FORUM

I've got nothing to sell, not looking for anything to buy, don't need recommendations of any sort.

So why am I writing this? Because, after many years living in the PO, I still get a buzz when summer arrives. Going to the beach, or just cooling down in the pool. There is an air of excitement when the holiday season is in full swing. People enjoying themselves. All sorts of distractions.

I have an advantage. Lots of local knowledge. The short cuts and back alleys, the places where I can park.

Sure it's a bit hot just now. But what's not to like about this fabulous corner of France?

Gus

I live just up the hill from Place Castellane. The “corpyâ€￾ has long laid on entertainment there at this time of year. It has been dwindling by the year, not helped by me: my bopping days never amounted to much, and are now long over. (Though I have been known to get myself frothed when they have a soirée mousse and I have very much younger guests.)

The last few years they seem to have adopted the ultimate losing formula: atrociously bad bands or DJs (how many must there be scraping a living on this coast?) and absolutely no publicity.

Last night I came back from the supermarket when the band was setting up. I thought it was going to be a Janis Joplin tribute band, with the women singing very flat.

Not a bit of it: it turned out to be the Côte Vermeille Line-Dancing Club (or whatever), with a hundred-odd people having the whale of a time (and many of them could actually dance, and some had the hats and/or the boots).

Nil desperandum carborundum, as the man said.

Gus Morris wrote:I've got nothing to sell, not looking for anything to buy, don't need recommendations of any sort.


Gus

Just to be contrary (Gus seems to bring that out in me, god knows how) I’m going to give us all a recommendation.

There has been a new stall on the Saturday market in PV these last few weeks, selling the free-range (plein air) products of

https://www.xadi66.com

They do both pig-meat and charcuterie (and are also on Facebook). I have been working through their gamme and it all seems good, though that may just be sentimentality on my part.

They stand at Collioure on Sunday , and in Argèles twice in the week. And I think they also sell on site (though probably phone ahead).

It’s not given away, but I’m happy to pay if their welfare standards are as high as they seem to be.

If anyone around Palau cares to case the joint and confirm that, or not, I’d be grateful.

I think I’m doomed to be an omnivore, so suppliers of good stuff who care for their stock are pearls beyond price.

Having been a bit grudging, as usual, I do of course agree with Gus that it’s wonderfully pleasant to see people enjoying themselves in a bucket-and-spade sort of way. And it helps the place tick over nicely for the rest of the year.

Incidentally, there’s a replica sailing ship in PV soon, open for visits at modest prices. Given the pictures, and the name (Santa Maria) I guess it’s built after Christopher Columbus’s boat.

And so it proves

https://www.le-journal-catalan.com/la-n ... aout/58587

That might be an interesting visit, thanks for the tip Martyn.

And while I'm on, is there anywhere that sells decent aged steak in the area (to cook, not in a restaurant). For a country so very good at food, the beef steak quality seems a bit lacking from what I have found so far.

Richard and Sharon wrote:That might be an interesting visit, thanks for the tip Martyn.

And while I'm on, is there anywhere that sells decent aged steak in the area (to cook, not in a restaurant). For a country so very good at food, the beef steak quality seems a bit lacking from what I have found so far.

Not from me, but if you find them, let us all know. In my experience you find them more or less at random (once in N Wales in the 70s, once in Normandy around 1990-2010), both in small towns/big villages in quite unaffluent areas. They didn’t objectively have the local economy to support good butchers, but they did their job well because that was what they wanted to do.

It’s often, though not infallibly, a good sign if they have the rosettes from their prize-winning beasts on the shop wall.

I did buy some decent beef about 10 years ago from a restaurant which also sold it raw in Laguiole (12), probably here

http://www.cuisinenicoise.fr/restaurant ... -laguiole/

But it wasn’t so wonderful that I would make the detour, as Michelin says.

Richard and Sharon wrote:That might be an interesting visit, thanks for the tip Martyn.

And while I'm on, is there anywhere that sells decent aged steak in the area (to cook, not in a restaurant). For a country so very good at food, the beef steak quality seems a bit lacking from what I have found so far.

I have my meat shipped from Scotland but there is a place in St Cyprien that claims to sell matured beef. I haven’t tried it yet.



https://www.boucherie-centre-martin.fr/ ... -exception

We bought a house down here so we could enjoy the benefits of a Mediterranean climate. Which we are now receiving in spades.

The streets are almost deserted in our residential neighbourhood. Occasionally a car moves but for the rest of the time it's a ghostly silence. We can hear voices and water splashing in the pools. But almost no visible signs of life.

The meteo promises more of the same. Looks as if the canicule is here to stay. And it's not even August!

Gus

Gus Morris wrote: The meteo promises more of the same. Looks as if the canicule is here to stay. And it's not even August!

Yes, Thursday looks to be a definite pool day! http://www.meteociel.fr/previsions/24525/perpignan.htm

Russell

russell wrote:

Gus Morris wrote: The meteo promises more of the same. Looks as if the canicule is here to stay. And it's not even August!

Yes, Thursday looks to be a definite pool day! http://www.meteociel.fr/previsions/24525/perpignan.htm

Russell

I will be in Vernet on Thursday, by happy chance: Météo-France reckons it will be about 10 degrees cooler at night than PV, ie 19 vs 29.

russell wrote:

Gus Morris wrote: The meteo promises more of the same. Looks as if the canicule is here to stay. And it's not even August!

Yes, Thursday looks to be a definite pool day! http://www.meteociel.fr/previsions/24525/perpignan.htm

Russell

The hardest thing at present is keeping the pool cool enough to be refreshing. I’ve currently got the pool cooler working 24 hour’s a day and it is just about coping.

Allan wrote: The hardest thing at present is keeping the pool cool enough to be refreshing. I’ve currently got the pool cooler working 24 hour’s a day and it is just about coping.

Yes, 31C in ours this afternoon. No need for the summer cover to keep the heat in!

Russell