fig yak and mon pool

so i know we didn't exactly keep our promise of being prompt with the updates, but... sorry. it is not that easy to grab more than a few minutes internet at any one place at any one time.

we got to figeac on tues 4th august at about 11.30pm after a delayed but fairly pleasant and uneventful train trip from paris. the next week was spent in blissful relaxation and a major catch up on sleep, novel-reading and ipod-listening, which i have to admit i would not say no to right now.

the first day was mad cool weather so we just hung out at the crib going in the pool and reading in the sun, just generally working on our sunburns. we had a gorgeous dinner with vegies picked from the garden (as every night). i have to say that i have been treated to some seriously good home grown vegetables at various stages over the last couple of months.



the next day was also incredibly hot, we headed into figeac to briefly check out the sights for a while before going to collect henry from isis' place. we spent a while wandering around, checking out the bar that henroy made in the garden for some crazy 4 day long party they had there a couple of months ago. we also had the pleasure of a grand tour of some guy's yurts (yes, that's right, plural, yurts) which was somewhat marred by the language barrier but we managed to get the general drift ('here is the bath' etc). henry and isis came round for dinner and we had a lovely time watching the sun set, moon rise etc.

on friday, it was lucy's birthday and we had a lovely day hanging around the house, making (and eating) brownies and pizza which were both incredibly delicious. we watched marie antoinnette in the evening and had a generally chillish day which was really nice.

on saturday we headed into the figeac markets, always a favourite. spent a little while roasting in town before heading back for, yes you guessed it, another afternoon spent by the pool with our books and ipods. henry and isis came in the evening and took us to a disarmament festival to commemorate hiroshima. it was crazy but really good fun. there were some really hilarious bands, including one whose guitarist was dressed as jesus and bass player and drummer were dressed in a woman's one-piece swimming costume. it was a great night.




the next day was crazy rainy and cold, so we just hung around. went for a walk in the afternoon when the weather cleared for about three seconds. on monday it was stonking again, i walked into town, meeting peggy and lucy to go to the champollion language museum. it was really really interesting. champollion was born in figeac - he's the guy who cracked the rosetta stone, so as well as explaining how he achieved that, it had loads on the history of language and the written word - the first written languages and how they came about and were structured.




we headed to montpellier early tuesday morning. we got the station with heaps of time to spare and spent ages waiting around on the platform. max met us at the station and we headed back to the apartment. it was even hotter in montpell than in figeac, and in general we spent our days sleeping til midday, lying around til the heat of the day had passed and then heading out in the evening. the first day i went to the beach with max and his friends audrey and thomas. we brought the canoes and went out on the water for a couple of hours, which was heaps of fun.




the next day we drove to the river. clever strategising by those in charge meant that we were able to canoe from one town to the next, leaving one car at one place and one at the other. we stopped at a beach along the way for a picnic and generally spent the day moseying (sp?) down the river. had a few swims, jumped off a rock into the water, usual rivery activities really. it was a lot of fun.

the next day we went to lunch with some of ella's friends in town, and hit up the beach again in the evening. max and thomas brought harpoons, with which they attempted to get us some dinner, but they were unsuccessful (unsurprisingly to me, although apparently thomas had managed to catch enough for a meal some weeks before). on friday thomas and audrey headed out and me and lucy decided to explore town by ourselves that afternoon/evening to give max a break. i have to say, max was amazing throughout our stay. he cooked us dinner most nights, took us on all our expeditions, constantly asked us if we were hungry or thirsty or bored or whatever, and generally looked after us like we were helpless children. it was fab.

we walked into town via various gorgeous churches and squares and cobbely streets. montpellier is a really beautiful place. we wandered around the central square where they had heaps of markets despite the late hour due to the face that montpellier's motto seems to be 'vendredi soir, je sors' - 'friday night, i go out'. we did a bit of shopping, ice cream eating, all very enjoyable.

saturday was a lazy day. we spent most of the day lying around and went out to the beach again in the evening. by the way, every time we went to the beach we went somewhere new, and they were all quite different but equally cool. on sunday ella had to go into hospital after finally caving to her week-long suffering. it was obviously not very nice but needless to elaborate here, as everyone may rest assured that she is well on the mend as i type this. ella's friend jerome accompanied us on another foray into town after we had gone to see ell-bell. peggy, tim and hen all turned up that evening, and despite the reasons for their impromptu trip, it was lovely to see them again. we had a very pleasant evening in spite of the circumstances.

please note (ELLA) that despite the fact that ella was mostly unable to join us on our various montpell outings, we spent a lovely week in a beautiful place in good company. the blog entry does not read 'we had a horrible time in montpellier', despite ella's many assertions to the contrary. anyway, i will head back in october sans lucy to spend some more time with my beautiful cousine when she is in better health.

on monday we were getting the train to barca at midday, so i spent a little bit of time with ella before we hoisted our bags back onto our backs and headed off again into unchartered territory, once again without anyone but ourselves to give any thought to where our next meal was coming from!

until next time my friends!

xxxxxx

ps- photos coming soon so check back in a few days!