Betsy's Dispatch for 06.06.2011

Betsy’s Dispatch 2  Dimanche  6-05-2011

View of village where we are from neighboring vineyard

            This morning JP went to his painting and I went, forgetting the camera,worse luck, to St Antonin-Noble-Val to their weekly market. It is yet another blow-your-mind medieval walled town but this time on the banks of the Aveyron river, a sleepy green waterway with overhanging trees and red/orange canoes for rent just waiting for a painter to come sauntering along. The streets, alleys really, meander up into the main church square where there were tables set up for business. I was there by 9:00, and a good thing too.  Yum! There were tables of clean neatly set out veggies, fruit ( I bought a euro of cherries, each one ripened to perfection). There were also cherries that were pinky yellow. Those are the kind that are growing right here. I thought they were just unripe. Mais Non! Tables of sausage, most the size of linguica back home. Quelle odeur! One table had a special of 6 for 10Euros. OUI! One has truffles, I think. One is of boar.  One is “naturel”. Who knows? (They are yummy), I didn’t see as many tables of cheeses.  There was one long long table with little penny paper bags filled with herbs and spices and other green and mysterious things. Leaves? Magic potions? What an aroma there! In the center of town, with unerring Powel taste, I found a fellow selling wine for a euro a bucket. He had a funnel and was filling what looked like gallon plastic square containers made for gas?(illegal) or liquid soap? for 6 euros. I opted for a leftover 2 liter plastic lemonade bottle. He filled it TO THE TIPPY TIPPY TOP for 3E. It isn’t very good, but it will get better.  There was lots more, of course, clothes, jewelry etc.   And at the center was a fellow playing on an antique piano everything from Bach, to Moonlight Sonata to the Maple Leaf Rag. Basically I left because I couldn’t find a bathroom and didn’t want to act out a question. (Forgot phrase book and dictionary). Of course the drive was beautiful. On one side was the river, hidden, on the other were tall sandstone cliffs. Everything that is not alive here, or man made, is some form of limestone. Lunch of all the good things I bought and my crummy wine (so close to yummy). JP is right here painting on the 26’long table in the beautiful 46’ by 14’ studio that looks like the Cloisters. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and it is time to go read something by Dan Brown and soak up some rays.  Au Revoir!  Demain piu de peinture de JP. This place is bliss incarnate.