Winter in the PO

[Gus Morris]

I dropped off our visitors at Beziers yesterday. They had a great two week break. One week with us and one week ski-ing. They had sunshine all the way and returned to the UK well rested with their batteries recharged. The parting words summed it all up. "We see now why you live down here".

Yesterday the thermometer exceeded 20 degrees C. We have been able to eat outdoors most days. And yet there are many residences secondaires which stay shut from October to June. In Edwardian times the well heeled came to the Med to escape the rigours of the English winter. They surely knew a good thing when they saw it!


Gus

[martyn94]

I dropped off our visitors at Beziers yesterday. They had a great two week break. One week with us and one week ski-ing. They had sunshine all the way and returned to the UK well rested with their batteries recharged. The parting words summed it all up. "We see now why you live down here".

Yesterday the thermometer exceeded 20 degrees C. We have been able to eat outdoors most days. And yet there are many residences secondaires which stay shut from October to June. In Edwardian times the well heeled came to the Med to escape the rigours of the English winter. They surely knew a good thing when they saw it!


Gus

You tempt me to re-read "Tender is the Night", after 40-odd years - exactly the time, in the 20s, when we switched from being a winter destination to a summer one. Though set on the Côte d'Azur, not here. The Hotel Eden-Roc at Antibes used to shut for the summer: they first stayed open, allegedly, because Scott Fitzgerald asked them to.

Places down here being shut from October to June seems over-optimistic in many cases. Shut all year (perhaps bar a fortnight) seems not unusual, sometimes because of one of those classic French multi-way wrangles between inheritors. Or maybe it's just my impression from people choosing to keep their shutters drawn much more than I find pleasant.

[Kate]

Too right Gus.
And it's good to have visitors sometimes to remind us of how lucky we are to have all this on our doorstep. Easy sometimes to get stuck in the 'train train' and forget to be thankful.

[Gus Morris]

Too right Gus.
And it's good to have visitors sometimes to remind us of how lucky we are to have all this on our doorstep. Easy sometimes to get stuck in the 'train train' and forget to be thankful.

It's nice to get a supportive reply. Thanks for that.

Yesterday, as I was walking back to the house, I picked a lemon off one of our trees. Did it without even thinking. When I was a teenager, living in an industrial town in the Midlands, this would have been beyond my wildest imaginings. My generation have indeed been fortunate.


Gus

[martyn94]

Too right Gus.
And it's good to have visitors sometimes to remind us of how lucky we are to have all this on our doorstep. Easy sometimes to get stuck in the 'train train' and forget to be thankful.

It's nice to get a supportive reply. Thanks for that.

Yesterday, as I was walking back to the house, I picked a lemon off one of our trees. Did it without even thinking. When I was a teenager, living in an industrial town in the Midlands, this would have been beyond my wildest imaginings. My generation have indeed been fortunate.


Gus

I was brought up on Merseyside, and we had a thriving Bramley. But I see your point. The increase in affluence of our "cohort" (even though uneven) is the most staggering large-scale economic change in recent UK history. When I started as a civil servant, it was axiomatic (and true) that the large majority of retired people would be skint.

It would be nice to think it will be even better in 40 years time, but it's hard to see it. As a childless bachelor, I tend to take Sam Goldwyn's view - "what has posterity ever done for me?". But maybe it's beginning to get beyond a joke.

[Sus]

Too right Gus.
And it's good to have visitors sometimes to remind us of how lucky we are to have all this on our doorstep. Easy sometimes to get stuck in the 'train train' and forget to be thankful.

It's nice to get a supportive reply. Thanks for that.

Yesterday, as I was walking back to the house, I picked a lemon off one of our trees. Did it without even thinking. When I was a teenager, living in an industrial town in the Midlands, this would have been beyond my wildest imaginings. My generation have indeed been fortunate.


Gus

I think spring is here, swallows have arrived and are nesting, first flowers and tree buds are out and butterflies are also around, what more can anyone want!

[Kate]

I live in Maureillas, just 10 mins from Spain, but I still get a thrill when I hop across the border. As a kid, a Spanish holiday was cause for enormous excitement and preparation months and months ahead. Now it's just...there. Wow.