Furniture replacements were next on our list of renovations. We’d used the sofa bed (canapé lit) for over 30 years. There was no support left in it—one sunk so far down and then had trouble getting up!

Then the two “comfy” chairs in the living room were leftovers from the previous apartment owner and the material was all worn away on the arms, plus they, too, sunk so far down that I felt I was practically sitting on the floor.

So one day we went up to our furniture store near Perpignan and we chose a canapé relax, which is a reclining sofa, and then looked at Murphy beds for our daughter’s room. While the bunk beds in that room were great when she was 12 and separated as twin beds when she was 20, she was now 30 and it was time for a larger bed, which would also have the advantage of folding up against the wall, opening up her room for other uses when she wasn’t there. We found what looked like a good option, and when our daughter arrived that July, I took her up to the store to get her approval. The surface I’d chosen was white as I thought this looked the brightest and would blend in with the wall covering, but she took one look at it and said “Honestly, Mom, all I see are fingerprints!” She was right! It was a smooth surface and any hand or finger marks showed immediately. So she chose a textured grey finish. I marked all our choices down in a brochure and got estimated prices from the clerk. Then we waited until the following year to order the sofa and bed. I had to order the bed before leaving the US as it was to take several weeks to arrive. Once I received the call from the store saying it had arrived, it was time to disassemble the twin beds. This turned out to be much more difficult than I’d anticipated.  Luckily the furniture store told me that they would take apart the twin beds and carry them to our garage for us—no charge.  Of course that meant that I needed to clean out the garage.   Our French friends offered to come and cart off the debris from the garage and take it to the dechetterie. One has to have a special permit card in order to take things to the decheterrie (dump), so our friend offered to do this for us. Off went the boat hooks and the anchor, paint pans and a lot of wood, mostly left by the previous owner of our apartment. It was a good clean-out.

The furniture men arrived the following day and spent 4 hours installing the Murphy bed. When it was completed and I came into the room to see the finished project, I realized I had ordered the wrong finish! This was not the grey textured finish our daughter had chosen; it was a grey smooth finish and there were already finger prints showing on it! I was so upset! But we must look for the humor in life, so we now call it the “Big Fridge,” as that is what it looks like!

After they left, I discovered they’d broken through the living room wall when bolting the bed to the bedroom wall, so they had to repair that when they returned with the sofa two weeks later. It was a poor repair, but at least there was no longer a hole in the wall!

The men took away the old sofa bed and the two very old chairs straight to the dump. This is one procedure we have noticed about France which is different from the States. When you order something new, the workmen will take away the old directly to the dump for you, sometimes for a fee and sometimes for free. When we replaced a sofa in the States this past year, we had to make many phone calls to get a charity to come take away the old sofa for us and they were very particular that it was not stained or torn in any way. The trash pickup would, of course, have taken it, but then I would have had to drag it down to the curb and that was way beyond my abilities.

The new recliner sofa we bought in France is so solid that it’s almost like sitting on a hard bench. But it’s reclining and electric, so that’s very nice. It’s also much smaller as it’s only a two-seater, so there’s more room for a larger end table; I had fun rearranging the living room for the first time in about 20 years. And it’s grey and white—just like the “big fridge”! That night we had pina coladas to celebrate our new furniture. I promptly knocked my glass on the tile floor, smashing it to bits and christening the new sofa. It had been a long week.

My best friend came to visit overnight and helped me put together all the linens for the Murphy bed. We quickly discovered that I couldn’t put on the zippered mattress cover as the mattress was strapped to the frame. So that was a useless purchase. But the mattress padded cover, sheets, light blanket and comforter were soon in place. I commissioned my friend to paint a frieze on the long white panel—a beach scene with a young couple and two cats following them, then two children playing near the water’s edge. Perhaps someday this will be accomplished!

Next I drove up to our DIY store, Castorama, stopping first at the light store to purchase a new light for the WC.

I found a mirror for our daughter’s room and a few other items at Castorama, then exited to find that I had a flat tire! The tire was completely flat.

So I called Peugeot Assistance and they sent a road service person to me an hour later. (It was amazing how many people came out of Castorama and told me that my tire was flat while I was waiting for him!) He couldn’t find the leak, but changed it to the emergency tire (only good for 80 km), and followed me to the Peugeot dealership across the street, and kindly explained everything to the mechanics for me. They found the leak on the sidewall near a bent rim. No insurance coverage for that. And they didn’t have the high-end tire to replace it! In France, by law, tires have to match on each axle. So I went down the street to Feu Vert, a tire store, and asked them to help me. They didn’t have these high-end tires either, but could sell me two less expensive tires for only 200 euros. That took another hour. I got home six hours after leaving in the morning! And I had a spare tire to store in the garage. Nothing is easy.

