Bits and Pieces

Beziers, France

24 March 2024

Dear Family and Friends,

This week didn’t seem to have any unifying theme.  I felt like there were a few milestones and just some moments of appreciating some of the simple things like bells and murals.

I had my first visitors, my cousin Jeff and his wife Susy and their friends Steve and Ellen.  They are here on holiday in Avignon and came to visit me in Beziers. After a visit to the construction site Lisa and I call home and a quick tour of the central village, we did a little trip to Vias to visit the beach. Turns out this is not the best time of the year to visit the Vias beach as we discovered.  It is off season and finding a spot for lunch was a bit of a challenge. Luckily, we ran across some friendly folks who pointed us in the right direction of the village of Vias before everything closed down for the afternoon. I truly appreciated their coming to visit and it was fun to show them a bit of Beziers!

I’ve been walking in the old part of Beziers quite a bit, looking for the for sale signs and trying to scope out the options. Searching for real estate here is different than in the States.  I know that in the States things differ from state to state and by region to a certain degree, but in general the MLS or real estate websites give you a bit more information than you get here.  For example, they don’t advertise the address or exact location of the property, and sometimes the pictures are quite intentionally misleading. They don’t want you to find the property without going directly to the agent who is listing the property. You may see a property online that looks interesting, but you don’t really know where it is, or you may also see a for sale sign and find out that it’s not really the property that is for sale. There’s no such thing as an open house, and if you’re using an agent, a “competing agency” may intentionally delay you seeing the property in hopes that they will sell it to someone who does not have an agent before you can see it. Yep, they want that commission all to themselves and they will do whatever they can to ensure that they get it all.

The fun part is I’m really getting to know the streets and the neighborhoods.  I’m also finding more of these fun Murals.

Lots of times the murals have important folks somewhere in the picture. Some have medallions or banners that indicate the significance of those pictured, and others are just playful images like this friendly looking cat or the amazing flower box that looks so incredibly real I took second look.  I post them on Instagram as I run across them.

The other thing that I’ve noticed that makes me smile are all the bells.  Growing up in a rural area, we didn’t hear lots of bells and maybe that’s why I notice them as much as I do. There are church bells, school bells, and bells on municipal buildings. Some of them ring as often as on the quarter hour. At least in the old part of the city, I will almost always hear a bell marking the hour if I’m out and about, and if I’m lucky on the quarter hour depending on where I am.

I didn’t write yesterday because I ran into my friend Najma who invited me along to walk in a marshland near the Mediterranean Sea. We ended going on quite a good hike.  An easy terrain because a marshland is by nature pretty flat, but with a miscalculation here and there we ended up walking a bit further than we intended. The reward were worth it though. We saw flamingos!  I did not anticipate that and it was a really cool surprise.

The only time I've seen flamingos has been in zoos, so to see them in the wild and in flight was a real treat!

We also got to check out yet another beach. This beach had a lovely view that included neighboring villages of Agde and Sete in one direction and the Pyrenees Mountains in the other.  Spain is just the other side of the Pyrenees, and I’m so looking forward to visiting but no plans to do that just yet.

I hope that you are all well!

Bonne Journée!