Settling in, and the visit from the Scotts.

We’re virtually village locals now, right? We’ve been here for a month. Although we’ve done a lot of short trips. I think the best sign that we’re gradually becoming a part of the scenery was that our neighbor offered us a piece of wild boar that had just been shot. Very sweet. I hope we didn’t offend when we turned it down. I suspect we became even more ‘les anglais’’ when we did. But honestly we have nowhere we could put such a large piece of meat! And I don’t eat the stuff anyway.

We don’t really know anyone though, not really- despite our promising set of introductions from the anarchist syndicalist group – CNT. Hopefully this will change in the next week after Halloween and a dinner invitation we’ve proffered. We’ll see! 

This past week Mac’s dad and our niece are visiting from Toronto-Oakville. It has been so wonderful having them here – not least for Sidney who is delighted to play with another kid, especially one he loves so much. They have been reading, doing lego and going on our various adventures which included:

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• Les Gorges au Fou – the gorge over the river fou, not the crazy gorge as I originally thought. Incredible walk along a very deep chasm wearing hardhats. We also went into some caves, but the kids were disappointed that there weren't more.. thus the visit to the caves. 
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• Caves with stalactites and stalagmites. I stayed home but it was apparently amazing
•  Collioure – the seashore at the Mediterranean. Famous site of various painters like Matisse, Picasso and also a site where Spanish civil war refugees were interned and those fleeing the Nazis gathered to find their way across to Spain. Gorgeous place. A bit touristy, but it’s the off season so not so bad. And most of us went in the water, and drank a fair Mediterranean of sangria. Here we also ate well. I ate wild mushrooms, tuna and tarte au citron. And a bunch of sangria
•  Last night in Spain. After being too early to have dinner in France, and leading to a temper tantrum from Sidney, we drove to spain for dinner – its across the border and we went to Macanet de Cabreyns. We ate well. I had wild mushroom soup and pears in coffee with cinnamon ice cream, Sidney had chicken, Mac steak, Gracie cannelloni and Scotty a heroic combination of escargots and prawns. I teased him that they’re wrestling in his stomach. On our way home we saw two small wild boars. Hopefully they were unrelated to the one mentioned previously. 
•   Horseback riding – we found a place where Grace and I could ride a horse, and Sidney a pony – his first time. . Amazing fun – although I do need to find out how those horses know I have no idea what I’m doing.
• The Castenyada – or chestnut festival. According to Wikipedia “The Castanyada (Catalan pronunciation: [kəstəˈɲaðə]) is a popular Catalan festival, celebrated on All Saints' Day. Like Halloween, its origins are in an ancient ritual festival of the dead. It consists of a meal of chestnuts, panellets, sweet potato and preserved fruits, typically with moscatell to drink.” That said, we didn’t know anything about the ancestors – only that the chestnuts were ready to eat, as well as the primera, or new wines to drink. There was a local choir – fierce singing of Catalan songs, and wearing of Catalan colours. There was also an odd pair of British type hunting horn players, and a trio of bagpiper and flute players. Not a ton of people were there – which according to our local informant is because the new mayor isn’t that popular.. something like that. The last one was a communist and more community oriented. We’ll find out more in time no doubt. 
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• -          Picking chestnuts, roasting them in the fireplace and eating ‘em. Pretty good and ridiculously picturesque
• Chez Charly's - we found out when the local restaurant is open. omg. so good. especially their sauces and creme catalane (like creme caramel as far as I can figure)
• Carcassonne, medieval fort and walled city. supercool.
• And now we’re prepping for Halloween… and cleaning up for our first lunch. We’ve invited Ann Marie, the friendly Swiss lady who tells us what’s what. She is apparently also bringing an unknown number of others. Will report back. 
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