31st May - Perpignan Visit

In one week today we leave Ceret. All of a sudden, the time is rolling by very quickly. Our mission today was to bus into Perpignan again, this time equipped with the boxes containing our fibre router. Last Monday we found out we can hand it in over the counter at the SFR office, and John was very keen to do this rather than try and send it off into the French postal system. We caught the 10am bus again, and had delivered the boxes to SFR by 11am. Armed with a physical receipt from SFR, we felt confident enough to indulge in a coffee and set off for a relaxed wander around the shops before they closed at midday. 

Perpignan gateway into the old centre

Town Hall

The Marriage Room in the Town Hall

Our abortive effort to dine at the Moroccan restaurant La Suite on Monday was all forgotten when we arrived this time to see the doors open, the menu of the day displayed on the blackboard, and the Moroccan owner giving us a cheery welcome wave when he saw us. The menu looked delicious, and we didn't need to think twice. As usual, the food was superb.....

La Suite - furnished in an exotic and lavish style

My main course was served on a lovely Moroccan plate

We got a surprise when we went up to the till afterwards. After John had paid, the owner took one of the restaurant business cards and wrote his personal email address on the back. He said he'd like to keep in touch with us after we'd settled back in New Zealand. It was totally unexpected and rather lovely. We've always enjoyed chatting with him over the years but have only been on 2-3 occasions each year. We really appreciated his interest and kindness.

Our Moroccan host Samy Atlas

Similar to Monday, we caught the 2.10pm bus back to Ceret. We both felt extremely weary when we arrived back. It was very nice to have an easy afternoon. Tomorrow we plan to finish up packing all our bags and then weigh them. Then we will know exactly where we are and whether we can slip a few more items in or have to extract something. 

29th and 30th May - Closing things down, if we can

We began the day well enough, with a coffee at the newish roastery. Their coffees are better than the normal cafes, though that's not a high bar to beat. We are very much looking forward tp Antipodean coffee again - not much over a week away.

Much of the morning was spent at home, changing over the still-damp pillows in the dryer. They really need the movement of the dryer to fluff them up again.

I was still receiving countless message about the car. Until we actually received the money we felt it wise to keep it live on Le Bon Coin, just in case. This had the downside of my phone constantly going off with unknown French numbers, both calls and texts, and a few more messages direct from the website.

A bit after midday we headed off to two very good friends a bit under half an hour away. On arrival we found their road was being torn up, but with a bit of assistance from the contractors we were able to park outside their gates. What a lovely time we had, though very much tempered by having to tell them we'd sold up and were unlikely to be coming back. They were quite upset, as who knows when and if we will meet again. Lunch was delicious again, and we talked and talked, finally only leaving at 6pm when we were due to hand over the car back in Ceret. It's funny how closely we have connected, though it has only been a few times each year. Maybe we will visit them in St Martin in the Caribbean, or maybe they will do the trip to the South Seas that they had planned before Covid.

Back in Ceret and we were able to finally hand over the car, with our payment safe in our Credit Agricole account. Then onto Le Bon Coin to cancel the advertisement, and onto the phone to message all the various callers to let them know the car had actually gone. I deleted some 30 texts! Our bike rack hasn't gone yet, so I tried to drop the price on Le Bon Coin. Simple you'd think? No chance. All looked good, but the Confirmer button didn't work despite several attempts. Maybe try it on the phone? Yes, that actually worked. We cannot fathom why almost all French websites are so poorly built. It is as though they have not been tested by the developer, let alone retested using ordinary people. It means that I dread having to do something online here, as it is so often frustrating, difficult, and as often as not doesn't work. The government sites are the worst.

Next morning I thought I'd tackle the transfer of the car, something that has to be done online on the ANTS website. First problem was logging in. I had a name and password that let me log in to FranceConnect, but despite that working, it wouldn't let me get onto the ANTS system. No big problem, I had another login just for ANTS. That got me in, but for some reason getting from the entry page to the actual sold-a-car form took another 3 new browser tabs. I then needed a passcode that had apparently been sent to us 10 years ago when we bought the car! I didn't expect to be able to find that so applied for a new code. It seemed to work, but nothing happened. So I did it again, and again, getting very frustrated in the process. Any normal site will send a response straight away, but not ANTS. I gave up before I became a gibbering wreck.

