Ceret - shopping and more carnaval.

As mentioned before there are 6 places selling croissant within walking distance. There is another down by the
Devil's Bridge but that's a bit far to walk before breakfast. We noticed these wonderful old doors in the old town
today. I guess Ceret couldn't support 7. The whole building (rather dilapidated looking) is for sale.

After a leisurely breakfast, after all Ceret is pretty quiet on a Monday morning and most places are closed, we went to the Grande Café for morning coffee.

They are still trying to get all the confetti out of the gutters. It hasn't helped that it rained
the next day. Soggy mess.

Mum, with the owners permission, wants to stroke every dog she sees. She misses having a dog.
Its owner called this one a Danish Mastiff. I think that means its a cross between a Bull Mastiff
and a Great Dane. Its huge, and a softy.

After lunch, off to stock up. We've been here a month and needed to do some major shopping today. Le Perthus and then InterMarche.

The store we frequent in Le Perthus. It has the sherry Mum likes and strawberries. Last week we paid 5Euro
for 1kg of strawberries. This week, 6Euro for 2kg, they're coming down.

Then we drove to the Priory of St Marie de Vilar for Mum and I to sketch. It was warm today and no wind but heavy cloud cover and it kept feeling like rain. We opted to sit and sketch anyway. At the entrance was the nun who had given us our tour and she said we could sketch for free but we said the entry was a donation to the church and she was happy to accept it. I find it very relaxing to sketch. I have to get totally immersed in the subject and the act of transferring the details to paper result in my brain taking a photo of it that I can retrieve, even years later. The perfect souvenir.

This is actually a photo from our first visit. The picture today didn't turn out well as it was
too dark and cloudy.

Shopping was completed at Chatuea D'Aubiry (Mum was out of white wine) and the Intermarche.
It was a slow photo day, only 12 shots when I loaded them up on the computer. So I will add some from the carnival (I took 221 that day with the market and the parade).
As Mum said "the parade, confetti and music are the big picture but part of what makes it fun are those little moments":

I think the people pictured have to be political figures.

Even the abundance of Mimosa can not make this an attractive shot.

This little girl was across the street from us and the perfect age for the parade. Dressed as a princess from Frozen, trying to get her tiara on in this shot, she followed her sister (also a princess but more demure), danced and squealed.

The batmobile stopped right in front of her and she got very focused on getting some of her aerosol
string to attach. She shrieked with delight when it pulled away with her string on the back fin.

Joined by another Frozen princess (must have shopped at the same store)

Her older sister, replenishing the confetti.