How annoying!

Maggie and I are home alone at the moment, as JM has gone off to Paris to a comic book convention. I could have gone, but by the time we drive up there (best solution with Maggie in tow), stay in a hotel for the weekend, pay the autoroute and gas for Beanie, etc., etc., it becomes a rather expensive exercise. So, it's just as easy for him to take the train and go on his own.

Yesterday, Maggie clearly knew that "something" was going on and whatever it was, it was not good for border collies. This was certainly confirmed when, after lunch, JM and I drove off for his quasi-permanent Friday afternoon appointment at the dentist, and we left her here on her own. Strangely, that seemed to lull her into a false sense of security, because she seemed vastly more cheerful after we got home and took her for a nice long walk in the gardens.

Again, she seemed very happy when we drove to Pamiers and she got to play in the garden at Philippe and Bernadette's house, where we stopped off before going to drop JM off at the night train.

By the time that we got home, she realized that we had once again put something over on her, and hung around downstairs for a while, waiting to see if JM was going to walk through the door. Once she figured out that he wasn't, we spent a quiet hour watching television before heading up to bed.

Today dawned with lots of rain; typical because after all it is market day. The big bazaar table was here and set up in front of the house, but closed down after barely half-an-hour. Probably a wise decision.

But the rain has cleared up and we got to take a nice long walk. When we came home, I heard odd noises echoing throughout the house. Now, knowing we were alone, I found that strangely disturbing. I followed the sounds and found them emanating from my computer! I had gone to the 3Suisses website (mail order, similar to Sears in the U.S.) and on the screen was a strange man inside a television set, "tapping" on the screen! Okay, I get it, they want you to ask for live help. But don't tap at me! I can find you if I want you.

I'm glad it was only a stranger in my computer and not one in my house!

Ciao for now.

Randy

Driving

I've mentioned many times that driving here is a totally different experience than driving in L.A. First of all, you actually DRIVE, not sit in traffic crawling along like a handicapped snail (most of the time, anyway.)

Still, it is not all sunshine and flowers. Take my trip out to Limoux yesterday to buy a cable for my computer.

I left the Possum Kingdom at 1:30, still in the lunch hour break. As I left the actual "official" village, I looked up in horror to see a car coming towards me almost entirely on my side of the road! Now, while beautiful, the road to Limoux is seriously lacking in space on the edges for most of the way. You are either on the road or in a ditch, down a ravine or headfirst into a tree. So, you can imagine that seeing this vehicle barreling towards me got the old adrenaline pumping wildly. Luckily, he either saw me or figured it out on his own, because he got back in his lane before we met in an unpleasant manner.

You would think that this was a one time thing and the rest of the drive would be without incident. But there you would be wrong. Granted, there are never a lot of cars between Chalabre and Limoux, but of the ones I saw (either coming in the opposite direction or ones I drove behnd), fully half of them seemed unclear on the concept of two-way traffic.

I will admit that the road to Limoux is filled with twists, turns and deadman's curves, but if you drive it at a reasonable (and I mean reasonable, not snail-like) pace, it is totally possible to stay on your side of the white line. And yet so many people seem either incapable or unwilling to do this. Now, while I can accept that on some of the turns if you hit them a little too fast, you might head into the opposite lane, on those places that are totally straight, there's just no excuse.

But that doesn't seem to stop a lot of the drivers that I see. They just seem to drive wherever the urge takes them, oncoming traffic be damned. When they do this as they head into a totally blind curve, it is frankly terrifying.

Amazingly, some of the worst offenders are NOT the people driving too fast, but rather those who seem barely able to keep their vehicles moving above 20 miles an hour. I have tried to come up with a rationale, but other than that their driving skills suck, I can't.

So, for all who venture into the Possum Kingdom, I warn you to keep your eyes open when you're behind the wheel of your car. You never know what may be coming towards you and you want to have as much chance to get out of the way, or at least lean on your horn, as you possibly can.

Ciao for now,

Randy

Think global, eat local

After the short story contest dinner on Saturday, JM and I felt we were on a roll, so we decided to continue being social on Sunday.

Our friends Cassandra Einstein and Ellie Clemens were having a joint art show opening at a wonderful little winery in the Razes. The day was perfect for an outing through the local countryside, so we set off after a quick lunch to find the Domaine de Buscail in Mazerolles du Razes.

Vignerons Alain et Chantal Maligorne,
11240 Mazerolles du Razes
06.80.58.99.15
(mobile); 06.75.93.54.71


After a beautiful drive we arrived at the Domaine. Sadly, Ellie wasn't there as she had caught an early case of flu, but her husband John was there to show us around. We thoroughly enjoyed both her work and Cassandra's and were sorry we didn't have enough money to buy their wonderful paintings (which aren't at all expensive, by the way!)

Afterwards, we had a lovely chat with vigneron Alain Maligorne. He told us that he had been a dairy farmer up until about 10 years ago, when he and his wife decided to make a big change in their lives and bought the vinyard. It had been sorely allowed to deteriorate and they have worked hard to bring it to life again. This they've done admirably and now it is not only beautiful to look at, but their wine is quite delicious.

Before we left I purchased a couple of bottles of rosé for the totally absurd price of 2€ per bottle.