Next test was to close down our fibre wifi account at SFR. It was meant to be simple online, but could I find where to "resilier" our box? No. A good quarter of an hour later I did manage to find the link, well-hidden, and was able to close our account. The alternative was to send them an actual physical registered letter - a system that is quite common here. As always, signing on is relatively simple, signing off is made very difficult, possibly deliberately or possibly nobody cares how hard it is.

At this point nearly the whole morning had gone, so we wandered off to our favourite baker for a baguette, only to find it closed for 5 days with a "fermeture exceptionnelle" sign in the window. Talk about frustrating. An hour later a couple of codes did get emailed from ANTS (should have been 3 codes but who knows). I was finally able to get the car sale process finished. What a relief and a trial.

After lunch we went down to AXA to cancel the car insurance. Not possible, yet another fermeture exceptionnelle. No explanation or apology, just a locked door. And on the way back I got another message on my phone to say there was a voice message. I connected up and the only message was that there were no messages.

France is great. We've had such a good time over the last dozen years. The cheese, bread and pastries are exceptional. The sights we've seen have been magnificent. The people we've dealt with, bureaucrats included,  have almost all been super polite and helpful, and the friends we've made have been lovely. But in this last few weeks of our 12 years we've struck an awful lot of unnecessary and enormously frustrating difficulties that have made the process far more unpleasant than it need be. We will be oh so glad to be leaving that behind.

Our friends got quite teary-eyed when we told them that we were leaving Céret. They immediately offered the use of their apartment downstairs and told us we HAD to visit them at their winter home in St Martin. The latter is in a stunning location, and their apartment (currently being finished) will have an outdoor swimming pool. It's pretty tempting. However, they aren't prepared to let us leave Céret yet. They want to meet up again next week for a final farewell. We get on so well together and can (and do) chat for hours each time we meet up.

We had another dining invitation booked for the evening. An older English couple, who we have got to know well over the years here, and who visited NZ and stayed with us a while ago, invited us for a farewell meal at their place. They are in their 80s and 90s but are determined to keep up their thrice-yearly visits to Ceret for as long as they can.

It was very nice of them to go to the trouble of preparing a three-course meal for us. We had a lovely evening with them. Like us, they love travelling places and they've seen a fair part of the world. They both love NZ and have fond memories of staying with us in Nelson.

27th to 28th May - Ceret

With the apartment and car sold and legal documents signed we are feeling a lot more relaxed. We have heard about the hassles an English couple are currently having while trying to sell their apartment and it sounds terrible. We have been extremely fortunate with how everything has panned out for us.

Today, Monday, we planned a leisurely trip into Perpignan, mainly to have lunch at our favourite little Moroccan restaurant. We usually go there once or twice each year and are never disappointed by the tasty dishes and also chatting with the very friendly Moroccan owner. The 3-course menu of the day typically costs about 16 Euro, including wine. We checked on the website, which had recently been updated, that the restaurant was indeed open, as some aren't on a Monday. It wasn't possible to ring up and double-check closer to midday because we were jumping on the 10am bus.

Hence, it was very disappointing to stand outside the restaurant when we arrived in Perpignan and find its doors all tightly shut. Darn. We don't know if it was a one-off closure or it is closed every Monday because there was no notice on the window nor reference on the website. Wandering around Perpignan we soon realised that virtually all the shops and restaurants were closed. The cafes and restaurants were open, and the odd shop, but that was it. In the end we found a small Chinese/Japanese restaurant and had a very nice light lunch. John chose a ramen soup, and we both reminisced about the delicious meals we have had in Japan. 

Rather surprisingly we found ourselves on the bus back to Ceret at 2pm. With no shops to peruse, there really wasn't much else to do. Rain was threatening again so we rather favoured heading home to a cup of tea!