The following month, the gas company store in Perpignan called to say they had our two radiators ready to install. These were a small heated towel rack for the kitchen, and a large radiator for the outside wall of the living room. We were excited about getting more of the old radiators replaced as the old ones were difficult, or not impossible, to regulate. The one in our daughter’s room did not work at all. While the radiators did not matter much when we were only visiting during summer months, now that we were retired and empty-nesters, we were in residence in the spring or Fall when temperatures dropped considerably and the tramontane blew fiercely. We needed the heat for our old bones!

It took three plumbers and six hours to remove the two old radiators from the kitchen and living room and install the new ones. Then they discovered that the new towel bar in the kitchen was leaking, so that had to be remedied. It was nice having my kitchen towels on a heated rack so they dry quickly, but I had to move my bread bag, in which I store our daily baguette, to the other end of the kitchen; the heat from the towel rack was drying out the bread!

Three weeks later, I discovered water on the living room floor; the new big radiator was also leaking, so I had to call the plumber to return and fix that! It seems he’d left his apprentices to do part of the job and it wasn’t done as well as he would have done it. In fact, all they needed to do was tighten a joint. A few days later he had to return to tighten something else to stop a new leak. Finally all was well, and we had a wall of heat to keep us warm. Did I say, nothing is easy?

By this time, we were into October, the time of our village’s wine festival. We’ve attended the festival, pushing through the throngs of people, all with their glasses stretched out toward the pourers of the various Banyuls vintages, longing for yet another taste of their nectar. But in recent years, negotiating the crowds are too difficult, so we settle for purchasing a box of glasses for ourselves and friends, and enjoying the view of the 10,000 visitors from far above the fray. On Halloween, our young friends from Cerbere came to us for luncheon. By then their hotel was closed for the season and they were feeling relaxed once again. They arrived with a huge bouquet of flowers standing in a plastic bag of water (!) and two volumes of Almanac des Gourmands from the early 19^th century. I have so much enjoyed reading through these interesting books.

My menu that day had to be themed, of course, being Halloween, so we began with Perelada and Zombie Eyes (cherry tomatoes stuffed with crab and topped with a tiny circle of black olive).

Then Witches Cauldron (boulettes de poisson aux legumes),

Slasher’s Plate (veal in tarragon and skansk potatis),

then Monster Mash (Swedish apple pudding).

We had a wonderful visit with them and they then helped me figure out how to pay our real estate taxes online, which is so much easier than waiting for bills to come in the mail. We are trying to make life a little easier for our daughter when it’s her turn to pay all these bills!

On November 11, we were up early to watch part of the Armistice Day ceremonies in Paris on TV. Then I walked downtown to the ceremony behind city hall, where I met my French friend. We stood listening to all the speeches.

Suddenly one of the little school girls fainted. I watched as they attended to her and when my friend asked me what had happened, I turned to her and whispered “A little girl fainted and they carried her away.” She looked at me with a question in her eye, so I repeated myself slowly, “A little girl fainted and they carried her away.” It was only when she looked at me in amusement that I realized I’d spoken to her in English! We both burst out in laughter, which was so inappropriate for the solemn occasion, but really, it was too funny.  She told me I was getting just like our mutual friend who does so much translating back and forth between French and English (and also Spanish when her husband was alive), when we’re all together that she would get confused and translate to the wrong language for one of us!

Our cruise home later that month was memorable; not only were we celebrating my husband’s birthday onboard, but we had my best friend with us, returning to the US to visit with her mother and to spend some time with us in our US home. We enjoyed several culinary classes together, as well as exploring a few Spanish ports. It was a memorable trip.

The following Spring, we returned to France once again onboard an Oceania ship. I once again enjoyed the cooking classes onboard, this time with a new friend from Washington DC, and had a lovely visit in Madeira to the embroidery workshop, quickly visiting my favorite Funchal shops to buy some birthday gifts.

