May 14, 2010 Arles-sur-Tech – an Abbey and a Textile Museum

Community Highlights Europe May 14, 2010 Arles-sur-Tech – an Abbey and a Textile Museum

May 14, 2010 – Day 31 (Friday) The day promised sun so Ed thought it would be a good time to try the mountains. We got in the car and realized we didn’t have our hats so Ed went back upstairs to get them. He returned without the hats. They had disappeared. We looked all over the car and then both went upstairs to double check the apartment. No hats! We knew we had them when we left Narbonne because it had been raining and windy and we had to use the straps. We were quite sure we hadn’t worn them to church so they were inside the car while we were at church. We had parked by the busy beach walk in central Canet-Plage and the only thing that makes sense is perhaps Ed pushed the wrong button on the car remote and left the car unlocked. Then someone came along and took the hats . . . but not our raincoats. Makes no sense but our nifty Tilley hats are gone. So sad . . .

Sans headgear we set off for Arles-sur-Tech in hopes of seeing the abbey, the textile museum and buying some gifts. As usual it was really nasty getting through/around Elne because it is so poorly marked. Then we were okay until Le Boulou where I told Ed to turn and I shouldn’t have. We couldn’t turn around because there was a solid line of stopped cars going for many miles in the opposite direction. It was an Antibes-like traffic nightmare and we ended up in it at the A9 backup. We finally broke away and cut across country to try Le Boulou again. This time we did not turn, escaped Le Boulou and were on our way again.

We sailed through Amelie-les-Bains and on to Arles-sur-Tech where we easily found parking. We checked one menu and walked up to the tourist office that was . . . naturally . . . closed for lunch. We started seriously checking menus and decided on Les Caves Mouragues [Rue Barri d'Avall, 66150 Arles-sur-Tech; +33 (0)4 6854-9772; +33 (0)4 6839-7465] and were ushered in to a cozy room that very quickly filled up. As yesterday, we were the only English speakers although Madame spoke English very well. Our waitress was very happy with our French; it was much better than her nearly-negligible English. We got the special and it was very good. Ed got salad tomate-mozzarella, tagliatelle carbonara and a Catalan flan. I got my favorite hot goat cheese salad, confit de canard (falling off the bone) with a very spicy version of potatoes Dauphinois and ice cream for dessert followed by coffee. It was all excellent except a tad too much salt on the entrées.

After lunch we walked around town a little and then went to the tourism office for tickets to the Abbey and got a Pass Intersites 2010 for cultural heritage sites . . . Catalan. The more you see, the less you pay . . . except we only have one more day. Sigh . . . We thoroughly enjoyed the Abbaye d’Arles-sur-Tech and took lots of pictures.

We left the abbey and walked a couple blocks to the textile museum. It said “ouvert” but the door was locked. We tried a second door and a man came running to rescue us. He found the lady with the key. She opened it and we entered. It was dark so I used my flash and no one seemed to mind . . . or even be watching. We wandered through two buildings of unorganized, ill-lit but nevertheless fascinating history of a factory weaving traditional Catalan fabrics. There was also a loom set up to do a summer-winter weave popular in Colonial America. We ended in the gift shop and although things were beautiful, none really seemed to fit in our home or homes of kids or friends. We left sans gifts.

Found our way out of town and managed to get home only making two wrong turns. It is clear, cold and very windy. I checked e-mail and British Airways so if the volcano can control itself, we may get home Monday. British Airways has a strike scheduled Tuesday so we truly hope there are no delays Monday.

Peg said the garden was doing well except the cabbage are huge but don’t look edible. We’re wondering if they bolted but it has been cool. Strange . . . a mystery.

This featured blog entry was written by Beausoleil from the blog The Dordogne and Languedoc-Roussillon.
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