We decided to take
advantage of the weather and the season and go out driving the smaller vineyard roads in
search of painting material. The vendage (grape harvest) is over now , so it is OK
to drive these little roads. Before, there were lots of little skinny tractors pulling
loads of freshly picked grapes going very, very slowly - or - lots of beat up little cars
(of the harvestors) going very, very fast! While we were out and about, we got a call from
our friends Scott and Jeannie, who like us, have moved to France for a year. They live in
the village of Nissan-sur-Enserune (close enough), about an hour 
east of us. So we cut the sight
seeing short for the moment, and arranged for a rendez-vous in Fabrezon where we ha lunch
at Restaurant Calicot once again. Helas, Calicot is closing for the season at th
e end of this week, but
they had a good year, and will return rejuvinated in March. 
(After doing some work
on the roof, according the owner and chef). That's Jeannie with Dave on the right (well, Dave is on the left - always has been)
After lunch we all piled in our car drove out to the coast (or rather to the large "etang" or lagoon that separates part of this coast from the Mediterranean. Didn't take any pictures however. Scott and Jeannie came back with us for a evening visit at our house (after retrieving their car from Fabrezon) and then made the hour drive back to Nissan. They are much more diligent than we have been about zooming around the countryside, and seem to have been in every village within 50 kms. But then, they are younger - and they live in a very small village. I guess sometimes, you just have to get out. Dave and I generally manage to use up most of the day just going into town for a few groceries....then lunch....then a visit, then and errand, then....well the day is gone.
Scott called us yesterday to tell us about a “ fête de châtaigne” or chestnut festival in a village called St. Pons – we looked it up on the internet ( http://www.saint-pons-tourisme.com/) and were looking forward to seeing folk all dressed up in their medieval outfits and setting fire to things and such when we realized that it was on Saturday and that we have invited Nicole and Julie and Nicole’s daughter Candice, and maybe Sabine, and maybe Mandarine to dinner on Saturday night. So no chestnut festival for us, at least this weekend.
But, tomorrow, we are going to Caunes-les-Minervois (no shortage of little villages in this area, you may have noticed), for dinner and a jazz concert! The “concert hall” is a cave (cellar) underneath the old abbey there. (There is also not a shortage of old abbeys.) We wanted to go last month - they have the dinner and concert the last Friday of each month- but we already had plans with our friend Willy in Fabrezon. Although it is pretty easy to get to both Fabrezon and Caunes from Carcassonne, it is not so easy to get from one to another – especially at night.
Actually, most of the vineyard pictures on this post are from the road(s) between the two villages, since we were on the road to Caunes-les-Minervois when we got the call from Jeannie saying that she and Scott were out and about coming in our general direction and that we ought to meet up.
Today (Thursday, Oct. 27th) it is also clear and warm, but incredibly windy. So windy that I had to pull down the sheets that we were trying to dry on the trellis (lacking a proper drying line, tut, tut) before they became decoration on the neighbors roof. You can hear the wind whistling about the house and knocking the shutters about, but the house itself doesn't seem to be drafty -- we'll see when it gets cold! Scott said that after the first rain, the front door of their apartment (in a very old house) stopped shutting properly.
Let's see ..... other news? Well, we managed to get Dave's hair into either two little pigtails or a topnot, but he won't let me post the pictures... (I'm in trouble now).