We arrived at the port in Barcelona on time and quickly got a taxi to our usual car lease office in Mas Blau, near the airport. The drive up to France was tiring for me this year, but we arrived at the home of our French friends on the edge of our village in time for a light lunch of escalivada, brochettes and strawberries. My best friend called just as we finished eating, to make sure we had arrived. Since my husband was beginning to fall asleep, we quickly continued on to our little apartment on the other side of the village. I got him into the apartment and he immediately fell asleep on the bed. Meanwhile, I turned on the utilities, got the car into the garage, and took some of the luggage up to the apartment. Everything went well until I plugged in the refrigerator. Then all the electricity went out!

Our upstairs neighbor, a single gentleman of advancing years, who has always been so kind to us, was home when I knocked on his door for assistance. He checked our controlleur, which turns on and off our electricity to the apartment. Nothing happened. From his apartment we tried to call EDF, the electric company, but the system is all computerized and they would only speak to the account holder from the account holder’s phone. But since our electricity was off, we also had no phone service as the phone batteries were all run down, not having been connected for 9 months!

So then I called our wonderful electrician, who is always very difficult to book. (We’d been waiting two years for him to install the new light in the WC.) He did answer the phone, but said he was too busy to come by and investigate our electricity problem. So I called our French friend with whom we’d just had lunch, and she called our plumber (remember him?). He said he would come by to see if he could help us. By this time, I was in tears.   But then the door bell rang and it was the electrician! He’d felt guilty, I suppose, about not coming to help us. He got right onto the problem and found the cable connections had come loose, so he just tightened them and all was well. He helped me get the chaudiere started and the stovetop. While all this was happening, the plumber rang the doorbell, ready to help and I had to apologize to him saying that the electrician had arrived after all! He was not pleased! He’d interrupted his day to come to my aid and now I didn’t need him after all. My husband slept through all of this! So that was our first day back in our little home in paradise,.

Our first renovation project this year was the installation of new radiators in the two bedrooms. These were the last two radiators to be installed. I have gotten into the habit of requesting estimates from the various companies and workmen before leaving each year for the work we think we’ll want done the following year. This gives me an idea of how much money I will need to bring from the US and gives me the opportunity to place an order with down payment before leaving the States. As some items we’ve ordered, such as the Murphy bed, and the garage door, take up to two months to arrive, and we only stay in France for three months at a time, this extra lead time becomes very important.

While we waited to hear from our gas company about the new radiators, I enjoyed visiting all the shops downtown, particularly the poissonerie and buying lots of fresh fish. I discovered a new fish, which I’d never seen before. It is called a sar and is like a fat dorade, which is bream, in English.

Following instructions from my best friend, I laid it on a bed of vegetables, covered it with slices of lemon, and baked it in the oven.

It made a lovely meal and successful new experience for us.

The day arrived for new bedroom radiators to be installed. I was up at 7:30 a.m. getting ready for the workmen, who were to arrive about 8:30 a.m. It was pouring rain outside, so I put out hangers to hang wet jackets and then big white bath towels on the wooden floors for their wet tool boxes. Our gas company plumber, with his apprentice, arrived about 9 a.m. It took them five hours to install the bedroom radiators. They did our daughter’s room first, then ours.

We sat in the living room, bored after I did three hours of ironing! But finally all was done, with guarantees that there would be no leaks this year. I laid a piece of paper towel under each radiator anyway, just so I could easily check for water leaks. I gave the plumber our check and then his apprentice handed me back one of my white towels, all grimy with black gunk!! Even bleaching it didn’t get the grease out. I guess I have more rags now. But it is so nice to have heat in the bedrooms.

The big project for this year, though, was the installation of awnings on the balcony. Over the years, we have considered several options for keeping the sun off the balcony when it’s not wanted, and for protecting us from the wind. Some residents have their balconies enclosed in glass. Others have awnings that crank out at an angle. We chose the third option, that of awnings that come straight down. Because our balcony is double in length, it needed two awnings, which actually makes it so much more flexible. I insisted that we have them electrified with remote controls, so we could move them up or down from the living room or even without getting out of bed in the morning. So before leaving the States, I had mailed our signed devis and check to the window company in our village. Because of the weather and the tramontane blowing its usual spring wind, this installation was delayed two months. But finally, the men were ready to come and install our awnings, as well as matching material on the outside of the railing, which provides a bit of privacy. Madame, in their office, said I’d been a bonne sport for waiting so patiently. They had predicted that it would be a half-day job, but they were working from 8 a.m. 4 p.m.

