Sunday in Mèze

After dropping friends visiting from NZ at Montpellier last Sunday, decided to stop at Mèze on the way home for lunch aka 'research'. It is a lovely old fishing village on the edge of Basin de Thau where oysters and mussels are cultivated. It has wonderful narrow streets, a lovely small, but bustling, port and a couple of nice beaches. How much better could this get? Well, Mèze is also home to a water-jousting team who were out in practice which provided great free entertainment.

There is a market on Sunday, now full of summer fare - beach bags, sandals and swimwear etc along with the usual wonderful food.

And then it was lunch by the port. A dozen wonderful oysters and a glass of the great Languedocian white wine, Picpoul de Pinet. Perfect. 

Shattering experience

Bit of a delay with bathroom progress. As the shower walls were going up, the largest one just 'exploded' and shattered into thousands of bits just as it was being put into place. Fortunately no-one was hurt, but it does mean we have quite a delay in finishing the shower. The replacement screen may be available by end of this month, otherwise it will be September; August being the sacrosant holiday month in France.

Here's what left of an increasingly expensive shower screen:

 We do, at least, have two screens up which stops quite a bit of water getting on the floor!

Needing some shade

 

Wellington under the shade of one of the pear tree's. He's doing a lot of sleeping in this summer heat.

Magnolia Tree

After the magnolia tree's severe pruning early last year, it's resulted this year in new leaf growth in the centre and an enormous amount of flowering. The flowers started to bloom in June and at their current rate will still be blooming well into August. They provide a beautiful perfume in the garden at dawn and dusk.

Summer Garden - July

The first tomatoes of the season; cherry toms obviously. We have four different varieties growing and a lot more fruit to come. 

 The lavender by the pool is in full bloom and has a divine aroma.

The 'new' garden on the west side of the garden is just coming into bloom. It was planted with a mixed-seed mix, so we await with interest to see exactly what is going to bloom (having discarded the packet which told us what was in it). This is the very early stage of flowering so there will be a post when it's in much fuller bloom. 

The 'cat' on the left of the picture was left in the garden by the previous owners and now has its special place as a sentry by the west wall.