Emo Graffiti Letters "Dare to be Different"

Emo Graffiti Letters "Dare to be Different"

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Relaxing in Saint Chinian

Where is Saint Chinian?

Saint Chinian is between Beziers and St Pons, on the way to Castres and Albi. We've travelled the surrounding roads on two trips to Saint Chinian and realise there's much more to see.

We took this photo from our Juliet balcony - looking down towards the market square.

We had a leisurely get-up morning before breakfast and then walked to the local market. We could hear the church bell ringing as it most probably has for several centuries on a Sunday morning. Sue was excited about actually shopping for the first time at a French village market and a little daunted by the fact that she may have difficulty with the language but also in knowing what some of the produce actually was. Something she would become much more used to in our future trips to France.

The market stall holders were friendly, happy and talkative. They made an effort to help us and even offered samples of their produce to try. I don’t imagine that Saint Chinian has a lot of tourists and that was kind of the attraction. We were mixing with the real French in our minds. It made us feel part of the village rather than strangers.

One stall holder whom had a good grasp of Franglais was enjoying a bottle of wine with his mates and offering kisses to the passing women. We chatted with for awhile before moving on to our next experience.
I was keen to get back in the car for some further experience and get over my previous disasters. We decided to drive back into Beziers to look for an internet café and send some news back home. The only internet access in Saint Chinian was the local library which was not open, being Sunday.

Beziers old pont spanning the Orb River

As we drove through Beziers we spied an internet café on the other side of the road but my instincts told me that a U-turn was not advisable, or in fact possible. So we drove on for a kilometre or two before reaching a roundabout and returning. This is a procedure that I’ve employed many times now. If you miss a turn or a parking spot, whatever, just wait for the next roundabout and return - no panic, no drama, no stress.
The medieval 14th century Cathedrale St Nazaire of Beziers sits on the highest point of the city and from below there is a wonderful scene of the old bridge (pont vieux) with the banks of the river rising with the cathedral perched at the top of the rocky outcrop.

On returning to Saint Chinian I was feeling more at ease with my driving and enjoying the Citroen C3. It seemed to be the perfect car for the small villages and it performed quite well on the open roads as well. The lease plan offered by Citroen Australia called “Drive Europe” works well and is competitive with hire car fees if you decide on a car for more than 17 days. The Citroen comes straight from the showroom, brand new and in your name with full comprehensive insurance and no extras to pay. Being Citroen owners we also received a 10% discount and on our future trips, we were given an additional 3 days as a loyalty bonus.

My very first lease car (not my last) was fantastic, once I became used to all the controls being on the opposite side - After 4000 kms and 5 weeks of driving, I fell in love with the C3.

Cloister at the Saint Chinian Church

Back on the balcony I enjoyed my favourite French beer, a Pelforth Brune. Sue on the other hand took a liking for Pelforth Blonde, although back home she hardly ever drinks beer.

Sitting on the balcony of the villa in the late afternoon sun became a pleasant ritual at the end of each day.

The weather however does changes during the days with some mornings starting with an overcast sky, but by noon the sun shines down into the valley, changing the colours of the terrain. Sometimes after a humid afternoon the grey skies return bringing on further colour changes. Our villa also changes colour with the various rushes of light.

Pastel colours of orange, purple and greens blend with the natural elements of stone, wood and rendering of the walls. Each hour of the day brings new experiences of our time in Saint Chinian.

Sue decides its time to relax and enjoy the ambience of our villa. Can't say I blame her.

A couple of Arty Farty fotos from the inside of the villa

http://www.le-guide.com/stchinian.html Tourism website on the area
http://www.le-guide.com/acanthus/index.html Our Villa website
acanthus@southfrance.com Anthony and Andreas email

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Contrasts in Architecture

Pic 1: Me having a great day in my home town - note the tiled entrance to Block Arcade.

Pic 2: The Mansion still stands although now dwarfed by steel & concrete.

It’s Sunday morning in Melbourne, and deciding on a sleep-in, Sue and I enjoyed a late breakfast at a Bayside Café near home. The sky was cloudless and the bay was still. People were walking their dogs or stopping at the café after a crisp winter morning ride on the bike paths hugging the beaches of Port Phillip Bay.