Perpignan Town Hall

Perpignan cathedral

It looks as though the weather pattern is changing. From today (Tuesday) onwards the forecast is for sunny weather and temperatures ranging between 26 and 28 degrees for each of the next ten days except for one. The cafe and restaurant owners in town will be well pleased, because their outdoor seating has been virtually vacant for the last few months. 

Given the nice weather and our plan to get out and do as many of our walking tracks as possible before we go, we headed up the valley mid-morning Tuesday to the small town of Arles-sur-Tech. There is a lovely trek that goes up into the Pyrenean foothills above Arles.We've done it twice before, in 2013 and 2015. I'd been hoping we'd get a chance to tackle it one last time. With nearly 700m of climb, and a rugged track, we negotiated it in two hours and were rewarded with stunning views both up the valley towards Spain and all the way out to the coast in the opposite direction. The French had constructed a Vauban gun battery there in the late 1700s, and the structure was still relatively intact. The task of constructing a track between the site selected for the battery and Arles down in the valley was immense, and was done twice, because you can visit it on a loop walk. In one direction the track is quite narrow and in the other the route wide enough to cope with horses pulling up cannons and supplies was hacked out of the hillside.

The uphill track

Standing at the base of the Vauban battery

View up the valley looking towards Spain

The highest spot, complete with Catalan flag

The widened downhill route, bolstered by well constructed rock walls

On the way back down we passed a lovely wee chapel, Santa Engracia. It is clearly still very well used, with the grounds around it smartly maintained and scattered with picnic tables. To get there, however, requires a steady climb, so perhaps the worshippers can't be too elderly. 

Santa Engracia chapel

Dragon lock on the chapel door

Fun sculptures near the chapel

It was with a small sigh of relief that we arrived back at the car after the four hour trip. It was very steep both up and downhill. We quickly tanked up on fluids when we got home, put our feet up and enjoyed watching some Roland Garros tennis. We also put our down pillows into the machine to give them a wash before we take them back to NZ. We find them super comfortable.

A friend came around a little while later to collect a woollen coat I'm not taking back home. We are giving away as much as we can. A painter friend is very happy to take some picture frames off our hands - we had to take the paintings out of the frames so they would be a bit lighter and also fit in the bike box we've made up to transport them. 

25th and 26th May - Car sold!

Today was our second-to-last Saturday morning market. It was quite a warm 20 degrees and we could see blue sky. Before the market though I needed to watch the Crusaders play the Blues in the Super Rugby at 9am our time. Unfortunately the sound didn't work on that particular TV channel but at least I was able to catch up on the blog at the same time.

The market was pretty busy, with crowds in the square below us enjoying lunch in clear weather for the first time in a while. We bought some lovely fresh fruit from one of the stalls, with apricots, peaches, nectarines, cherries and strawberries all in full swing. The price of cherries is now down to 6.50E/kg. 

John spent a little time on the car, giving it a bit of a polish up. We have spare oil, oil filters and washer fluid to give to the new owner when it's purchased. 

The rest of the day turned out to be very frustrating. I was receiving all kinds of texts, calls and emails about the car, but I'd already said to the first guy that I'd hold it for him until he arrived in the afternoon. In the meantime I was busy trying to put other people on hold, one after another. Finally the first guy let me know he wasn't going to be able to make it, so that opened the bidding again and I had to let the others know it was back on the market. I set up a visit for somebody from Latour de France at 11am the next day, meaning they'd have to leave around 10am. There is also the difficulty of getting paid, as we don't want to release the car without the money, and no doubt they don't want to send money without the car. Getting large amounts of cash in France isn't easy - the banks only let you have so much at a time, or over a day, or over a week. Most of the rest of the day was spent waiting for people to contact me for rendezvous times. Another guy had said he was ready to jump if the first one fell over, and kept delaying his visit, then went incommunicado. So annoying.

