Séte again

11-10-2010
Originally uploaded by cspatrick

Monday, October 11, 2010 Day 103
It was raining when we got up; actually, I think it had rained all night. This is Garden Club day. Last night when we got home I sent an email to Anne, who offered me a ride, just to make sure she was going even in the rain. This morning there was a positive response from her, so I caught a bus to a stop near her house and she met me there. We headed out toward Séte for the third time in a month.

Our hosts for the garden club were Vivian and her husband, Alain, who live on Mont St. Clare in Séte. They were delightful hosts. The meeting started with a short talk by Vivian about the challenges of her garden, which are many. Probably the greatest challenge is the slope of the garden. Mont St. Clare rises rather abruptly out of the Mediterranean Sea (Roger suggests that it may be a salt dome) so that the roads are very steep and the properties on it are not flat, but drop rather precipitously down the slope. The house occupies the largest section of flat land, and the rest of the property, both to one side and behind, slopes down sharply. Her garden is terraced from the top to the bottom, but the terraces are rather narrow, probably no more than a meter or two at most. A portion of each terrace is taken up by a path zig-zagging down from one terrace to the next, all the way to the bottom, similar to hairpin curve roads down the side of a mountain. This does not leave a lot of room for gardening. Then there are numerous trees on the property which block out a great deal of the sun. Séte has a dry Mediterranean climate, so the emphasis is on low-water plants. Vivian is an English woman who likes flower gardens, so it is particularly a challenge for her to find flowering plants. They have a watering system installed, but one winter while they were away, it sprang a leak and their water bill for the winter was in excess of 4,000 Euros. Another challenge is that, when the house was built 20 years ago, the workman threw the debris to the bottom of the property. The two of them (Vivian and Alain) spend time every week hauling bags up from the bottom (by wheelbarrow, I think) to their car and driving them to the dump. There are numerous dead branches which need to be removed from the trees. But it is an expensive proposition because any equipment must be brought in by hand and the dead branches carried up and out, also by hand or in a small wheelbarrow or push cart. While Vivian spoke, the rain kindly stopped for about an hour, so once her talk was ended, we were able to take a tour of the garden. Note how the far end of the pool drops over the edge - the water flows down into a catch basin below and is recirculated.

After the garden tour our hosts served us a delicious lunch. It started with an aperitif brought by Benedict, one of the guests whose family owns a large winery in the area. There was a sweet wine cocktail – a muscat mixed with Schwepps – and a dry white wine as well. This was served with bowls of olives and some cheese straws and other munchies while we stood around eating and drinking. Then we sat down to lunch, which was a salad of sliced tomatoes, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts and avocados with a black-walnut oil dressing. With wine, of course. Then there was a chicken stew with tomatoes, garlic, onions and I can’t recall what else. This was accompanied by white rice. And more wine. Finally, dessert plates were passed around, along with three desserts: a tart tatin (an apple tart), a chocolate brownie-like dessert, and a third item which I seem to have forgotten. Maybe it was the wine fog. We had our choice of coffee or tea, and large bowls of pistachio ice cream and mango ice cream. Heaven!! We stayed until almost 4:00, which was a good thing, because it allowed the wine to wear off a bit so that nobody would fall off the mountain on their way home.

Anne and I left, and we followed Benedict, whose family owns the winery. She led us to an art studio and reception room, as Anne wanted to check out the latter. From there we drove to Benedict’s family’s winery. We sampled some wine (just one small glass), bought a bit of wine, and headed home. I didn’t get home until after 7:00. When I got in the door, I discovered that Roger had chicken stew, a baguette and dessert waiting. Two chicken stews in one day! But I didn’t complain at all – Roger’s stew was quite good, and the chocolate éclair was a perfect end to the day.