The end product was fabulous. This team of workers has been so very good through the years, even with cleaning up afterwards.   We immediately requested a devis for the following year to have the bedroom windows replaced as they leak cold air in the winter and, if we ever manage to have air conditioning installed, they will need to also keep out the hot air of summer.

The following day, I went downtown to our plumber’s appliance store to look through a brochure of cooktops. It was time to do one last, although unplanned, renovation project. My old cooktop was really struggling after 40 years. Only 3 of the 4 burners worked and they had only 2 settings: medium high and high. We’d looked at various configurations over the years, always dreaming of kitchen renovations, which keep slipping down to the bottom of the list. But now we just wanted something that would actually work and would make my kitchen adventures more congenial. I found a lovely 4-burner cooktop that had automatic lighting (as I have in the States); no more lighting it with a friction device each time I turned on the burner! So I ordered it and then awaited its arrival.

This was the year of celebrating 75 years since D-Day. On the morning of the 6^th of June, we watched the 75^th Anniversary D-Day ceremonies on TV all morning; they were very impressive. We invited our French friends and my best friend for afternoon coffee. It was a day of remembering the war and its devastating losses, and a day for our French friend to remember the joy and wonder she felt as a little girl when the Americans arrived to liberate her small village in the north. She remembers well the day the tanks arrived with soldiers. At first she thought maybe these were more Germans, but when the soldiers began to throw them rolls of Life Saver candy and packets of instant coffee, she knew the Americans had come to save them! Her mother invited some of the soldiers to their home for coffee, and she still has a photo that was taken on the occasion. The French will always be thankful to the American soldiers because they had suffered for so many years of occupation by Germany and deceit by the French Vichy government.   My husband told of his youth outside London, dodging bombs on the way home from school, of the war-time rationing that continued well into the 1950s, and of watching the gliders start out across the channel on the night of June 5. It was a day of remembrance and chills still travel up and down my spine when I think of listening to them speak of their youth in the time of war.

We had glasses of Banyuls wine, tarte aux fraise, decorated with French, American and British flags, coffee and chouquettes.

That night we watched the 75^th Anniversary D-Day ceremonies on TV, which were very impressive.

It took another week for my cooktop to be installed. The plumbers had come to look at the lines under the old cooktop and discovered that these were all copper; the new law in France requires that the gas lines be made of flexible plastic. So measurements had to be made and an estimate prepared for me. On their day of arrival, they appeared at 2 p.m. and were done by 4 p.m. They’d had to cut the opening in the countertop a bit, so there was sawdust everywhere! Unfortunately, I’d emptied the top shelf in the cabinet, but not the second shelf. It took me another two hours to clean all the dishes on the front of that shelf, which had gotten covered with the sawdust. But I had a nice new cooktop for my kitchen and I was ecstatic!

Four burners that worked! Automatic lighting of the burners! And they even managed to straighten the tilt of the old countertop a bit, so that saucepans no long slid off the burners!

So what’s left to do? Well, there are the bedroom windows and shutters to be replaced, and I have a feeling that the washer is on its last legs. I have never been able to figure out how to replace the narrow sliding door between the living room and balcony and its shutter needs to be replaced. Then we’d hoped to have air conditioning installed in the two bedrooms before our plumber retires later this year.

But the world pandemic has intervened, and we are confined in our home in the States for the duration. So I dream of being in our little French village, enjoying lots of fresh fish, tree-ripe fruit and vegetables, letting the tramontane blow all away all the cobwebs from my mind as I create new dishes in my little kitchen, and hopefully walking down our hill frequently to enjoy a cup of cappuccino (really, café viennoise) at the PMU Cafe with my friends.

More Renovations

The following year, was our year to experience a lovely spring in Banyuls. Returning to town by passing through the Col de Banyuls, was like driving through a garden of wild flowers. Each twisting turn opened up spreading vistas of color all along the mountainous road that took us from Spain to France.

This was also the year we were to celebrate our 30^th wedding anniversary. We decided to celebrate this anniversary with our close friends, the two couples with whom we traditionally spend a lot of time when we’re in France. And, of course, we chose Pierre-Louis’ restaurant in Montner as the venue! This was going to be an expensive meal, so we decided to cut our vacation expenses by choosing a cheaper cruise line for our crossing into Barcelona. We had used this cruise company once before and were not pleased with the cuisine or service, though it was only half full.   But we thought maybe we would try it again. Terrible mistake! It was worse than ever, plus the ship was completely filled!   So we will return to our favorite Oceania ships for all our crossings in the future.