On the way home, I started to realize that about 60% of the food we're currently eating at home comes from small local producers. This includes not only the wine I purchased on Sunday, but chicken which I bought in a special promotion at the Gamm Vert and which comes direct from a local breeder, vegetables from either my neighbors' gardens or locals who bring it to the Saturday market, eggs from a local farmer, beef from a local breeder, etc.

I love the idea of this not only because I feel that food that has not been transported for thousands of miles tastes better, but because I like to know that I'm helping to keep local farmers in business, something that benefits all of us in the region.

I know this is not possible to do everywhere, but I am grateful that we are able to participate in such a systerm.

Ciao for now.

Randy

Dining at the Mairie

Several months ago, JM suggested to the mayor that the village hold a short story competition. This is something that other villages have done and is a good way of bringing a cultural event to an area. I suggested that the theme for the contest be the Cathars.

The deadline came and went, the short stories were read and graded, the winners chosen and the top 18 stories were gathered together to be printed as a book.

The final step was to hold a ceremony at the town hall with the hope that some of the participants would make their way to the Possum Kingdom to receive their copies of the book and be feted by the village. This grand event took place this past weekend. Luckily, several of the winners were able to come to town, otherwise it would have been a bit sad.

This being France, there was, of course, an aperitif held as the first part of the evening. Noëlle, librarian extraordinaire, friend, and co-sponsor of the contest, organized the whole thing. Drinks and a variety of saucissson were happily consumed by all.

Then we all moved on to Les Cedres, a sort of community hall, for dinner. This is the first time I've participated from beginning to end in the organization of something like this since we've been here. There was no actual kitchen in the hall, so creativity was called for in the meal planning. Although the concept of "potluck" doesn't really seem to exist here, I think this counted as a French version of that.

No real direction in what we were to bring was offered other than telling us to provide something for the first course, so i suppose there was a certain amount of luck involved in not winding up with fifteen varieties of potato salad, for example. The menu turned out to be four varieties of quiche and pizza, fruit salad and green salad, my own contribution of an expermental vegetarian paté made of chestnuts, hard-boiled egg, onions, garlic and various herbs (it really tasted better than that sounds), some truly marvelous ham, cold roast pork with homemade mayonnaise and fig chutney, a superb cheese plate and delicious tiramisu and fresh fruit.

Add to that some excellent wine and you couldn't ask for a better meal.

One of the things that really impressed me in all this was that once the "guests" (the contest winners) had left, those of us from the village all stayed around to help with the cleaning up. In about ten minutes, the entire mess had been sorted, chairs and tables arranged, trash bagged, leftovers accounted for, floors swept and everyone ready to head home. Real cooperation from beginning to end and a great sense of community participation.

Good food, good conversation, good friends. The best way to spend an evening in the country.

Ciao for now.

Randy

Elections

For all my American friends: Remember that your vote counts. JM and I were pleasantly surprised when our absentee ballots arrived here in the Possum Kingdom a good ten days ago. We immediately filled out our ballots and got them back into the same day's mail. If all goes well, our votes will be counted right along with everyone else's.

Clearly, as foreign residents, we can't vote for everything we would like back in California. And, I do regret not being able to vote in the gubernatorial election. I would really, really like to see Arnold defeated. Still, we get to vote for national offices. In our district the outcome isn't particularly close or in question, but it feels good to be able to participate nevertheless. Just because we don't still live in L.A. doesn't mean we don't care about America. We do and would like to see the current course of events reversed.

We are also heading into an election year here in France. This will be the first time I've lived here during a presidential election. Although we were here in 2002 when far right wing candiate Le Pen surprised everyone by coming out ahead of Lionel Jospin (socialist) to go head-to-head with Jacques Chirac. We arrived in Paris the day that massive countrywide protests were scheduled and, since JM's parents live directly on the main "protest route" for 90% of the marches that take place in Paris, we got to see the truly impressive turnout. I really don't believe that I've ever before seen anything like the massive sea of people who were out making their voices heard that day. There were so many of them that the march was actually gridlocked for several hours and people just had to stand where they were. Chirac took the second vote by some massive percentage.

Elections are run quite differently here. The various candidates for their parties' nomination are declaring their intentions this week. Their are no primaries and it will be the party itself who choses the final candidate. This will be done about two weeks before the actual election, and the campaigning for the race itself lasts only TWO WEEKS!!! Imagine that; only two weeks of national campaigning, not months and months of the stuff.

Another huge, and seriously important difference in my opinion, is that there is NO TELEVISION ADVERTISING. Now, in the U.S. (for all my non-American readers), there is massive fundraising to finance long running, often vile television commercials. We are inundated with them for months on end and no candidate can possibly win if his commercials don't make an impression. Most American voters only know what they think is a candidate's position based on his/her commercials, or worse, on the commercials of the opponent. Mud slinging doesn't even come close to describing the process.

French candidates will get actual television air time to talk about their policies and views. They can have handouts but no real advertising. Yes, there are political cronies, etc. But without the ad campaign, I can't help but feel that the process is more equal.

So, I will be watching all of this with great interest. We may wind up with the first woman president in French history. I wonder if the U.S. is ready for that?

Ciao for now,

Randy