Category Archives: Monesties
Country tales
My day off ended in our local bastide town, Monestiès, built in Medieval times and complete with a castle, an old stone bridge over the River Cérou and the Saint Jacques chapel, which used to be a stop-off for pilgrims on the way to Compostela. It’s not exactly bustling on a Sunday evening, but I wandered into the Auberge Occitane for an apératif and was greeted by its owner, Davide – a coffee balanced in one hand and his 6-month old baby daughter, Clara, on his hip. One of the great things about living in the country is that the owners of the local restaurants and shops recognise and greet you – and seeing a new face provokes enough interest here that people make sure they get to know you if they didn’t already. After going for a stroll round the town, I bumped into our local shopkeeper, Bernard, who is president of the local football team, in the middle of celebrating a victorious final match of the season. Reassuringly, 11 drunk, French football players really aren’t that different from the ones back home…