Ceret - Joan arrives, posters and 1st duck recipe

Today was a low news/photo day. My Aunt Joan arrived from England and Mum and Dad went to Perpignan to pick her up. I stayed home and did a thorough clean.
This afternoon I went to SFR in Le Boulou to look into buying a phone for Europe. It proved to be more difficult than I thought and not as convenient as I had hoped.  I hope to travel in Europe for the next 10 years or so and thought that having a European phone would be cheaper than using my Canadian phone (and Bell). It costs me an extra $45 per month to use my phone in France. That seems excessive on top of the $60 that Bell gets for my regular service.
The man in the SFR was very helpful though didn't speak a word of English. The tourist office had initially provided me with a written request for what I wanted. The rest of it the SFR employee and I struggled through with my limited French and a lot of gestures and diagrams on paper. In the end it didn't make sense for me, "Pas bon pour moi" and he nodded in understanding. The phone would cost 40Euro, the number cost 10Euro but would only last for 6 months if you didn't recharge it. The money for calls, if I didn't use it all would last for only a week. So at the end of the day it would have cost me about $75 and all I would have is an unblocked phone. To use it in another European country I would need to buy another number (SIM card) and money on the phone. Instead I will look into unblocking my Canadian phone.
As mentioned in a previous post, Ceret commemorates its past artists with posters of their work in the locations that they were painted.

Pictures of them on a sunny day don't seem to work that well due to reflections.

Its interesting to see the houses and huge trees still the same, 80 or a 100 years later. Also
to see well known artists translation of the landscape.

Picassos's painting of the city hall and Museum of Modern Art and in the background, the museum.

These houses all back on to the ravine near our place. Lovely colours, lush foliage, sound of water
at the bottom, patios and terraces, vegetable gardens and container gardens.

To continue with Barb's Vicarious Travelling Cookbook idea here is Dad's favorite of the three duck recipes we have tried. We have been able to buy duck breast quite reasonably but this sauce would work well for pork or chicken. This recipe is from the internet but as I have it on a screenshot on my tablet I don't know which site.
2 duck breast
cayenne pepper
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. rice wine (I used white wine)
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 small hot pepper or tsp of chilli powder
1 tbsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. chopped ginger
Score the fat side of the duck breast, rub with pepper, salt and cayenne pepper. Lay in pan fat side down and fry til crispy brown, about 5 min. Discard excess fat, turn over and cook for 1 minute.  Whisk the rest of the ingredients, tip into the pan and simmer with lid on for 15 minutes. take lid off and simmer to reduce sauce for 5 or 10 minutes.
Serve duck sliced with sauce over top.