Next morning another message came in - a guy from Ceret itself wanting to see the car in the morning. I set up a meeting at 9:30 so I had time to cancel the Latour lot before they left. Next morning - Bingo! He had done his research and was happy with the make and model, as we had been when we bought. He did a loop around Ceret and was very pleased. I wasn't prepared to drop the price so he agreed on our asking price, he gave me a cash deposit, with the transfer to be made on Wednesday after his bank transfer would have gone through. All very simple and a big relief to us, as much to be able to ignore all the incoming messages as anything. We would also be able to keep a lunch appointment out of Ceret, which was going to be very awkward by bus.

So that was the last major on our list of things to be sorted. We still have to close down various insurances, hand back the fibre router, empty our fridge and freezer, drink some of our alcohol (we know we will fail to drink it all!) do our final packing and then actually leave.

To unwind from all the hassles of selling the car we took off on a 7km walk into the fields. Very pleasant and a nice change from hanging around home waiting for calls.

A rather lovely 20cm fungus on our walk

The rest of Sunday was enormously more pleasant than Saturday. We got a little more packing sorted, then had friends around for apero and offloaded some bits and pieces on them. All very satisfactory.

24th May - Apartment signed off

It's a very big day today. We will be signing the legal agreement to sell our apartment. We enjoyed a bit of a lie-in, then spent a good part of the day starting our packing up. Our plan is to put as much as possible into our largish handbags (which won't be weighed) and max out our backpack cabin bags to 7kg.

The bike box ,which we've constructed to transport our paintings, weighs in at 18 kg. That leaves us a maximum remaining weight of 32 kg to share between the two suitcases. Once we'd put most of our clothing into the vacuum bags we'd brought over with us, there actually seemed to be surprisingly little bulk left. We have lots of odds and ends. The few tools we are taking back will have to go into the suitcases (not cabin bags) and we have a couple of bottles of booze. I think we are going to have plenty of capacity at the end of the day.

Our appointment with the notaire was set for 4.30pm. We hotfooted it to his office before it started to rain again. The weather has been unseasonably wet. With decent showers of rain most days for 6 weeks or more the locals are actually starting to complain, even though they still need the rain to recharge the water table. Everyone is crying out for sun! The forecast is for the weather to start fining up later this week.

Our real estate agent and buyers also turned up in good time for our rendez-vous. The notaire was very particular about taking us through all the implications of the documents we were signing, particularly ensuring the buyers knew everything they needed to about the apartment. It was fairly laborious and took 1.5 hours, however, at the end we had signed the documents. There were literally dozens of pages to initial or sign in full. The real estate agent witnessed the separate agreement between ourselves and the buyers to purchase the furnishings separately as the notaire refused to to make a point of showing his displeasure at our taking the furnishings out of the official contract.

Happy days. In fact it was rather an auspicious day for Patrick and Lucy. It was Patrick's birthday. It was definitely appropriate to celebrate both the signing and birthday with a glass of wine at one of Ceret's bars. Which is exactly what we did.

Celebrating with Patrick and Lucy, the future owners of our apartment.

Patrick and Lucy were flying out the next day to Los Angeles, so we enjoyed a good few hours together before parting ways. They are extremely happy with their purchase and we are extremely happy our place has 'gone to a good home'.

Later that evening we listed the car on Le Bon Coin and within 20 minutes received 3-4 requests for information or to view the car. By bedtime that had grown to perhaps eight. We had put a very competitive 1900 Euro price on it, and could probably easily have made it 2000E or even 2100E, but we just wanted to make sure we sold it quickly. The first guy to ring up said he would come and view it tomorrow afternoon and would bring cash. We had to put all the other interested parties on hold until he fronts up and confirms he will take it. If he doesn't we definitely have at least one other person who will.

23rd May - Amsterdam to Ceret

We got ourselves organised in the morning in good time to catch the train to the airport at 9.30am. The plan was to enjoy a relaxed coffee together when we arrived before going our separate ways. However,  in the end we only had about 15 minutes because it looked as though we'd be having to go through separate security screening in separate terminals. It was with great reluctance that we said our goodbyes. It had been a fabulous few days together, with plenty of time spent just chilling and chatting. We all very much enjoyed it. The great news is that Alastair and Sophie are planning to come out to NZ for two weeks over the Xmas period, so it won't be too long before we see them again.

