Habit

It was a complicated evening. First we went to a meeting of a "buyers' collective" in Lézignan that someone had told us about. Basically they do group purchasing, theoretically of local/ethically produced products, although not all of them seem to fall into that category. It's a complicated business ... topics included a discussion of the practicalities involved in collecting an entire Comté cheese (40-50 kg) from Limoux (an hour's drive away) and then cutting it up accurately into small portions of the correct weight. We will probably participate in the next group buy and see how we get on.

Then we had about an hour before we needed to head off to our evening's entertainment, so what was more logical than to pop into the Tira-tap for some pan con tomate, ham, salad, and a couple of glasses of wine? It's only a week since we were last here. These chaps at the bar looked quite important -- I had a feeling they were sommeliers or maître d's -- something about the haircuts and the way they poured the wine. Once again it was good to see it busy, with a variety of clients from oldies like us to young people having a drink before a night out. Everyone as usual pulled their own wine out the rack, opened it, and grabbed the requisite number of glasses, but in a new development one customer was popping behind the bar periodically to provide a freelance oyster-opening service. I love this place, it's like home only better.

Afterwards we went to the Centre Culturel to see some modern dance -- the show that resulted from the sortie de résidence we saw in May. It had its moments, but in some ways the workshop was more interesting because there was more interaction with the dancers.

In other news, the weather is awful -- another alerte orange for tomorrow, with heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast. And our Internet connection is worse than ever. The bits are going to be in single figures soon.