Rhthyms

January 16

We Were going to the Post office Mail the Letter.La Poste is on Carrer de La Posta The Soccer Field is Nearby. Bonjour a mes amis, Johann!

We’ve had an eventful few days settling into our Mas (Catalan for ‘house’) in Villelongue dels Monts. The mas is in a wonderful location just up the mountainside from the village. The Alberes range looms to the west and the eastern sun, rising over the Mediterranean, warms us early in the morning.

Our village has a small school, post office and tabac, where one can purchase little things and bread of questionable age, but we’ve been exploring the nearby villages of Laroque des Alberes (rumoured to have good pizza and decent baguettes), St Genis des Fontaines (where our packages will go if they ever arrive) and St Andre (famous for the wonderful patisserie where Janet and boys bought me my birthday sweets the other day.

Our days have developed a rhythm of cycling, reading, studying French, searching for baguettes and exploring special places. This area dates from pre-Roman times, when Celtic kings controlled Gaul. Everywhere we go we are reminded of the Roman influence, in the bains by the hot springs where they bathed, in the dammed lakes created by the Romans for water supply and flood control, to some of the ancient aqueducts that are still standing after 2000 years.

It’s not unusual to run into a 1000 year old church on one of our baguette runs. When we stop to consider how many people have lived and died since the last stone was laid, our minds our boggled!