town of Valros, and there it was “L’Asparagus”. It doesn’t look particularly inviting it’s in a new very plain building on the side of a new part of the roadway. However, it was wonderful. Definitely the best meal I’ve had so far on this trip and possibly the best I’ve ever had in France. Not only that it was extremely reasonably priced – 28 Euros for 3 course prix fix. The service was great and you sit outside under a canopy. Tonight we are going back for the third time.
Tony Wernert arrived by train from Paris the evening of Wednesday, August 11th. For anyone who doesn’t know, he is married to my husband John’s cousin, Kay. They have been our very close friends since they moved to San Francisco from Colorado maybe 15 years ago. Tony just retired from his job with the California state court and decided to do a traveling summer. Kay is still working very, very hard as the director of Marin County Head Start and she also is very involved on the national level with the program. Tony has been visiting family and friends in the Ohio, Michigan, Missouri areas before the “highlight” of his summer – France with me. I’m glad to have him. He’s lots of fun and is a very adventurous traveler. He’s also very handy with the walking of the three dogs here.
On Thursday we did three of my favorite things that I had already done - Clamouse cave, the village/Abbey of St. Guilhem le desert and then swimming in the Herault River. I won’t be posting pics of these since they would probably look the same as last ones – but we had a wonderful time and it was great sharing something I’d enjoyed so much with someone else. This time we took Angel along and carried her on my back in her carrier during the cave tour – noticed that it was a lot more exercise than doing it without her. She was very well behaved until we got to the part of the tour where they play choral music and do a light show. On my first visit lots of little children cried during this event, this time it was one dog whining (luckily not too loudly).
Tony enjoyed St. Guilhem Abbey but Angel and I got thrown out by a foreign nun. Angel was guilty of being a dog. Swimming in the river was just as wonderful as before – oops it was better because this time I had water shoes on and the rocks didn’t hurt so much.
Thursday Tony and I went for a bike ride on the Canal du Midi. Tony loves to bike ride and that was one activity he was really looking forward to. I am ok as long as it is pretty flat and the weather isn’t too hot. The canal ride meets these criteria as it is a little bit rough due to the tree roots a rain making mud (now hard) but it is definitely flat and cool because it is lined with lovely old trees. We rented bikes and took off. We rode along enjoying ourselves and watching the boats going through the canal locks etc. As we approached the first village along the river, frankly I was just hitting my “stride”, Tony’s bike suffered a major mechanical problem – the chain dislodged and couldn’t be reconnected because one of the links was badly bent. There wasn’t any bike repair in the town so Tony took my bike and rode back to the rental shop and I stayed in a café and guarded the broken bike. After about 1 ½ hours a mechanic from the rental shop arrived on a motorcycle and fixed the bike enough to get it back to the shop. Then Tony got there in the car and we ate lunch – having wasted most of our bike riding time. Oh well, the part we did was fun and I hope to do it again before I leave.
That night we went to a restaurant that had been recommended by my friends Bill & Marie Cerino. They told me they had enjoyed it during the recent visit to France. When they told me this I thought it was probably located somewhere here but nowhere close to me. Surprise, surprise I discovered it in a village about three minutes from here one day when the freeway I was on ended abruptly, traffic was dumped into the town of Valros, and there it was “L’Asparagus”. It doesn’t look particularly inviting it’s in a new very plain building on the side of a new part of the roadway. However, it was wonderful. Definitely the best meal I’ve had so far on this trip and possibly the best I’ve ever had in France. Not only that it was extremely reasonably priced – 28 Euros for 3 course prix fix. The service was great and you sit outside under a canopy. Tonight we are going back for the third time.
I thought nuns were supposed to like Angels....glad you found a such a great restaurant. Sounds like you're a 'regular' now!
ReplyDeleteThat is what we thought when we were kids. We became adults and learned that many are not Angels at all. This one was particularly grumpy.
ReplyDelete