Pezenas Newsletter May

Well, although this newsletter usually comes from Pézenas, this month I am writing from slightly further south from Port Barcarès down by the sea.

What is she doing on holiday when she lives all year round in a sun-kissed paradise, you may well ask ?

And you are quite right. Well, I think I am also entitled to some sort of a holiday too, if only as is the case a busman’s holiday. And some bus route it is too. It’s a bit like Hyde Park Corner on a Friday afternoon. I was called in by the town authorities of Port Barcarès to do something about their communication with local press and their monthly newspaper over the summer period.

Port Barcarès, which for the past few decades accommodates up to 80 000 mainly French-speaking tourists every season organises an enormous programme of mainly musical events every season and invites many of the big names in popular music in France to amuse the tourists. Most of these concerts are entrance free which means they may attract audiences of up to 30 000 without too much difficulty. My job is a bit like being the life and soul of a Butlin’s camp in August, finding a few minutes every day to actually write about what I have seen or announce what is going to happen shortly.

A quirk of French culture you soon come to terms with when you actually live in France is that most of the pop stars, particularly those that rose to fame in France during the sixties and seventies have English or American names. This does not mean they only sing in English though and often you will still hear them on the radio singing your old favourites in French which sounds peculiar at first. You soon get used to it and realise that stars like Eddy Mitchell and Johnny Hallyday have ordinary French names in everyday life.

Actually Eddy Mitchell was due to give a concert here on Friday but decided not to sing because there was too much wind. This was very badly viewed by the locals most of whom are or were fishermen and for them the gale force wind on Friday was blowing in the right direction, thoroughly healthy and wouldn’t have hurt a fly, let alone send the sound and light equipment hurtling onto the stage. Eddy used to sing with a group called "les Chaussettes Noires", very romantic in French but translated into English as "the black socks" sounds as charming as a launderette in Newcastle on a wet Friday night.

You might not realise this from your part of the world but down here in Barcarès, just 10 miles from the centre of the world, Perpignan, the summer season is hectic to say the least... So you didn’t know Perpignan is the centre of the world ? You thought it was New York, London or Hong Kong ? Rubbish ! Why, it is actually written in large white letters on Perpignan station as you come off Platform 1 : "Ici Perpignan, centre du monde".

Perpignan is the centre of the world as Lézignan la Cèbe is the capital of spring onions, Nézignan l’Evêque the capital of figs, and goodness knows what else. Down here, the people in the south of France will exaggerate everything and anything from Marseille to the Spanish border. Yes, but it wasn’t actually strictly speaking a Frenchman who claimed that Perpignan is the centre of the world. It was Salvador Dali who in his great wisdom also declared that Perpignan station gave him "divine inspiration" – I really wondered what for as I spent half an hour on platform 2, waiting for the train to come in with my young son back from two weeks in the mountains.

However, you mustn’t forget that Dali (who now has a wonderful museum dedicated to his memory in Figueras, just an hour’s drive away in Spain) was of course a Catalan. From what I have seen and met of Catalans, they are all, both on this side of the border and in Spain all extremely proud to be Catalan and consider that Catalogne, shared today between France and Spain is the best and the only place to live in the world.

There are of course arguments to prove this. Within 30 minutes drive from here you will find beautiful mountainous country – the Pyrenees are right in the middle – so there is skiing in winter and mountain climbing in summer ; right here in and around Barcarès there are gorgeous sandy beaches and the Mediterranean Sea and plenty of inland lakes for absolutely every water sport you can imagine ; delicious wines – Corbières, Fitou, etc. ; really good duty free shopping in Le Perthus between borders – and Andorra, a real shoppers’ paradise is not far away either. All in all, this area does have a lot to be said for it.

The Catalans make sure you don’t forget it too : all over Catalogne you will see cheerful orange and red flags flying the Catalan arms, symbolising in more sinister fashion "gold and blood".

That’s all for this month I am afraid, I am off to the beach to improve my suntan, and will be back in Pézenas for next month’s newsletter.