Ceret - Vide Grenier and walk through the orchards.

Time change last night so we were a little late getting going today (new time).

The road beside the tourist office was blocked off and Aimee and I checked it out.
A huge flea market.

All the way down the street and covering the petangue court and the nearby parking lot.

Would you like a stuffed Ibex? The same table had a stuffed fox. There were of course clothes,
shoes, lots of glassware, home décor,

toys (this guy had lots of Playmobile, but not cheap), baby stuff, pots, pans, cutlery

tools, small appliances, furniture. It just went on and on.

On the way back we stopped in to the Salle Manalo, the art gallery next to the tourist office,
to look again at the current exhibit. All 4 of us really liked this artists work.

There was no indication of title but the artist is Marie-Chantal de Peretti and she gave me
permission to take photos. This is Aimee's favorite.

She has some common elements in her work. The figures are simply painted, sometimes looking
like candles though she also has candles in the paintings. There are frequently ladders and  books and writing
though letters and words may be falling off the pages. Eggs and trees are also prevalent. You can look
at one of her paintings for a long time constantly noticing new elements or levels.

If you are interested in her work you can see it at www.miliou.cat under the list of artists choose Marie Chantal de Peretti.
After lunch Aimee and I headed out for a walk.

It's Palm Sunday but people were not coming out of church with palms, rather with huge
bunches of foliage; olive branches and something with berries that we couldn't identify.

Walking down the street, first we noticed the large black couch in the road and then

 the guy in the fourth floor window, setting up the pulley system. He
shouted down something when he saw us staring. I yelled up "bonne chance" and
he responded "its my job". When we came back 2 hours later the couch was gone
from the road.

We went down to the Devil's Bridge, across, and along the trail that goes up to L'Ermitage De St Ferriol, although we knew we were not going to do that 7km long hike.

We walked through orchards and vineyards. The fruit trees are just starting to
blossom and their freshly pruned branches were stacked beside their trunks.

We wondered why some vines have wooden stakes and wires

and some do not.

We wondered why, in a whole field of vines, one had not been pruned.

We could see the Chateau (where we buy wine) in the distance and tried to walk to it but the track twisted and turned through one orchard then another, round one vineyard then another and finally ended at a shed. We turned around and retraced our route this time facing Canigou.

As we were in the wide valley we had a lot of sky to see and the clouds were in strange
formations. Towards the sea they were a series of bubbles.

Towards the mountains there was a pathway of dark grey that shifted into layers
and at one point looked like a series of hawks heads.

As we walked home it got hot, humid and still and we heard thunder but rain never materialized and after more than 2 hours of constant walking we got home and collapsed with a glass of wine. Getting into practice for Barcelona (the walking, not the drinking)
Afterwards I did some internet research regarding the pruning and trellising in the vineyards. The manner that a particular kind of grape is pruned and supported is determined by the Appellation Controlee (Like Ontario's VQA designation).
There are 2 main kinds of pruning. In the Gobolet style the vine is free standing and pruned in such a way as to produce a bush shape when in full leaf. In the Cordon style a branch is trained along a wire strand (or sometimes 2, one above the other) and it becomes the main support that other canes branch off.  In full leaf there appear to be fences made of grape vines. This second style is used more often when picking is done mechanically.
Now we both know.