Our most important renovation would be a new garage door. The old, original, garage door was made of solid wood and moved horizontally along a track in the cement floor of the garage. It needed constant attention to clean out the track, then to keep it greased, which was something we were not able to provide on a regular basis, since we are in residence only three months a year. As we became older and older, that door became heavier and heavier. We had noticed some of our neighbors had replaced their old doors with lovely metal automatic doors. After getting a recommendation from one neighbor, we were able to receive an estimate before leaving town the year before. It would be expensive, but we had several months in which to save up. We ordered the new automatic garage door before leaving the States, using our estimate (devis) from last year, as it was to take 2 months for the door to arrive. By the time we arrived in Banyuls, our check had also arrived at the garage door company, but they would not cash it until the door arrived at their workshop (very proper). So now we just had to await arrival of the door.

One of our first agenda items after settling into our apartment once again, was to go to our plumber’s appliance store and order the new fridge, which we’d found at an appliance store last year. Our old refrigerator, which was by then about twenty years old, had a peculiar habit of freezing up the back wall so that any food up against the back wall would also freeze! This was really annoying when I put fresh produce, like lettuce, into the fridge. In recent years I would place a rolled up towel at the back of each shelf to keep food off the back wall. So the year before, we had gone to a large appliance store in Perpignan to look at refrigerators and to figure out what kind of appliance we would need to be frost free and not freeze on the inside of refrigerated compartment. We chose a tall Samsung with freezer drawers on the bottom. Fridges in France nowadays are either under–the-counter (table-top), or they are very tall to maximize the space available. If you are about 5’8” tall, your head would come to the phone on the wall in this photo; then imagine reaching up to the top of the fridge! To access the top shelf of this new fridge, our much shorter daughter will have to stand on a step-stool! And, yes, it is situated in the corridor, as the kitchen is much too small for such an appliance.

One week later, the new fridge arrived and the plumber’s assistants took our old one to the dechetterie (the dump). Unfortunately, they didn’t know how to change to doors to put them on the left hinge, instead of the right hinge.

Since my kitchen is through the open door to the right of the fridge, I would need to be able to open the door to the left in order to get things out of the shelves and drawers while working in the kitchen.   The plumber promised to return the next day, but, apparently, went off to the mountains for three days, instead! A week later, one of his assistants arrived to change the door, but found it was too complicated for him, so we waited another couple of hours for the plumber to arrive with yet another helper to reverse the doors. Two hours later, all was complete and I can now open the doors from the kitchen. One must be patient with plumbers in France—and treat them like royalty.

We had asked for a new estimate for a new kitchen window from the window company in our village. The original window opened with a hinge at the bottom. This meant that whenever I wanted to clean the outside of the window, I had to climb up on the sink and lean over the open window as far as I could, in order to clean the outside glass. When one’s age nears the 70-year mark, one is reluctant to climb up on ANYthing, let alone a kitchen sink! So we had planned for several years to replace this window with one that opened in two directions, like ones we had seen in Germany. The new window would be hinged at the bottom as well as the left side, so that it would open towards me OR open like a book. Superb! We’d also requested a roll-up screen for this window (screens are mostly unheard of in France, although they became popular a few years ago when the mosquitoes were particular bad). But the new estimate showed that the screen had doubled in price since our original estimate, so we scratched that from the order. The new window would arrive in three or four weeks.

While we waited for the new automatic garage door and the new kitchen window to arrive and be installed, we began planning for our 30^th anniversary celebration. We had made the restaurant reservation before leaving the States, but had to change it when we arrived, as my best friend’s husband had lost his battle with lung cancer while we were on the ship en route to Barcelona. We arrived just a day after his funeral, so were devastated to have missed the opportunity to say goodbye and to support his wife through this trauma in her life. He will be sorely missed from our outings together. A former matador and former stone mason, our Spanish friend always added a spark to our gatherings. Speaking only Spanish, but understanding a little French, he would wait patiently for his wife to translate our friends’ French for him into Spanish or our English into Spanish. My best friend was by this time tri-lingual and was kept very busy whenever we were all together. We had many funny moments when she would turn to her husband and translate the French conversation into English for him before realizing she was speaking in English instead of Spanish! He would nod his head thoughtfully, smiling secretly, while the rest of us burst into laughter.

