Sally Mara Art

FRENCH

LEÇON

récit à suspense

(cliffhanger)

accroché à la vie chère...hanging on for dear life

After a delightful desayuno of argentins y café con leche with Gemma and Luis, Niki and I

loaded up with all kinds of local provisions and continued on our way to Perpignan. We had planned a

leisurely drive through all those beautiful sun drenched towns along the coast

BUT

surprise, it was raining.....HA!

I was back behind the wheel, driving on route N260/D914 along the appropriately named COSTA BRAVA, a torturous, r a i n slicked cauchmar, curving up steep mountains, and then plunging down into villages of narrow convoluted streets.

After about 90 kilometers of driving with hordes of Spanish and French speedsters roaring up behind us, in a rush to make SUNDAY DîNER avec la famille at some fancy joint on a beach in

Banyuls-sur-Mer, Cerbère, or Collioure

I needed fortification

and so we stopped at Portbou, just shy of the french border

Restaurant España Portbou

Though Portbou was windy, dismal, and a bit deserted (SUNDAY) the café con leche was delicious and cheap

Back on the road we passed through the amazing vineyards of the Banyuls and Collioure regions of the Languedoc-Roussillon

Niki was in heaven, she and her husband own Refugio Ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, and this was her kind of place

I liked it too (when I dared look up from the wheel) but

have fondly titled this escapade as

terror in the terroir

It was worth the terror to see the twisty black vines growing out of dark schist terraced rocky hills with their agullas (vertical channels and peu de gall (cock's claw/furrow drains) extending way up the foothills and descending all the way to the sea

Fermé le Dimanche

an hour later and starving we reached r a i n swept COLLIOURE, not exactly a sunny beautiful day to visit the historic ville where Picasso, Derain, Braque, Matisse etc had spent time

the french holding fast to their long honoured SUNDAY rituals of church and a leisurely déjeuner,
promptly close up shop at 2
dommage

all the restaurants and shops were
FERMÉ
we managed to find one sandwich caravan parked near the water and got

deux grands sandwiches, (delicieux) and an earful about the perils of

PERPIGNAN

according to them, filled with voleurs et gitans, un mauvais endroit

nonetheless, a town I always wanted to visit

un labyrinthe de rues...QUEL HORREUR

Our hotel was in the Old City, a warren of narrow winding one way streets,
a
MAZE

it was getting dark, by the time we reached the hotel's approximate location
the rain continued as

we circled around 4 or 5 times, knowing it was so close, but NOT able to find the right rue....

suddenly, I saw a car go up a tiny street that I thought was only for pedestrians....et

VOILÀ
but
as I drove towards where we thought our hotel was, the road
narrowed
and
narrowed even more
as the rain continued
then...it
deadended
and even PETIT couldn't make the turn....
slowly backing out of there, trying hard not to let the car scrape the sides of the buildings
I parked
illegally
on the sidewalk in front of a bank
and got out to find
HÔTEL de la LOGE.

Sick of driving, CREVÉE and having been told the hotel had parking
I expected the propriétaire to take the keys and park PETIT
imagine my
dismay
when he told me (in french)
pas de parking......

pulling out a city map, he said "but an underground garage is not too FAR away" not even a bit sheepishly.....
while Niki got the keys and wrestled with our bags, I sprinted back to the car where two

COPS

were circling PETIT like vultures

I quickly pulled out
found the garage...

thanking my lucky stars that I remembered how the french system worked, from parking the previous year in San Sebastián

and
finalement....

Niki and I went out in search of dinner

it was after 8 pm

nothing was open

it was

SUNDAY

Hôtel de la Loge (red awning)

RECETTE

pour
DîNER du DIMANCHE

(SUNDAY DINNER)
à Perpignan

leftovers
from the market in Palafrugell

served on a
plastic bag

in the hotel room

with a glass of
acústic
poured into bathroom glasses

Le Castillet

The next morning, feeling obligated to see something of this slightly gangster town, with it's sinister and ominous overtones, we wandered through the claustrophobic old streets, slightly perdu. Tanked up on good coffee and croissants, we saw a lot and enjoyed it
feeling even with all the difficultés it had been worthwhile
being
MONDAY
we bought more provisions

and happily hit the road again