My mate, Daggy Dazza called me later in the morning to organize a ride into Melbourne Central to take some pics.
I had this concept of “Contrasts in Architecture” within Melbourne. I see old buildings from Melbourne’s past that have escaped the wrecker’s hammer, and yet the ones that didn’t escape have these weird and sometimes wonderful buildings in their place reaching upward and dwarfing the heritage below.

During the ride I also rediscovered the arcades leading from the place where I had my first job, to the other end of the city. How it has changed, not the buildings in themselves, but the ambience. The character of the laneways which to me in the 60s were a quicker place to get from where I was to where I wanted to go had now transformed into a buzz of Sunday Socializing. Sections of the arcades cater for the cafes and have a certain grunge factor where further up the city they become a more up-market shopping area.
Pic 3: This gothic style building, now apartments has always intrigued me. I'd like to know more of its history. The area known as St Kilda Road has lost many of its earlier buildings with little pockets still hiding under tall buildings.

With cafes, bars, fashion shops and a mix of locals and tourists abound, I actually felt like a tourist with my camera. Riding out of the city, we took the bike paths home. These follow the bayside beaches and even though its winter, the paths were being used by other cyclists with their families and locals walking their dogs while taking in the fresh air of the bay.
On my return home, I said to Sue, let’s go there next Sunday and enjoy our own City.
Even Daggy Dazza said, “Travelling opens your eyes to home.” He’s right you know.

Pic 5: Sitting beside a modern metal (& rusty) structure is the Malthouse Theatre. Originally a factory and warehouse, the complex is now a venue for plays and music with several small and intimate theatres.

Pic 5 & 6: One of the "Grungy" laneways of Melbourne now full of cafes. Note the running shoes hanging from the light fittings. A regular activity of the local teenagers I suspect.

Pic 7: Daggy Dazza in front of Block Arcade - will they let us in dressed like this?

Pic 8: Melbourne was founded in August 1835 and the Mitre Tavern was built in 1837. It is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Melbourne and still has a full operating licence to this day. It is nestled amongst other fine examples of architecture from the late 1800s, early & late 1900s in the upper end of Melbourne's financial district.

Pic 9 : Melbourne's Flinder's Street station is an iconic monument. Note the high rise building in contrast.

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Limechello

That's right, Limecello, not Limoncello.

I mentioned a couple of blogs ago that Sue was making limecello from the multitued of limes that are dropping from our lime tree (well bush actually). Tonight was our first tasting.

The verdict!!!!

Limoncello is better but vodka is OK with anything.

Friday night – time to relax

Pic 1: Driving home down King Street

The week goes quickly now after our return from our four weeks away. Melbourne’s winter has given the family colds and Thursday I spent working from home rather than going to the office. Flexibility is one of the benefits of my job and adds to the enjoyment.
As we draw to the end of the financial year we had our annual stock-take so I dragged my heavy head, coughs and sneezes to the office on Friday to help with the mundane operation of counting. The reward afterwards is the sausage sizzle at lunch time and if everything goes well, an early finish to the day to start the weekend.
4.00 pm saw me leaving the office with a phone call to home to see what Friday night delight would be prepared for the dining table. Sue said it would be my favourite, an Italian dish from “the Silver Spoon” or as it was originally called “Il Cucchiaio d’argento”, first published in Italy in 1950, and English in 2005.
Pic 2: Roman Spring Lamb from the pages of "the Silver Spoon"
My favourite from the book is Roman Spring Lamb, cooked with potatoes, garlic, rosemary sprigs, white wine and vinegar, YUM.
We washed this down with a local Pinot Noir from the west of Melbourne in the Macedon region. On our return from Burgundy, we find the lighter reds very enjoyable.

As I drove down King Street and through downtown Melbourne, I noticed how the skyline of our city is changing yet it still has the softness of green parks and leafy trees.
The contrasts of Melbourne’s architecture (possibly a future blog subject) is one of its features. Recently voted as one of the world’s most livable cities, it’s hard for a local to argue the point.

Pic 3: Lygon Street book
My last blog mentioned Lygon Street, Carlton, one of my favourite Melbourne cosmopolitan streets. It reminded me of the book I purchased earlier this year on the history of Lygon Street. Not just the history of the street, but also a recipe book from the long time established businesses, chefs and cooks of the area. The people, nationalities, food, wine and architecture of the street are beautifully described and illustrated in this 370 page door-stop.

