Gathering for drinks

Wherever there are drinks on offer, you can be sure people will gather.  This was taken at a flea market in a nearby town.

Here too, people are starting to gather to see what drinks are on offer.  I was very early so perhaps that explains the small number of people.

Or maybe it was the rather murky looking drinks.

Finally, a more seasonal view seen in a shop window (as seen in an earlier post), with Santa gathering the reins, his lamp and a sack of presents while surrounded by all sorts of drinks.  Rudolph was nowhere to be seen - maybe the drink was too much for him.

Neeps** and tatties

Once upon a time fruit and vegetables would be bought from the greengrocer, meat from the butcher, and so on.  Then came the supermarkets and changed all that.  Although they fly all sorts in from every corner of the world, we've become used to a range of produce that's what they consider to be in demand.  And in the supermarkets I frequent they seem to have little idea how to look after the produce.

That seems to be changing.  I've noticed a new generation of greengrocers coming to life, both in the UK and in France.  In both cases they are chains, but specialise mainly in fruit and vegetables. They are providing a good range and more importantly, everything in beautiful condition.

The French store stocks all sorts of unusual fruits and vegetables, so I had to investigate.  They provided a leaflet,  "Ancient and Forgotten Vegetables", to explain what do do with such delights as swedes (rutabaga) and parsnips (panais).  "Swedes, well prepared with a cream sauce, will not fail to surprise you". 

Horseradsish (raifort) can be used grated in place of mustard.

Some of these oddities really are odd. These are parsley root, looking remarkably like parsnips to me, but apparently more like turnip-rooted chervil and the flavour is more pungent.

If you don't fancy parsley roots or turnip rooted chervil, and I can't say that have an immediate attraction, maybe these "wild onions" would be more in your line.  Their alternative name is lampascioni and it wasn't until I looked that up that I realised they have nothing to do with onions but are related to the hyacinth, grape hyacinths to be exact. 

There were pages more but my final offering is "barbe de capucin", dandelion shoots, or better known in France as "pissenlit".  In Italian they are piscialletto and the old English folk name is of course "piss-a-bed".  I've never tried them either.

**Neeps and tatties are traditionally served with haggis.  Neeps are turnips, that is the big yellow turnips called swedes in England, rutabaga in France.

Surprises in Toulouse

I thought after a long, long break, I ought to get back to hunting for photos.  I was very surprised to find there are now two versions so I've hastily added in another surprise, one of several that I found in Toulouse in the south of France.

This first is a double surprise - it isn't a picture of Toulouse but of Montpellier.  My surprise was that the Christmas lights in Montpellier were more striking than the lights in Toulouse (see my previous post).  Toulouse is much the bigger city so I was expecting more or maybe expecting too much.

My next surprise was that the beautiful Chapelle des Carmélites  is used for exhibitions like this one about Vietnam:

The boards displaying admittedly interesting information really spoilt the feel of the place for me, not to mention making taking photos very difficult.  The walls and ceiling are covered in wonderful 17th and 18th century frescoes.  This is all that remains of the convent, the rest having been destroyed during the French Revolution.

The next surprise was at the Basilica of St Sernin which is one of the important stops for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.  Mildly surprised to find it's built of red brick but more surprised to find ...

... the building completely surrounded by a flea market where you could probably buy, I think, absolutely anything at all.

My final surprise came at the Canal du Midi.

Here I was surprised by the trees.  Bearing in mind that this was taken in mid-December, I was surprised how many leaves were still on the trees.  Presumably it's down to the fact that it has been an unusually mild autumn and winter.

In truth there were many more surprises in Toulouse (and many more lights in Montpelier) but this is long enough now.  Happy hunting to all!

Toulouse had a Christmas market too

And as you can see, the stalls were the same again.  It was much, much busier.  Toulouse as a whole was much, much busier than Montpellier but I suppose it's to be expected in the fourth largest city in France after Paris, Marseille and Lyon. 

It was in the Place de la Capitole, a huge open expanse opposite the Capitole, the town hall.

I arrived just as the sun was setting and lighting up the Capitole with the last rays.  There is a passage through the Capitole building which was being used to display scenes from a fairground or circus, perhaps from the 19th century.

I couldn't quite work out what they were for because they weren't really in the Christmas spirit.  So true to life as to be vaguely unsettling.  The words on what I suppose is a caravan are, "Montreur d'animaux savants", "Exhibitor of animals".