So John and I jumped on our flight back to Toulouse and A&S flew out to Pisa soon afterwards. They will be spending the next 4 days in a small town near the Cinque Terre to attend a wedding. Sophie is the one and only bridesmaid. After that they will have one day and night in Venice and then fly home to San Francisco.

Our 1.5 hour flight to Toulouse went quickly, but I found the landing a little disconcertingly hard. It was an easy mission to pick up the car from the hotel and start the drive home. The highway took us past the famed walled town of Carcassonne.

Carcassonne

We didn't plan to stop and have a look because we wanted to get to the second-hand car dealers yard just south of Perpignan as soon as possible. The guy at this car yard had signalled he would buy our car, however last time we'd called in it appeared that it might have gone into receivership. Alas, the gates were still locked and no-one was about. We tried the phone number but it seemed to have been disconnected. It looked as though this option to sell the car had definitely fallen through. 

We continued the drive home, stocked up on some groceries at Lidl supermarket and parked up in our carpark, hopefully for the last time. We will advertise the car on the French version of TradeMe - Le Bon Coin - and see how that goes.

It was nice to be home. We had wondered about doing a last 2-day trip to the Costa Brava next week, but to be honest we both feel as though we've just had a wonderful trip away and don't feel as though we need to try and pack in more. With just two weeks to go, it will be nice to take it fairly quietly and say our goodbyes to everyone.

  

22nd May - Rijksmuseum

Our big plan for the day was a visit to the famous Rijksmuseum. We found our way there by tram - very easy. We needed a bit of a pick-me-up so started in the museum cafe with a coffee served in a rather beautiful space by smartly and formally dressed waiters. The museum was excellent. Not as large and overwhelming as I felt it might be. There were a few works I had tagged not to miss, but I think we saw most of the museum's works anyway. The building is rather awkward to navigate, being on 4 levels, with a messy floor plan, and stairs not always available in the obvious places.

Rijksmuseum cafe

Highlights for us were some Brueghel-like scenes recording daily life, some of the Rembrandts and Vermeers, and the small display of De Stijl (Dutch Art Nouveau) on the top floor. We walked out thinking we had spent about 2 hours, consulted our watches and found we had spent a full 3 hours inside!

By Peeter Baltens (similar to a Breugel) 16th century.

In 1820 the Netherlands was the first country to introduce the metric system (though devised in France in the 1790s). Displayed are the standard metre, kilogram and volume measures.

Diorama of a scene in the Dutch East Indies

We all thoroughly enjoyed the Rijksmuseum. There weren't many people there so it wasn't a problem elbowing for a view of the famous Van Gogh and other paintings. In fact, there don't seem to be that many tourists in the city at all. Many of the bars and restaurants are nearly empty. May has been unseasonably cold and wet in France and maybe it has been in the Netherlands too, deterring tourists.

Van Gogh's self portrait

'Wheatfield' by Van Gogh

Upstairs interior of the museum

The chairs John particularly wanted to see. The first is the forerunner of the famous Red Blue chair

More Rietveld chairs

After leaving the museum 1.30pm it was time for an injection of food. We wandered back through the main shopping area and found a nice small cafe for a sandwich/quiche. It was threatening to rain again but we were all keen to keep strolling, and Alastair was particularly keen to view more of the residential neighbourhoods. Both he and Sophie have been very taken with the comfortable feel of the city and love the fact that most people cycle everywhere. There are also substantial greenery along many of the streets and plenty of reserves. 

Playing on the footpath

Two of the 4000 tropical parrots that live in Amsterdam

By the time we arrived back at the apartment we had walked another 15km for the day. We were a little weary but had very much enjoyed the day. After a bit of a breather and cup of tea we popped around the corner and tried out a well-reviewed frites place. The Netherlands is known for it frites (fries), as well as its waffles. The fries were very tasty but it was necessary to retire to a nearby bar for a pint of beer. It was a leisurely way to end the day.

Shopfront display of cannabis products in a 'Coffeeshop'