The Beziers Blog

Hello everybody I hope you have all had the sort of New Year that you wished for. We actually spent the evening at home and had a very English dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding followed by the Christmas pudding that did not get eaten on Christmas day. Although New Year was quiet things certainly livened up on Friday the 2^nd. To cut a long story short. A few months ago I answered a request in the Nursing Standard about the benefits or negatives of retiring abroad. I must have made a little impact because just before Christmas a lovely lady contacted me to ask if they could send down a photographer to take pics for her article. Of course I said that would be fine and on Friday Charlie arrived.

We went to collect him from Beziers airport and drove him around the town before returning to the house for dinner. He said he was amazed at the size of the town as he had imagined it would be like a village. Tut tut Charlie had not done his homework, not that he had had much time to do anything. Anyway after dinner and of course a couple of glasses of a local wine Charlie went to bed as he was weary after travelling. It was arranged that he would take the photos on Saturday and could we have blue skies please? Geoff and I were a little worried as we had been having some very grey wet days since Christmas. Oh us of little faith, the morning positively bloomed and Charlie was like a dog with two tails.

He wanted to take photos of us (risky) with the cathedral as a back drop. It took us 3 minutes to walk to the spot where he started to click away with his camera. Now, having my picture taken is not something I enjoy and after an hour or more of smiling I like it even less. How those models can pose and smile for a living I will never know. Eventually he thought he had finished so we carried on walking up to the cathedral. A very impressive edifice with lovely views across the region. Actually the views from the top of the tower are very good as well but the curator was on his dinner break so we could not go up. After the cathedral we walked around the town and into the gardens. We had booked up at one of our favourite restaurants for dinner that evening so we headed back home for a petite sieste Guess what Charlie did on the way back , He got that flipping camera out again. He said it was a shame to miss the afternoon light. We did get back home and had a catnap before going out to dinner at the “ Cep D’Or” Everybody ate too much and probably drank a little too much as well but the walk home (downhill) sorted us all out.

Sunday brought us another beautiful day. We gave Charlie a bit of a whistle stop tour of the area. 1st stop was Les Halles as you can see from the photos a colourful mouth-watering place. I particularly like the trimming around the bar !!!! 2^nd port of call the beach at Serignan. Although it was a little bit windy we could have sun bathed according to Charlie. Final place to visit was the oppidum near Nissan lez Enserunes. Finally arrived back at the house feeling a little tired, must have been all that fresh air and sunshine. Geoff cooked a very nice chilli and a relaxing evening was had by all .

Charlie was booked on a flight this afternoon so we all went for a walk this morning along the canal which also gave him a chance to see the Neuf Ecluses (9 locks). I think he enjoyed his stay and hopefully will have some good pictures and nice memories of the start of 2009.

Well I have rambled on a bit with this one but I hope it is not too boring and that you all enjoy the pictures.