This was one of many seasonal beach bar/restaurants that pop up every summer on beaches along this stretch of the Med. Apparently it takes a month to set them up and take them down, which is a feat of engineering and construction. This one was in spitting distance to the water, had wood floors/decking, a covered open dining area, palm-frond umbrella’s around tables in the sand, beach chairs, toilet block with flushing toilets, an outdoor shower, free high-speed WiFi, and impressive solar-powered stations for charging your electronics. The staff was friendly and spoke several languages. This oasis this became a weekly treat during our stay.
Ed was heading off to visit some friends in a nearby town so we were on our own for the evening. There was a small well stocked grocery store 1/2 way down the beach front that we had passed several times so we headed there to pick up provisions for a night in. Todd thought to buy a couple of reusable plates,cups and forks as it looked like we would not be on the boat by Monday. Then we randomly selected 2 of bottles of the local Rose, some Catalan sausage, delicious white anchovies in lemon and olive oil, fresh baguette, stinky cheese, some small tomato’s, greens and a light dressing. Though this was a high tourist area we found the prices for the wine, cheese, and bread to be down right cheap.
It was nice to have a mellow night in and switch off a little bit. We found that hearing French around us and trying to translate what we were hearing was pretty tiring and every few hours we needed a break. Even though we weren’t fluent in Spanish, trying to speak French made us feel like we were, and we would resort to Spanish to try to get our point across. This worked fairly well as Canet is close to the border of Spain, and initially we tried to use English as a last resort. (By the end of the 3 months I was speaking English badly as well!).
Google translate was a useful tool which we should have practiced using more before we came over. We could use it to translate photo’s of sign’s or printed phrases, as well as translate from English back to French to convey a simple request or ask for directions. (It did not work well for complex negotiations like trying to find sheets to fit berths on a boat.) I should point out that according to Duolingo, an online language learning platform, I was 26 % fluent in French. It is an excellent free program but I had neglected the part where you were supposed to speak daily with a French speaker due to time constraints with work, and that was probably why no-one could understand me. One of the funnier pronunciation errors occurred every time I asked for a WiFi code. This was always met with blank looks . It was only when I pronounced it “wee fee” that a radiant smile of understanding broke out and I would receive the code…..ahh France!
The next day was Sunday and we were keen to walk into town and check out the local market. Like most markets it starts early. There was a lot of good looking summer fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, breads, preserves, a couple of cheese wagons, a fresh fish stall, and a refrigerated butchery. There were bargains to be had if you were looking for used clothing, cheap gangster length shorts, T-shirts, towels, sunglasses, and an assortment of “old-timey stuff”. We had fun looking, and ended up with some nice peaches and tomato’s (which if you squeeze at the stand you will get an earful of…suggestions for preparation perhaps?).
There was an indoor/outdoor bar on the marina side of the harbor, which appeared to be a local favorite as it was always busy. This place had tables added outside every night which were removed during the day,probably because they were placed in the street. It had stained wooden siding with drop-down hurricane shutters, tall metal bar stools and side by side micro tables. It was on our way back to the Hotel so we stopped in to enjoy the atmosphere and struck up a broken conversation with the young server. There had been a lot of folks drinking a bright green cocktail in the various bars and restaurants we had visited thus far, so we asked about it. Apparently it was a summer favorite and was basically a mint liquor with soda. The waitress poured us a couple of taster shots of this brilliant green concoction which was kind, but it did not entice us to order the whole beverage.
The boat wasn’t ready by the next day, and Hotel Du Port where we had been staying was booked through the next week ,so it was time to find alternative accommodation. Ed was scheduled to leave in the afternoon and was kind enough to drop us at “Sixt” Car rental where we rented a 4 door Euro car for 2 weeks. It got great gas mileage and you could park that thing anywhere. (Todd also liked that it made him feel really big every time he got out of it). We figured this would give us time to outfit the galley and berths, and pick up items from the chandlers, hardware, and grocery stores, before sailing way for a few months.
The only affordable Hotel we could find that had available rooms was the Hotel Europa, and we could only get 3 days there. This was getting expensive and we needed a better solution. After a few hours of searching, we ended up booking a place through AirBnB in the near-by town of Nazaire starting Friday 6/24/16. This would be available for the 10 days after we left the Europa.
We found ourselves with a couple of hours to kill before lunchtime so headed to a Darty store (home electronics, and appliances), where we picked up a TV and printer.These we left in the project managers office and then stopped by to check on the boat. The replacement stay was in position and the new head and main sails had arrived as planned. The only glitch was the canvas was the wrong color. The stack pack for holding the main sail on the boom was still the old original blue canvas, and the UV canvas on the new head sail had been matched to this instead of the charcoal gray that we had selected. We were told this could be switched out later.
The best news was that we would be out for a test sail on the coming Saturday so we left feeling somewhat optimistic, and headed back for our last night in Hotel Du Port.