So we were only five for our grand luncheon in Montner; I had produced a little commemorative program, celebrating our anniversary, as well as milestone birthdays for we three ladies, and a memorial to our missing friend.

I had ordered a Poirot silver swan cane for my husband’s gift, and had our daughter mail it to me from the States, as it was just too long to fit into any of our suitcases. Because my husband was not physically able to do any shopping in the stores, he decided that I should go to our favorite jewelry store in Perpignan (the store of the wedding rings; see: 10-“Out and About”) and purchase a Catalan garnet ring for my anniversary present! The Catalan garnets are a must for any shopping list; unfortunately, the garnets originally found in the Catalan are now only found in pieces of antique jewelry. Today’s garnets come form elsewhere in the world, but are cut and set in the Catalan style. A strictly controlled guild guarantees the Catalan garnet industry in the area. So my best friend and I met one day in Perpignan, had our usual coffee and pastries at L’Espi, the pastry café, and headed over to Gil et Jean Jewelers. We had so much fun looking at different rings and were delighted with our final choice. Luckily my husband agreed with our choice! So now we were ready for our celebration. The day before, our friends sent us a lovely bouquet of flowers.

The weather was beautiful on that day in May as we headed up to the hilltop village of Montner. We had a lovely round table in the corner of the dining room and then informed the chef that we would like to order the chef’s choice menu. This meant about nine courses chosen by the chef and the accompanying different wines for each course. Our guests were surprised with the commemorative program I’d created, which included Sara Teasdale’s poem (“Let it be you…”) from our wedding program, which my best friend had translated into French for our French friends. As she read the poem in French, it was a tearful moment for all of us as we remembered her husband, whose passing was still fresh in our minds and hearts.

Let It Be You – Sara Teasdale

            Let it be you who lean above me

                        On my last day,

            Let it be you who shut my eyelids

                        Forever and aye.

            Say a “Good-night” as you have said it

                        All of these years,

            With the old look, with the old whisper

                        And without tears.

            You will know then all that in silence

                        You always knew,

            Though I have loved, I loved no other

                        As I love you.

 We started our celebration with the obligatory champagne accompanied by parmesan galette presented in a rack.

Then mushroom and lobster bisque with Roquefort cream and star anise foam.

Third course was foie gras poached in a duck bouillon with spring vegetables,

then asparagus wrapped in a lasagne noodle with cream of tarragon sauce and pistachios.

Fifth course was galinette (fish) topped with a paper-thin layer of blanched pork fat with fava beans and peas, citrus and spinach. Sixth was lamb topped with a slice of anchovy butter, artichokes, almonds and mashed potato with gravy on the side.

Desserts then arrived: pepper ice cream on red fruits and red galette,

followed by lemon souffle with rhubarb sorbet.

And finally coffee with chocolate slabs and pistachio financieres.

Four hours later…… Yes, it was a typical French luncheon presented by Grand Toque Chef Pierre-Louis Marin, with superb cuisine, wonderful wines and fabulous company!

A month after our arrival, our new garage door was ready to be installed. I spent several days cleaning out the garage, trying to move anything that looked like it might remotely be in the way, into a more appropriate spot. The workmen arrived at 9 a.m. and were completely done by 4:30 p.m. They agreed that the old door was really heavy! We still have a “little door” within the garage door, just like in the old door. My American friends think this is “cute.” For us, it’s a convenience as we store quite a few things inside the garage, besides the car, and it’s easier to open the “little door” than to take up the entire door when we want something from storage. Now we just have to remember on our arrival each year to go upstairs to turn on our electricity, before we can open the garage door. That’s the only hitch!

While we waited for our various workmen to arrive for this year’s projects, I continued my daily routine of walking down our steep hill to fetch the newspaper and bread every morning, then back up the hill to plan our noon meal. My happiest times are always spent in the kitchen, creating new dishes and happily preparing the tried and true ones. This year the village had decided to renovate the front de mer—the seafront. As usual there was much disagreement about what should be done or if anything should be done to clean up the seafront and create a congenial modern space for tourists and villagers to enjoy. There were always those who felt that nothing should change—all change was bad and we had enough tourists. And then the others, who wanted to modernize and bring more tourists to our village, would speak up and present their plans.   After much discussion over the winter, the plans were going forward. Several of our Maillol statues were placed in storage for safe-keeping, as was the cannon that pointed out to sea.   When the flower festival arrived in late May, the seafront was looking quite nice.

