Back in boozey Buzet

Buzet (pronuounced Buzay) wine region is the best kept secret in France.  This wine area was 'held down' by the larger wine companies in Bordeaux (it is only an hour's drive there), who didn't want competition.  But now Buzet has come into it's own with a huge wine co-operative to combat the bigger wine companies in Bordeaux.  Superb wines.  This is our home port, where we will leave Zee Otter for the winter.  But...  we still have friends coming to visit for 5 days, so we will be cruising the area for a few more weeks.

Keeping clean...

Impossible to keep clothes clean on a barge.  Peter goes into the engine room and Voila!  grease on his clothes.  I work the ropes in a lock and Voila! green slime on my blouse and slacks!  So we have 'work clothes' and 'clean clothes'.  And slowly, slowly...  it seems all our clothes end up on the work side of the ledger.

We are in Moissac, at the moment.  Great activity as a 'fruit festival' is going on.  Music, dancing, food, and market stalls fill the town.  I love it!

Airbus 380

I can't believe it has almost been a month since my last blog! We have had Australian visitors, French visitors, and Brazilian visitors... all wonderful memorable times.

We are in Toulouse at the moment. Today, we went on a tour of the airbus factory! Saw 3 airbus being put together, and another 3 being tested outdoors, and one other already painted with the Singapore Airlines logo on it's tail, about to be delivered!! We couldn't get close... the whole tour was conducted behind a perspex wall!  It seems parts are manufactured all over the world, i.e. wings in Germany,  RR engine in England, seats in Poland, etc. and the whole plane is brought together in Toulouse.  The logistics of it all are confounding, not to mention how they transport a whole wing down the road!

The second tour we went on at the airport was much better! It was called a 'heritage tour' and we got to see prototypes of old aircraft, as well as sit in and hear all about the Concord! Just amazing.  The death of the Concord was it's fuel consumption...  a ton of fuel just to take off...  90 tons to cross the Atlantic.  It became un-economical in a big way.  But it went from Paris to NY in 3 hours!

Even more amazing is... we went on our motor scooter... across the busy city of Toulouse, down the periferique (a 3-lane ring road) and out past the airport to the airbus factory.

A French 'street dinner'

We are 'toodling down the canal' and it is just beautiful. We are in a little village called Damazen. Last night, they had a 'street dinner' which is held every Tuesday night during summer. (In fact, many of the villages have street dinners on different nights.) A street dinner is a village 'party' which they hold in the centre square. Most of the restaurants in the village close for the night and set up a stall in the square where you can buy dinner. Long tables with chairs are set up and there is a stage with live music where people can sing and dance. Hundreds of people turn out.

In Damazen, the choice of meals included 'moules', a traditional clam dish; a huge paella cooking over a fire; kabobs or steaks done on a grill; chicken roasting over a coal fire, duck dishes in whatever way you wished them, i.e. duck sausages, duck breast, foie gras, duck kabobs; a cheese stall with 'farm made' cheese, a crepe stand; a pizza stand; and a 'patisserie' for cakes and tarts... and a 'frits' stall that did nothing but cook French fries all night. And beside each stall, you could buy fresh produce, i.e. potatoes, duck, beef, cakes, cheese, etc. to take home. It was a wonderful night!

What a day!!

We did a 14 km. (4 hours with picnic lunch) 'bisse' walk today in the alps. A 'bisse' is a man-made water course that catches the snow melt from the high mountain tops, and directs the water 'around' the mountain rather than 'down'. The water courses are either made of wood, steel, or are trenches dug in the ground, with small gates at various points which are opened when the farmer needs to water his fields.

What is so great about a Bisse walk, is that they are gentle walks, as they go around the mountain on a gentle slope rather than severe up or down. And alongside every bisse is a path. There are thousands of kilometres of 'bisses' in the canton of Valais where we have our apartment.

Well the 'Bisse de Claveaux' goes through forests, fields, vineyards... goes slightly up, down, and along. It goes through caves and alongside the mountain canyons. Vistas of the alps are magnificent. And best of all, it has picnic tables along the way, and a café/restaurant near one of the ends. Twelve of us set out at the higher end of the bisse and walked for 1 1/2 hrs, then had a picnic, and then walked another 2 hours to the café for coffee, then another 1/2 hour down to the road where we caught a bus to take us back up the mountain. Weather was a perfect 20° C.

We had a wonderful day!

Anzere, Switzerland

We are still in our little apartment in the Alps. This pic is from the mountain top behind our apartment, looking down on the Rhone Valley

We are having a wonderful time with good weather, good food, and good friends! Switzerland is expensive.... but I am learning how to shop well for food and goods with reasonable results! Australians would be shocked to know that a leg of lamb can cost $50!

Beautiful Alps in Switzerland

We are in Switzerland. We normally have our little apartment rented out in winter, and we use it in summer. But this weekend, there is a huge car rally and our apartment has some 'renters' in it!! So Peter and I are staying with Sally Mayor for the next 5 days. Her balcony and picture window looks across the Rhone valley at a huge glacier!!! Magnificent.