The travel bug bit us – again. Tim had a busy Spring, because he prepared the Crane Chorus for their Spring concert, and I am always keen for an adventure. Plus I have been studying French with the Alliance Francaise since just before the Pandemic and have been eager to put it to use. We returned to Aniane, a village in southern France, we have visited before (Tim twice) and are enjoying it just as much as before.
It’s a small enough village where we are often forced to communicate in French, sometimes with mixed results. Sorting the garbage has stymied us. I think mostly because recycling at home has strict limitations: only very specific plastic bottles; glass; paper; and tin. Everything else is trash.
We’ve composted all our veggie scraps, coffee, and egg shells for years at home and use it in the garden. As best as we can tell, compost in France also includes meat bones, while “residual” is recycling and everything else. We’ll see; pickup day is almost here. We can bring our collection of empty wine bottles separately to the town center.
Even our maison’s caretaker was a bit vague.
We revisited the town, Saint Guilhem-le Désert, where Tim was disappointed we are no longer allowed to climb to the ruins. It was okay by me. Signs said it has been closed since 2011, but, ahem, we were definitely there in 2016 as seen in this post. https://one2travelfar.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/walk-the-walk/
We had a lovely hike nonetheless, I drank beer under the same 150 year old plain tree, and bought some lovely sari and block print fabric.
Weather reports were initially discouraging but we’ve only had a few brief rain squalls. More rain is needed though.
There are two birds we hear constantly: the Common Nightingale and Eurasian Collared Dove. The first reminds us of a Mockingbird with all its chatter and the second sounds like a Mourning Dove on overdrive.
Eurasian Collared Dove song https://www.bird-sounds.net/eurasian-collared-dove/
Common Nightingale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_nightingale
More posts to follow on the tasteful graffiti and clever mosaics seen around town.
Island and North Country Life 