The cannon eventually reappeared on the edge of the terrace later in the season, and once again guarded us from unfriendly visitors from the sea. But in the meanwhile, I was walking through rubble on my way to town. It took me a few days to re-route my usual walks in a way to avoid the rubble. As some of the villagers said with distain, “It looks like a bomb site in Afghanistan!” I was hopeful that when we returned the following year, all would be lovely and ready for the summer season.

Another two weeks passed before we heard from our window installers that the kitchen window had arrived. They quickly scheduled us for the installation the following week. I hadn’t been able to clean the outside of this window for over two years, so you can imagine how anxious I was to once again have a clear view of the sea, while washing my dishes! It’s bad enough to wash everything by hand; the lovely view is my compensation!

The workmen arrived about 1:45 p.m., but on the way to the elevator, the young apprentice dropped the toolbox, spilling screws and bits and pieces all over the terrace below! Poor guy! What a way to begin a job!

But their work was wonderful, as usual, and by 4 p.m. we had a new window—one I could actually clean on the outside!

No more murky views of the sea for me! And no more murky views of me for the sea gulls!

I was ready to do some cooking, some inventing, and some experimenting!

One of the new recipes I tried that season, was one I’d found in the Sunday magazine, Femina.   “Boulettes de poisson aux legumes” can be made with any white fish. I have used rascasse (scorpion fish) in France, flounder and whiting in the US. In English we would probably translate this recipe as “Fish Balls with Vegetables.” I prefer the French title. It’s easy to make and absolutely delicious! The fish is minced in a processor and combined with bread then formed into balls. The vegetables are stir-fried, then the fish balls and cream are added. The only time -consuming part is cutting up the pea pods (or fresh green beans) and carrots into julienned slices. I particularly like to use this recipe when finishing up odds and ends of fish after another favorite recipe, such as “Hashtag Fish.”  I also use the vegetable-cream sauce with seafood ravioli or any other pasta primavera dish.

Another new recipe that has become a favorite is Tatins de poireaux aux St. Jacques (“Scallops with Leeks on Puff Pastry”). I usually have a package of puff pastry in the freezer, so it’s easy to pull out a sheet the night before to thaw in the refrigerator, and then to cut rounds that are ready to bake. The leeks are sautéed quickly and arranged in rounds on a baking sheet, then topped with the pastry rounds and baked. Once inverted onto plates, the leeks are topped with sautéed scallops. Often I add a beurre citron sauce over the scallops. A delicious recipe!

This was the year that both our daughters visited us within a few weeks of each other. The eldest came with her fiancé in late June, driving down from Germany. Since we are never sure what time they will arrive, we decided this year to order one our Poissonerie’s large seafood platters, instead of preparing a luncheon out of my little kitchen. Our guests were to arrive on a Monday, but the fish shop wasn’t open on Mondays, so I had to pick up the seafood on Sunday, with the proviso that I open the oysters myself on Monday morning. Our kind fishmongers put a wet towel over the oysters and instructed me to thaw the whole lobsters the following morning. The platter of seafood cost about 100 euros, but was well worth the price! We had such fun teaching our guests how to open the oysters and then putting together all the seafood on a bed of ice in the styrofoam boat. It was so heavy that we needed help carrying it out to the table on the balcony.

When our younger daughter arrived, she kept her boyfriend busy, taking him all around the village, visiting all her childhood memories. We then went the rounds of all of her favorite restaurants, and met with all her honorary aunts. Her boyfriend had never traveled to Europe and, being a picky eater at that time, was a bit worried about what he would find to eat in France. He quickly fell in love with French food and this young crab-lover from Maryland said he had to best crab ever, when we ate at our favorite fish restaurant in Perpignan. I could hear our daughter give a huge sigh of relief!

Our next renovations will include a Murphy bed for our daughter’s room and a new sofa. Then our plumber will replace the remaining radiators, so that we can more efficiently heat the apartment in early spring and fall. We are getting further down our list of projects with only the air conditioning and a kitchen renovation to come. Our guests will particularly appreciate air conditioning in the bedrooms. As for me, I cannot wait until I have a stove with four or five working burners and a base cabinet with drawers! Unfortunately, changing out a cook top inevitably starts a change reaction which then includes new base cabinets and a new countertop, so maybe a new sink, too! It will be a huge and disruptive project and looms on the horizon, over which I peer with anticipation and trepidation.