Lygon Street is not on its own as a feature of Melbourne – My Home.
Brunswick St, Fitzroy St, Acland St and Chapel streets all have a special charm of their own and attract various people from our cosmopolitan population. We’ll look at those in future blogs.

But for me, the weekend now begins. I must read a few more chapters this weekend.


Pic 4: Jimmy Watson's wine cellar - I remember my first glass of wine here in 1968, but forget the many more since!!!

3D Graffiti Letters "DON PAC" - Green Color in Wildstyle Design

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No Reservations for Mostly Martha

Last weekend on a Friday night we sat down to watch an old favorite Movie - No reservations. Its a Foodie's movie.

It had Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart. It was a slick American movie and just the perfect light entertainment for a Friday night after a long week at work. A glass of wine on the couch and an entertaining movie makes for the perfect Friday night.

In between last Friday and this Friday, I found "Mostly Martha", a remake, NO, actually the original German movie.

Since travelling, we seek out French and Italian movies and find that the Americans often do remakes (even of their own old movies). No Reservations was made in 2007 where Mostly Martha came out in 2001.

I found that Mostly Martha was more real, and a little gritty compared to No Reservations. Maybe the difference was the harshness of the German setting of the docks and winter. The two main characters are not overly attractive in the movie star sense.

No Reservations did follow the original storyline quite well however I found Mostly Martha more realistic and a tinge more sad.

I wouldn't say one was better than the other - just different. It's interesting to see how cinema is treated in different countries.
Take humour for instance - compare British humour to American humour and as for Australian humour!!!! 
Here in Australia, we are offered both British and American humour but very little European humour - so I buy from the small "World" section of DVDs. Our Euro collection is growing as is our sense of international humour.

Added to the collection recently are "My Best Friend" with Daniel Auteuil and Dany Boon. "The Closet", again with Auteuil was funny. Depardieu whom we saw in the US film "Green card" was also in this movie.
Maybe some of you out there can suggest other Euro movies that we might try.

Funky Friday

Driving home Thursday on a cold wet night I saw this sign when stopped at lights and thought, "I wonder if I can get a shot as I driveby."

I guess you could call it a driveby shooting. I wonder what this guy has against pigeons and what prompted such a huge statement.
I like pigeons, duck, chicken especially washed down with a crisp white or even a Pinot Noir.

Saint Chinian in the Languedoc

The Cathedrale  St Nazaire at Beziers sits perched on the highest point overlooking the city where the Orb river meets the Canal du Midi.

It was where 1000s of Beziers citizens were massacred when the Papal troops crusaded against the Cathars in the region. They were ordered not to discriminated between Cathars and Catholics. "Kill then all, God will recognise his own."

After a good strong coffee and a couple of delicious pastries, I changed the wheel on the Citroen C3 and we left Beziers on our way to Saint Chinian. It was the last leg before we good relax for a whole week and take in the local area. Saint Chinian is the central point of the wine growing district and nor more than 50 or so kms from Beziers. Driving through the village of Puisserguier, you start to climb and as you get to the highest point the road starts to descend into the valley, but not before getting a glimpse of the village below. We started to become quite excited at this moment. What would our home for the next week be like?

Saint Chinian doesn't show up in the usual tourist books, this is part of its charm.

We arrived early. Our hosts were not expecting us until much later so we decided to become aquainted with the village that would be our home for the coming week.

The main shopping areas are hidden behind the main road through Saint Chinian and the streets have  lovely paving and planter boxes. People greet you regardless of the fact that you are new.

Nice really - its a very comfortable village.

From the Diary - Ärrived at Saint Chinian about 2.30 - we had told our hosts 6.00 so we had a look around. What a wonderful village. Chatted with a local lady, she had no English but was sure we would understand if she kept talking, especially if she got progressively louder. Met with Antony and Andreas and was shown around the villa.

It has two sets of steep steps - wonderful....

It is beautiful and decorated with care and an eye for detail. Went shopping at the supermarket and cooked pasta with a salad for dinner. Neither of us wanted to move from the villa. After the day it felt like a refuge.

