Today has been wonderful and lazy. I was feeling relatively crappy when I woke up so I stayed in bed till 10am. After a couple of coffees I felt human. While I was making coffee, the Ursula, Helene’s sister, wandered past, so Ellen gave her a quick tour of the guest house.

Before we got up friends of Ellen came by to chat with her. We were invited to come down and see their house after breakfast. So, there we went. There house is very tall and narrow, right off the village square. It is at least 5 floors, and very charming, as are Leia and Ted, who live in Hayes Valley when they’re not here. Tiny tiny world.
We came back to the house for a light lunch of saucisson (preserved sausage, i.e. pepperoni, but much, much better), goat cheese, melon, tomato, avocado, onion, aioli, and the ever present bread (which is delicious and is reeking havoc on my digestive system. Grr.)

It’s gotten quite hot today - it got well into the 30s (i.e. 85-90 degrees). It’s dry so I can deal with it relatively well. Michael and his contractor Pascal grouted the newly laid tile on the patio of the guest house which was evil work.
Roy and I went on a short walk up to an old church above the village. The views are stunning, but the church itself was kind of blah. That in itself was novel, given how outrageously picturesque every single thing has been.

Roy is making a paella tonight. We went shopping for ingredients in nearby Salernes. I love grocery shopping venues. They’re so pedestrian, and give you an interesting perspective into local people doing a boring weekly/daily sort of chore. I can amuse myself looking at different store layouts in SoCal v. the Bay Area, so I thoroughly enjoyed today. First stop was a local organic co-op. It was 100% like a small Rainbow grocery. Everything overpriced, various things like rice and flour in bulk bins, lots of space turned over to boutiquey shit like soaps, and dodgy herbal cures, and incense… but there’s always 1 or 2 things you need at places like this. We were looking for rice suitable to a paella, which we found. I also bought a nasty little box of liquorice/menthol pasties to try to clear my sinuses out before bed. Total waste of 1,45 Euros. It was exactly like sucking on a rat’s ass, but didn’t do anything for my sinuses.

Next stop was Intermarche - your garden variety supermarket a la safeway/vons/pigglywiggly etc. It reeked of that special supermarket smell, but a tad fishier. You get used to it almost immediately though. Other than that, a fairly normal shopping experience. I found one weird product, and one quite familiar but differently named product to amuse myself. To the utter horror of everyone I am staying with, I bought a litre of Pepsi Max (The name of Diet Pepsi here. I really missed it. I am honestly bored with the wine after just a few days. I simply cannot get into it like anyone else I know. I have never gained a taste for it.). To balance out the diet pepsi, I also bought a bar of milk chocolate - something else I prefer over the more refined dark chocolate, which is sour and … dark to me.

After shopping in the serious heat we headed back to Entrecasteaux. We were all pretty wiped out, but Michael was hot and bothered to get out to the local winery before Ellen’s student arrived. Roy, Michael and I headed out to Chateaux du Grand Jas to pick up a box of rose… no really. They have beautiful branding too, imho.

We will pack tonight to prepare for our departure tomorrow. We fly from Marseille to Munich around 830pm. I invited Michael and Ellen to Marseille to lunch - beneficial to all - but Michael has to continue work on his patio. We are going to drive somewhere nearby to catch a train to Marseille.

[…]

I am liveblogging dinner (or at least I would be if there wetre. There is (humorous) drama over the paella. Roy was unhappy at the start because the paella pan wasn’t right. Michael insisted it was, so it continued. While the paella prep was happening, Michael’s baked apples sort of turned over in the oven… no prob with the apples, but the juice spilled on the bottom of the oven, so the house got a bit smoky.

Isabel called in the midst of this which was fun, but she didn’t have long to talk. We cooed loudly while the drama continued and Michael chatted with her.

Then we couldn’t locate enough lemons to garnish the dish. We thought there were lots, and there turned out to be 2. Orange alert. The aioli is not coming together. There simply aren’t the right tools to make aioli with. Tsk. Next, the paella broth wasn’t cooking off fast enough. Full red alert. Things could be thrown at any minute. Red alert.

The paella is now resting and we are assured by Roy it will be terrible, mushy, inedible. We can only hope the baked apples will sustain us.

[…]

The paella was utterly inedible. People were retching and throwing it back up outside. See Figure 1, below… actually it was pretty good. Not as good as his usual apparently, but tasty and not mushy in the least.