November Outings

November felt like a month for resting - I didn't post much, even though we did get out and about!

We finally made it to a coffee morning with a group of Anglophones who live in and around Sète. It's a nice bunch of people, and more than a few like to paint!

There was a very pleasant brunch to celebrate the Beaujolais Nouveau at our "welcome" club. The grapes from this year's harvest are processed by a quick-ferment method, and the "new wine" is always released on the third Thursday of November - immediately followed by a lot of parties! This is more of a celebration of the wine grape harvest than anything else - and everyone seems to enjoy insulting the wine (while drinking and toasting, of course)!

This same group organized a tour of the Opera house in Montpellier - we met at the train station, piled in, toured the opera house, then had lunch (across the street, at the theater bistro - very typical French). Some stayed on to do some shopping in the "big city," and some walked around to enjoy the sites.

Our tour guide, knowing we were from Sète, mentioned that The Théâtre Molière was the "little brother" of this opera house. You can see why on my previous post about it here.

Model

Model

Model, interior

Model, interior

The original Three Graces, replicated in the plaza just outside

The Stage

From the Stage

On to the related French lesson: two things are no-nos in the French theater (1) saying the word "corde" (rope), because it evokes thoughts of hangings (I asked what they do about the string section, les cordes, and they agreed that probably they were refered to individually, as in violins, Cellos, etc), and (2) using the color green, for an unknown reason - quite a contrast to USA theaters that all seem to have a green room!

It wasn't all gadding about; we stayed home (out of the cold) for various comfort food. And we tried another new fish - at the fish counter, it said "lieu noir," and it did look dark! But it seemed mild, so I took a chance - it turns out that it is Black Pollock (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollachius_virens), funnily enough, a type of whitefish :-)