barbara pletz blog: Back to France July

I’m back in France. I’ve traded houses and cars again with Mel & Sharon Goldstein who live in a small village in Languedoc, very near Pezenas, in the south of France.

I flew into Paris on Tuesday. I brought my little dog, Angel, with me as I am staying for 3 months. It was a very long flight for both of us. I guess because I was flying on “miles” United routed me first SFO to LAX, then LAX to Chicago, and then Chicago to Paris. I decided to splurge and take a taxi into Paris rather than the train as I thought the train would take longer and be more of a hassle with my large suitcase, very stuffed backpack, and Angel in her carrier. Wrong! There was terrible traffic and it took well over an hour.

I stayed at a great little hotel “Grand Hotel DeChampaigne” that I discovered last year. For the price, ambience, and LOCATION, it is the best deal I’ve found in all the times I’ve stayed in Paris. It is located on the Right Bank, one block from the Seine, and directly across from St. Germain. It is so central you hardly every need to take the Metro. Easy walking everywhere.
This time, though, I didn’t do too much sightseeing for two reasons: 1) it rained the entire two days, and 2) Angel and I were both really tired from the long flight – thank heavens going home is a non-stop. Mostly I just walked around the “hood” by the hotel which is very nice. I did check Hotel Crillon whose bar was highly recommended by my friend Tony Wernert. It is located on Place Concord and is very, very upscale. As recommended by Tony, the bar was quite lovely and they even give you a hugh serving of nuts and potato chips (which I restrained myself from eating).

Thursday we took the TGV to Montpellier. Angel much prefers the TGV to United Economy class even though she was happy to stay in her carrier most of the time. I rented a car in Montpellier and headed toward Abeilhan. (The car rental was only for a couple of days as the Goldsteins loaned their car to some friends who were going to a wedding out of town.)

Heading south on the TGV

Angel's train ride

Downtown Abeilhan

Neighbor's chickens

and geese

As I was speeding along A9 peage, I thought every had been so easy, but then I saw a sign saying “Bouchon” which means cork but when used on a freeway sign it means traffic jam. It was the worst one I’ve ever encountered. Many emergency vehicles passed on the right including numerous ambulances, police, and rescue vehicles. I saw at least one helicopter lift off. We were stopped over 1.5 hours when someone (police?) cut through the chain link fence on the right side of the freeway to permit small cars to exit. I escaped and just let my trusty TomTom GPS guide me home. When I’d encounter a new traffic jam going though towns (as many other A9 escapees were doing the same thing) I’d just head down a very rural road (like going through a vineyard) and Ms. TomTom gave me new directions.

Mel and Sharon took me to my favorite restaurant “L’Asparagus” for a very nice dinner. They left in the morning and I settled in with Angel and the Goldstein’s two dogs Jake and Molly.
I was planning to head to my favorite beach to go swimming in the beautiful Mediterranean as soon as I got here but the weather is unseasonably cold making the beach seem much less beckoning. So I’ve stayed close to home going into Pezenas for groceries, etc. I love Pezenas. Unfortunately didn’t take my camera so no pictures yet of this beautiful medieval town.
Today is Tuesday. It’s still cool and a few raindrops. Hopefully it will heat up within the next few days and I’ll get some beach time.

Last weekend was the Feria!! My favorite Abeilhan celebration. This is a three-day event and combines carnival (like throw-away money games, mechanical bunking bronco), food and drink, musical entertainment, and bullfights. It is a big deal for the locals – I suspect I may have been the only tourist.

I went Friday night and watched the Toro Piscine which they have all three nights. A red metal bullring is set up attached to a big truck. In the truck are all the bulls that will be used over the three days. For the Toro Piscine the participants appear to be local teenagers and “twenty-somethings” - probably about 12 of them at a time and several bulls (one at a time). Last year there was a plastic swimming pool in the center – not this year. Instead there were several towers of tires which the kids knocked over now and then. Otherwise the event consists of them teasing the bull who chases them and then to escape the kids either jump up the side of the ring or hide behind one of the numerous metal barrier used to give bullfighters protection when needed.

Afterwards I watched the entertainment which was a Flamenco group from Spain – 3 women, a male singer/dancer, and a guitar player. They were quite good and very traditional. The only part I didn’t get was a couple of numbers in which two of the women wore very tight white jeans and matching (also very tight) jackets. It might have been more attractive if they hadn’t both been a little hefty.

On Sunday the main event of the Feria takes place – a REAL bullfight. At least it is a REAL FRENCH bullfight with is different than a Spanish one. I guess there are a few bullfights in France where the bulls do get hurt but not in these Feria type local events. In the ones here, no one hopefully, bull or person, – gets serioiusly hurt. This year a couple bullfighters probably got their pride injured and one bull cut his nose running into the bullring side.

There is a small set of bleachers for the fans and also a band (which included a drum set, a couple of trumpets, a trombone, and a tuba). I was sitting next to them so it was particularly loud. They play some familiar tunes like “Those Were The Days My Friend” and then when the bullfight starts they crank it up with “Torreador” from Carmen. Only one of the bullfights had anything resembling a real bullfighting outfit. The others were dressed in regular clothes – jeans and short sleeved shirts. For at least two of them the shirts didn’t work to sell as the buttons popped open and also the bull’s horns caught on the shirts (not a good thing for the bullfighter). The bull’s horns have some sort of tape on them which I guess offers some protection from being gored.
Each of the bullfighters got his own bull to fight. The bullfight consists of passes only. There is no real sword and there are no piccaderos (sp?) like in Spain and Mexico where the stick the bull with darts. Also the bulls are a lot smaller than the Spanish ones. It is still pretty exciting.

A couple of the bullfighters were very young and looked like they had just graduated from Toro Piscine. One young fellow had a very close call when he fell down near the fence while being chased by his bull. The other bullfighters came to his rescue by distracting the bull with their capes. The fallen bull fighter climbed out of the ring and didn’t return. I think he may be changing his career path.

Sunday night I went to the Feria dinner with Suzette and her daughter Mariel who is visiting from Paris. We had a very nice time although they were the only ones I could talk to as no one else spoke English and my French is so limited to things like “nice to meet you”, “sorry”, “my name is”, “how do you call yourself”. I couldn’t even use one of my other standard phrases “where do live” since they all live here! Most exciting things was I got the two cheek hello kiss from the mayor who must have thought I was a local too.

One funny story: Suzette’s English is pretty good but now and then she gets a word mixed up. When she asked me if I liked what they were serving for dinner she said it was a “donkey leg”. They might have some pretty strange stuff (e.g., they have horse meat in the butcher stores) but I didn’t think she had the correct for the main course. I made her understand what she had said by making a donkey “heehaw, heehaw”. She was very embarrassed. Main course was actually grilled duck breast. Funny thing was that if she had just said “canard” I would have known right away.