Le Rugby and more

This weekend we attended our first professional rugby game. Bezier is a team in the second division and as far as we could tell it was well played. Southern France has many Rugby teams and attracts international players. When the 6 nations tournament http://www.rbs6nations.com/ was going on in March it was big news and on TV often. Also a visit to the mountains north of here. Only about 60 km away but 1000 m higher and much colder. 4 degrees and hail this afternoon for a short period while it was about 18 today in Marseillan.

La souris des dents

In Canada and England we have the tooth fairy, but in France they have the tooth mouse - la souris des dents.  The tooth mouse does exactly the same thing as the tooth fairy - takes milk teeth that have been left under the child's pillow and leaves money in exchange, and builds a castle with the teeth.  I must admit, I kind of like the idea of a little mouse taking the tooth and scuttling off through a hole in the wall.

La souris des dents visited Andy on Saturday night when he lost his first tooth.  This has been a long-awaited occassion because he is seven and a half which is old for still having all his baby teeth and he's been looking forward to this growing-up milestone anxiously for a long time.

La Voile

We spent this afternoon taking a sailing lesson, each in our own little boat.  The instructor said it was a perfect day for it with a bit of, but not too much, wind.  But to us it seemed plenty windy enough and all of us felt like we were about to fall in at some point.  It was great fun though and we all seemed to pick up at least the basics.  The adults' boats were quite a bit faster than the kids' boats, so we went in circles around the kids while they pottered along slowly, with the instructor in a motor boat going back and forth between us.  They gave us a wetsuit to wear, so I took that as a sign not to take our camera on board, so no pics on the water.
Lucky Joe gets to go sailing for four weeks as part of his school PE lessons.  The rest of us would love to go again but I think it was expensive enough to make it a one-time thing.

Montpellier football

We went to see Montpellier play football.  It was the first "proper" football game Joe's ever been to, and it was a good one!  Montpellier are currently in first place in the French top league . They played like potential champions too, and won 2-1, the highlights are at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpzge4_resume-mhsc-2-1-fcsm_sport .
Considering how well they're doing it was strange to see the stadium only half full, especially as tickets were only 11 or 16 Euros.

Corso Géant

Today, Easter Sunday, there was a big parade (Corso Géant) in our little town of Marseillan.  It was fantastic!  I've no idea where all the people came from, but the streets were crowded with people watching the parade and there was a real carnival atmosphere with lots of confetti, bubbles and silly string.

Perpignan

On the way to the Pyrenees we visited the city of Perpignan.  It was a fun day to visit because there was a rugby game on (that we didn't go to), as well as the day of some kind of Catalan festival with a parade and lots of other activities so the town was full of people having lots of fun.

As well as hanging out watching the world go by, we also visited the Palace of the Kings of Majorca in Perpignan, a beautiful gothic palace with 'his and her' chapels, and lots and lots of stairs all over the place, including up to the tower with an amazing view out over Perpignan and beyond. 

Les Pyrénées

We had a fun weekend away near and in the Pyrennees (near the border with Spain).  The whole region used to be part of Spain until about 500 years ago, and the Spanish influence is everywhere.  It was really beautiful driving, although Joe and I felt a bit sick from the twisty roads and hairpin bends (see the photo).

You can also see in the photo the train tracks which wind through the mountains, quite amazing - including some impressive feats of engineering, like this bridge.

Apart from the natural beauty, some of the highlights included wandering through the UNESCO town of Villefranche , and the citadel of Mont Louis.  Mont Louis was really interesting, because the main fort is still used by the military as a Commando Training Centre - they have filled the moat with obstacles, and have ladders up the walls, looked like a big adventure playground!

Also at Mont Louis is the excellent Four Solaire.  It used to be a CNRS research project, but it is now used to power a kiln.  The temperature at the focal point of the light get up to 3000C, and even on a slightly cloudy day we saw smaller demonstration versions melting bricks and setting fire to wood.  Here is a video of Andy doing that.

Montpellier

Montpellier is our closest really big city, but we haven't been there as much as we expected we would.  Even though it is only about 40 miles away, everything we need is closer, and whenever we rent a car we tend to go somewhere further away.  We've been to the excellent zoo and to the airport a couple of times, but hadn't really explored.
So this week I got the train there, and spent the day wandering the streets, seeing the sights, window shopping, and generally enjoying being away from the kids for the first day in four months!
It is a truly beautiful city, but my main impression of the architecture on wandering round was that everything was "inspired by" (aka a copy of) something else.

First the Arc de Triomphe, based on (according to my free guide from the Tourist Information Office) the famous Paris landmark.

Then the aqueduct, built in the 19th century and inspired (according to the same book) by the Roman Pont du Gard.

 

Then I got very confused, walking through the really attractive neo-classical Antigone district to discover it is younger than me!  That one is not such a big deal, but still struck be as a bit strange.

 But, not understanding the city, and why its landmarks are copies kind of makes it more interesting.  And it is really lively, liveable and city-ish compared to the quiet life we lead in little old Marseillan.  Made me miss city life in Canada for the first time, actually.  Don't miss shops though - how did the high streets of the world become so homogenised? Zara, Gap, Claire's accessories (true!).

Dimanche soir

Here are a few pics of us on an early Sunday evening on our roof terrace.

Andy reading Asterix (actually just looking at the pictures...)

Joe playing mini-sticks

Sitting down to a game of Scrabble

La plage

After a couple of rainy days the sun is out again, and it is like summer.  We biked to the beach today and had a day playing on the beach and swimming in the sea.