Things have been…
somewhat quiet here in the little commune of Tresques. We are having some trouble getting our rubbish picked up weekly. The town has converted to lockable plastic poubelles.
If yours doesn’t conform, they don’t empty it. So we have accumulated a couple of bags of garbage during recent days. Fortunately we have been patronizing restaurants so not a huge problem…yet.
So, in no particular order, here is a sampling of our days.
Flora
We mentioned the poppies previously, but forgot to show the irises, which are just about kaput with June at our doorstep.
These beauties were just beside the big parking lot. Yes, we have these in Ontario too, but the colours are so vibrant in the light.
A bit more unusual are the yellow and mauve varieties. They don’t appear to be part of any specific planting, just growing randomly.
The agriculture has changed dramatically in the last three years. The apricot orchards were ripped out a couple of years ago and the fields have been planted with what I expect will be yet more vines.
The geometry of this is truly amazing. They must have used lasers to identify the exact spacing of each whatever-they-are.
Plus, in the last month, the vines have been growing non stop. You can almost hear them. The sad thing is that wine is fading as the beverage of choice for them young-uns. It has been replaced by beer. Which, I suppose, is ok for some of us.
Our last favourite botanical wonder is Audrey, the amazing succulent. She is beside me now, in all her glory.
Audrey was named for the human-eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors, one of Jack Nicholson’s first films. Audrey has been sprouting this phallic appendage for a few days, and something will happen. Don’t know what..
On the food front
We mentioned lunch at Montcaud, in Part 2. Forgot to include the dessert, which should be on the hit list for any aspiring pastry aficionado.
This delight is called Paris-Brest, and it was totally new to us. It must take ages to assemble, and is comprised of nuts, pastry, and praline flavoured creme. Very good. Jude had a strawberry something, also good.
Fast forward to our Mediterranean stay in Le-Grau-du-Roi.
We left Tresques to head south around 1:00 PM. Breakfast that day was melon and some ham. On the road, Judy said she was hungry, and craving a hot dog! Didn’t really feel like stopping at McDonald’s, but where the heck would we find a hot dog / chien chaud?
Stopped for a break at a big rest stop, which had a Brioche Doree, a sort of upscale Tim Horton’s. Judy was ecstatic; they had hot dogs in brioche buns. With mustard. And heated to order. No double-doubles. Phew.
It was sunny and very windy by the beach, which made it feel colder than it really was. The Hotel Splendid is right across from the sand and the promenade. Great for people and dog watching.
When the cloud blocks the sun, look out for snow!
We had our first dinner at the brasserie, with Judy tucking into entrecôte and me trying couteaux en persillades.
Translated, they are knives with parsley, or what Judy calls razor-back clams. They don’t look particularly yummy, but they are.
The Hotel Splendid also has a Splendid Bistrot and Splendid Restaurant. We had lunch at the Bistrot because herself was craving moules frites.
With roquefort sauce, they were rich and filling, and too much. I counted 642 mussels, but may have missed a couple. Jude finished a bit over half. Never again! But we have said that before.
Saturday evening the neighbours came up for apéros around 6. They all brought champagne and there was abundant red wine, along with muscat de beaumes de venise, to marinate the local cherries and strawberries for dessert.
Everyone was in fine form.
The local supermarket has some very good prepared local goodies in jars. Black and green tapenades, onion confit, pates with myrtle, duck and boar terrine, plus marinated shrimp and white anchovies. There is a deli with excellent cheeses so we picked up some telaggio and gorgonzola. .
Serge, who is genetically, if not temperamentally, Italian, was having gustatory orgasms. The cheeses disappeared.
As the sun set in the west, as usual, everyone soaked up the view of the surrounding vineyards and hills. Le paradis, c’est ici!
Shopping
We have done none. Two aborted attempts to do some gifting at Galeries Lafayette in Avignon. Maybe the week before we return to Toronto.
Whoops! Actually we did some shopping. In Le-Grau-du-Roi, Judy found a nice yellow leather purse for €20. Then she zeroed in on two pairs of shoes (plus one pair for me) for the enormous sum of about $150 Cdn. Wé’ll see how long they last!
Most of our shopping has been for mundane stuff like toilet paper, laundry detergent, shampoo, and food. Sadly, absent Maurice, no cat food.
Tomorrow (Sunday June 2) the Clacksons will pick up another roast chicken from Vival in Connaux. Plus some more smelly, gooey, delicious cheeses. They also have oysters from the coast, but they can wait until September.
Signing off
Today we lunched at a favourite restaurant, La Maisouneta, in Chateauneuf. It was pretty packed with Brits and Americans, Max comped us a couple of glasses of bubbles, and the menu was a bit off the wall. The main course was octopus tentacles, and this was some big octopus!
If they only had six legs, they would be hexapi. Sleep on that!
Bye for now, a tous et toutes,
Bruce and Judy
Tresquenadiens 
J&B: Amazing flora and some terrific delicacies including cuisses de grenouilles, I’d say you are have a good time – despite the reduced shopping schedule. ~ Best D
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