Old Friends

Last weekend, we had visitors! My friend and boss from roughly 25 years ago made a detour from London; she and her husband spent a couple of days here in Sète, and we showed them around a bit.

Day 1
We picked them up in our new car (did I mention that we got a car?), and drove from downtown to the top of Mount St. Clair for great views

Windy day on the mountain!

We stopped at the forest for a look around, then on to the beach for lunch at La Ola. We were a little early, so they plopped us down at a bar table with this nice bottle of red wine

The forecast was for rain in the afternoon, so we decided to go to Loupian and see the mosaics recovered from a roman villa. Sure enough, while we were enjoying the sights inside, it poured outside (and then was done) :-)

These 3 photos show the same 3-dimensional/optical illusion mosaic (10 cubes) from different angles

We came back to our apartment for an apéro dînatoire, thinking we would go on to a local dance. But we got caught up in the sunset...

Day 2

The weather was considerably nicer - sunny, dry, and just a breeze.  We walked around downtown, had a light lunch at Les Halles (spelled with an "e" - thanks to Larry, my slip-up was short-lived :-\ ), then walked around the Simone Veil park. 

Then we drove to the môle and found the plaque commemorating the ship Exodus (read more about it here).

From there, we drove to Marseillan, to the winery that produced our lunch wine - La Madeleine Saint Jean - Linda and Larry tried out the reds, and we walked out with a box...

We were all pretty tired by then, but decided to check out the Noilly-Prat distillery. My French friends later clarified the prononciation - "No-yee praht" to Americans. Well, that stop was a little disappointing - there was no way to simply taste the different vermouths; you had to go on a guided tour for 45 minutes! So, I took a chance, and bought an untasted bottle of Ambré (it is pretty darned good).

We all opted for a couple of hours of rest, then had an early (early for France, anyway!) dinner at Chez Mino.

Then

Linda and Larry took the train to Marseille the next morning, having already booked their dinner at Linda's favorite restaurant in the entire world :-)

Over these days, fast and few, we did a *lot* of catching up!