Getting Ready
In four days’ time my daughter, son in law and granddaughter will arrive for a ten day stay. It’s shorter than usual this year as my son in law’s (Andy’s) brother is visiting Scotland at a time that clashes with my family’s usual stay here and they naturally want to maximise the time with Andy’s brother since he is coming from the USA. So I’m planning what to do to make their stay here as enjoyable as usual.
If forecasts are correct, the weather will be playing along, hot but more manageable as their stay progresses. They will be shopping en route and I’ve advised them on the best rosé wine that they like to drink that should be available in supermarkets. Anyway they are very familiar with the area from previous holidays here and don’t need a lot of input from me.
They’ll find Mollans changed slightly this year but to little consequence. The usual trips over the bridge to get pains au chocolat won’t happen because both the bakers in the village are now adjacent, by the Bar du Pont. The Café des Sports is still closed and, if local gossip is correct, won’t be offering meals when it eventually opens but just a sandwich bar. If that is correct then I fear for it’s business as the Casino opposite already offers that. The Casino’s new owner has revamped the shop to stock a much wider variety of products than the shop had before. I think this is a bright move, relieving villagers of the necessity to go to Vaison or Buis for many items. My family will notice these changes but they won’t be of much consequence to them. They’ll come to the pizza evenings and moules-frites but otherwise be happy around the swimming pool or paddling in the Ouvèze with maybe a bit of cycling thrown in.
One thing the village clearly lacks is a restaurant. In the past we have occasionally gone to the nearby Les Castors camping site since that has amusements for granddaughter Eilidh. However this week I discovered a new restaurant not far away, in Pierrelongue, La Palanca. The food is good, reasonably priced and the siting is excellent, at the side of the old railway tunnel to Buis and at one end of the new pedestrian bridge bridge over the Ouvèze. There is enough there for kids to explore while waiting for a meal. Maybe we’ll try it together.
There is always of course the ritual trip to the Buis market, which Eilidh finds “amazing. Street markets are not so common in the Glasgow area. Anyway I think I have enough possibilities in mind to make my family’s visit an enjoyable one.
The house is in reasonable shape, the flowers are looking good and the jasmine is flowering all over the balcony. The watering is a chore, around the house and at the allotment, as by 8.00 in the morning it is already too hot to do much, which means getting up really early or doing it in the late evening. But if I can keep that up I think I’m done with getting ready.
End Of English Conversation Season
Well, we managed to end it with a bang. There were about 10 of us, meeting as arranged at the allotments. Normally we would tour the allotments but somehow we didn’t find time for that. Everybody brought food and drink, more than enough. Jacques also brought music and those still able and willing to stand started dancing. Baudouin and Josefa jitterbugging were a revelation and of course Jacques had to join in too, with Pascale. Knowledge of English was not advanced a lot but everybody had an enjoyable time, which was what mattered. That is it now until the end of September. During the rest of the summer everybody has holidays, guests or family visiting and there is rarely enough of us to make up a reasonable class at any one time. So It was goodbye and happy holidays until the end of September.
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