Well the long weekend is over, first the markets in Perpignan and Narbonne then the Bio Corbieres Festival at Bonnefous on Sunday. It was a bit of a chore unpacking the two vehicles on Saturday afternoon merging the two sets of plants and adding more, we both did well in our markets on Saturday and had lots of empty boxes, the road up is still impassable for my van so we had to do a few trips up and down to get that sorted out.

When the alarm went off on Sunday morning the moans and groans echoed round the house. It did not help that one look outside confirmed that a Marin, the grey humid weather that blows in off the Med, was going to be the weather of the day, on top of that the Meteo had predicted rain from 2pm.

Anyway off we set, Caroline’s Landrover leading the way along the narrow twisting roads that make up the first part of the route, then onto the wider road that connects Tuchan to Durban. Drops of rainfall touching the windscreen did not bode well.

Arriving at 6.30 about half the stand holders were already there, predominantly the local producers. the usual suspects were there, Miriam, the wonderful plant grower from Caunettes en Val, Mathew with his goats cheese, Micias with his essential oils, Manu with her hats and her made organic lotions and potions, Sylvan with his duck sausages and pates.

Jean-Paul pulled in behind us with his home made knives, Elizabeth, Caroline’s neighbour in the Organic market in Narbonne, was already unpacking her superb home baked organic food. I saw a big four by four that I recognised, my old neighbour in the Perpignan market was there, Giles, Nelly and his organic snails, bloody horrible things. I have not seen Giles since I left hospital two years ago so it was great to be able to catch up. He is mainly doing the beaches now, selling his slimy horrors to unsuspecting tourists.

Well the rain was holding off, and Pascal has lent me his market umbrella, since his recent stroke he is unable to do the Perpignan market, so Yann my friendly fascist and I sell his eggs for him every Saturday. In return I get to use his huge umbrella and get a ready supply of fresh free range eggs.

We set up our stand, our old friend Stephane came up from Portel to give us a hand.  We then had a great day, lots of our clients from both Lezignan Corbieres and the organic market in Narbonne dropped by. Bio Corbieres is also a great opportunity to catch up with other local organic producers. We all, by the nature of our work, and the remoteness of where we live, ted to keep ourselves to ourselves, as after markets and work there is neither a lot of money or time free to have a hectic social life.Markets and foires tend to be a major part of our social life. At lunchtime I managed to grab a large table and chairs and set them up in front of our stand. We eat a delicious hopscotched picnic lunch with Barbera and Nicolai, Christien, Peiro, Myrian,  Jean Marie and Tiffan, Steph and various other friends who dropped by with bottles of wine, cheese and bread.

It was Elizabeth’s first time at Bio Corbieres, Caroline had talked her into coming and she agreed. Elizabeth is a chef, but not just any old chef, her and late husband ran a hotel and restaurant up in Dinan in Normandy. She was awarded a Michelin star for the restaurant. After the death of her husband, Elizabeth is convinced that it was the stress of keeping the star that killed him off, she returned to her family home at the foot of La Clape and now produces organically certified food which she sells direct from home and in the Organic market in Narbonne. We were a bit worried abut how it would go for her, Caroline and Elizabeth has discussed for hours what we be the best food to prepare. On the day Elizabeth came with her cousin, set up and sold out. A great result.

Over all it was a quieter Bio Corbieres festival than two years ago. Our takings were about a third of what we took of in 2016. Some of this could be put down to the weather forecast, the Audois are convinced that rain is dangerous stuff and rarely leave the house if precipitation is foretold. Partly I think it is also about the fact that they cancelled last year’s Bio Cobieres, and things drop from people’s minds. And last but not least, the organisers, it seems to me, did not do enough publicity, there was no signs up in front of the venue, the information online was sparce and the use of social media minimal.

But it all bodes well for next year’s Bio Corbieres festival and we would not miss it for the world.

We got heavily rained on on the way home, but by then it was too late to ruin our day.