By the time I'd finished looking at the spooky sideshows (with sound effects) the lights were starting to come on outside.

Most of the stalls seemed to be food-related, or at least those were the ones I noticed.  I must have been feeling hungry by this time.

Montpellier Christmas market

I don't know how often I've been to Montpellier in the south of France, but it must be approaching half a dozen times.  It has always been a convenient stopping off point on our way south.  I know I've been shown around by a friend who lives nearby at least twice but as far as I can tell, I've never taken any photos.

Often the excuse is that it's dark or at least dusk by the time we arrive, as it was this time, not usually the best time for photos.  However this time there was the Christmas market in the Place de la Comédie, opposite the Opera House and right down towards the tree-lined Allée Paul Boulet.  

I'm prepared to believe that Christmas markets hire out the same "chalets" to everyone and then pass them on to the next market - except of course that they all want them at the same time.  These do look very similar to the ones I saw in Winchester in 2007!  How time flies when you're enjoying yourself.

Cuddly toys.

One very bored little girl.

She would probably prefer a ride on the merry-go-round.  This is in the Place de la Comédie all the time, if I remember rightly.  Nobody riding it yet.

Nobody wanting the Santa outfits either.

But there were customers at the many "vins chauds" stalls.  I didn't sample any but I imagine it's much the same as mulled wine or Glühwein. There are regional variations but usually it's red wine heated with spices and sometimes sugar added.

Hot chestnuts, too, seemed very popular though I think the wine was the main draw.

And all around were beautiful lights and decorations, very hard to capture the effect in a photo.  Some, most really, were stunning.  The Opera House was draped in what can only be described as rivers of tiny lights.

Next time I go to Montpellier, I will make a special effort to take go around the old part of this beautiful city - and this time take photos.  I can't understand why I haven't done so before.

Grey is the new red

As I wandered around town the other day, I suddenly noticed that the Father Christmases (or should that be Fathers Christmas?) were dressed in grey.  When did this new fashion start?  Have I been missing something.

Wine seller

Optician

Pharmacy

I also see they are all wearing spectacles.  The first one I noticed was the one in the optician's window and I thought they were being clever.  Then the wine seller had his Father Christmas surrounded by bottles, fair enough, but I started to worry when I got to the pharmacy.  However the worry was unecessary and he was clutching his skis.

I don't know where this fashion for grey came from.  Whatever next?  Grey berries on the holly?

Still rising

Worse than dreich.  After a week of frquent showers it rained for 36 hours continuously.  It has been worse but there is more rain forecast.  No walk for me today.

I remember the floods of 2008 but, after looking at the graph, I'm very glad to have missed 1960.  It all looks very interesting from a certain distance but get a little closer and the power of the water rushing past is quite frightening.

Let loneliness caress you

Copied from the comments in A Postcard a Day where it was languishing without enough notice, contributed by soubriquet of Grit in the Gears.

Go to the forest
Go to the mountains
Go to the far off sea
Let loneliness 
Caress you
Until your skin is thin enough
So thin that your heart
Sees me through it
That I was the one
Who caressed you,
Who caresses you
Go, go. 

~Tommy Tabermann
Originally written in Finnish

Reflections on my river

"My" river I call it, the place I go to think.  In some ways it's always the same - a dependable presence - but in other ways constantly changing.  I was looking for an AA Milne quote about leaning from a bridge and came across quite a few other that appealed to me.  Some very apt, others just made me smile.


"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known."
~ AA Milne

"Sit by a river.  Find peace and meaning in the rhythm of the lifeblood of the Earth."
~Author Unknown

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."
~ Heraclitus

"The logs of wood which move down the river together are driven apart by every wave. Such inevitable parting Should not be the cause of misery."
~ Nagarjuna

"Between flattery and admiration there often flows a river of contempt."
~ Minna Antrim

" 'The River Styx,' Annabeth murmured. 'It's so...'
'Polluted,' Charon said. 'For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across - hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me."
~ Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

"Our trouble is that we drink too much tea. I see in this the slow revenge of the Orient, which has diverted the Yellow River down our throats."
~ J B Priestley

"Denial is much more then an Egyptian River."
~ Mark Twain

Turbulent times

I am sailing, I am sailing. 
home again, 'cross the sea. 
I am sailing stormy waters 
To be near you, to be free

The Weekend in Black and White