Market day tomorrow."

Its true what they say about it being a small world. As we waited for the local supermarket to open, there was another couple also waiting. We said hello and discovered that they were fellow Australians. Not only from OZ but only 3 or 4 kms from our home. They were to become good company while at Saint Chinian and we continue to see them occasionally to this day.

AND there it was, our little French villa for one whole week. The little Juliet balcony was used to its full advantage. We would sit with a glass of local wine and aknowledge the passing locals, as they would us. This is truly heaven.

The stairway to our living quarters.

Sue relaxes in the sitting room on our first night in Saint Chinian.

And the bed after the past driving dramas was most inviting.

Now tell me where in France you can see a bathroom this HUGE!

Just an Arty Farty photo of a window in our villa.

Like most French villages, Saint Chinian hosts a market. Its a great market, not too large for people to be friendly. We could see the market setting up from our balcony and Sue couldn't wait to get the shopping basket and buy some local produce.

As the sun dropped, we would watch the locals going for their evening walks, and they would offer a bonsoir when they saw us on the balcony sipping our wine.

NEXT - Carcassonne and Minerve, Cathar country

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Graffiti Alphabet Collections in Some Symbols and Characters

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BIT OF A NOTHING WEEKEND REALLY

That's right - it was a nothing weekend really.

On Friday I was in the City and this scene reminded me of the Cafes of Paris.

As you can see, winter is well and truly with us but never gets below zero, well hardly ever.

The weekend was NOT looking good.

You think to yourself, what can I blog this weekend and then before you know it, the weekend has gone and you are back on the treadmill at work. Usually our weekends are so busy that we don't have time to relax but this weekend was different. I enjoyed a pint of Guinness with my 89 year old Dad on the Saturday Arvo. He's a bit of devil really and he seems to know every face that walks into the cafe/bar where we enjoyed the pint. Maybe not always by name but when he forgets a name, there's always the G'day Maaaate!!!

Then it was off home to a few jobs on the "List".

First was to take the excess magazines and books out to the garage or the dumpmaster. We find it difficult to just dump any form of printed literature but Sue's Cook Book and Magazine collection is at the point of obsession. She'll say its a passion and I don't help the situation when it comes to birthdays and christmas. When I can't think of a special present, its off to the book shop for another cook book for Sue.

This whole five level book shelf is full of Sue's cook book collection and that's after she culled it.

There's even another bookshelf in the bedroom full of cookbooks. Nowhere for my cycling books.

I see a few gaps, but it won't take her long to fill these. The usual international chefs and cooks are amongst the collection along with our own very favorite Australian ones.

Not Limoncello - scroll down

Our lime tree has gone crazy this season so Sue decided to experiment with the limes.

Limoncello was something that we discovered on our 2006 trip to France and Italy (check out our mid-weekly French Travel Diary) and Sue occasionally makes a brew. Our lime tree this year has gone crazy so she decided to make a brew of Limecello. Let you know how it works out soon.

Sunday morning was wet and I'm a fair weather rider, nothing worse than a wet bum, shoes and socks so we decided that a breakfast in a nearby cafe on the bay with a view of the winter waters lapping the sand would be invigorating. Fortunately we are a little over a kilometre from some great cafes and bars that are on the bay. This one is actually on the beach and has a great view. We sat with our hot coffee and raisin toast watching joggers, dog walkers and the odd (very odd) wet and miserable cyclist pass by.

A little later in the morning I had a call from Dags and Nico to go for a ride in the Arvo for a quick 50 kms and since the skies had cleared, I agreed. We decided to pedal down to Port Melbourne and back. As we arrived at our turning point, we discovered that the Spirit of Tasmania had docked. Sue and I sailed across Bass Strait to Tassie for our honeymoon in the early 80s with our MGB below. We were spoilt by a very smooth and calm trip over but the return trip made me bad company. Very rough!!!!

That's Dags on the left doing his "aahhh my hearties" pose while Nico says, "Come on Dags, lets get back on the road, I need a Merlot".

Anyway, we pedalled back home to the nearby suburb of Black Rock where an old Art Deco garage has been renovated into a trendy bar. An end of ride dark ale was in order to signal the end of our weekend.

A bit of a nothing weekend really.

How was yours?