Summer holiday 2003
le Cap D´Agde − France


Saturday, 12th July

We get up late this morning, around 09:30 hr., and indulge again in croissants. After having finished our breakfast we leave for Pézenas, a small town about 20 km driving. At some places the road is somewhat congested with traffic, but on the whole it is not that bad. We park our car at the Lidl supermarket, and walk the rest of the way to the city centre.

We turn around the corner and walk into a long, wide street with palm trees in the middle and lots of market stands with vegetables and fruit, fish, meat cheese, olives and an awful lot more. It´s the Saturday market that is going on, so we stroll around for a wile and then walk to the ancient city centre.

This is quite old and dates back to the Middle Ages, which is reflected by its narrow streets paved with cobblestones and the tall buildings with their solid two feet thick walls. Also the streets do not run in a strait line, they are a bit crooked which contributes to their medieval image. Sometimes the streets are so narrow that I can almost touch both its sides at the same time.

We stroll into one of the shops located in one of these old buildings. This particular one is specialised in beads. There on display in small trays, baskets, boxes and in what ever that can hold beads. All horizontal surfaces are covered with small trays and baskets. Colourful beads made of pottery, plastic, horn, shells and other materials. I walk to the back of the shop and into quite a small courtyard surrounded by tall buildings. Here a small tree rises over the table in front of it. This table also, is covered with many more trays and boxes filled with beads.

When I look upwards to the sky, the buildings towering over me reflect the architecture of ancient times. It is beautiful! Most of the buildings on the street corners are decorated with sculptures. Most likely they represent important people from Pézenas long history, or perhaps they are images of saints.

It is almost noon and it is getting really warm now, so we decide to return to the park. But before we leave, we go to the Lidl supermarket for some shopping. A tray of 24 canisters of beer should not be forgotten. I worked my way though the previous batch already and I do expect another heat wave. I can feel it coming right now! I need to be kept wet at al times, and beer will do that for me!

Tonight again our evening stroll takes us to the port. At this time of the day it´s a comfortable 20°, which is fairly cool compared to the daily soaring temperatures. The nightclubs and bars are competing loudly with one another in order to attract customers. We decide to have a drink in one of them and observe the crowd that passes by while the live-band is singing popular music in French. For a glass of beer, three cokes and a mineral water we are charged € 20,00.

At some stage I here the singer of the group say something like "la guerre de music", which means something like "musical war". Then the guy behind the keyboard plays the well-known tune "tah tah tah taaaaaah", after which the gathered public is encouraged to respond with a very loud "Oleeeeeeeeeh". In the nightclub next door the same procedure takes place. This goes back and forth a few times. The nightclub that produces the loudest "Oleeeeeeeeh" is the winner in this musical war. I have never seen anything like this before. Strange people these French!

Having finished our drink, we continue our walk along the quay. Back at the apartment we have a small midnight snack, a drink, and then turn in for the night.