Leighton Cooke

Tasted this excellent organic red wine today in Montpellier at the Cévennes festival on the Comèdie.

Time is flying by as the weather gets better. Spring is in the air in Montpellier, and the first blossom is on the trees. I'm off to the hills soon to check out the countryside, the terroir, the soil, and the abundance or lack of water. Gonna plant some chives this week. The days are mostly sunny, but the nights can still be a bit chilly. It feels as if I have a million things to do, and my to do list gets longer every day. Also trying to decide between a mobile phone and a camera, so I can share some pictures. 12 megapixels or WiFi, what would you choose?

Happily I have something in common with most of the very nice French people I have met in the past couple of weeks. My French is as bad as their English, so we speak a variety of Franglais (or would that be franglais?) and somehow we muddle through. Last Friday evening I went to a language exchange in le bookshop where I was one of a handful of native English speakers in the house. It was great fun and, much in demand, I made a number of interesting new contacts, including an ethologist just back from Leipzig, where the chimps speak hardly any Franglais. The Egyptians seem to be saying "Vive la revolution!" at the moment, and I am curious to see how far Mubarak gets in his attempt to shut down the internet. The people will hack their way back to basics, with dial-up modems and CB radio. Like my Franglais it will work and they will enjoy their new found freedom. Here are some hacking tips for my Egyptian readers:
http://pastebin.com/9jJUku77

My new friend Ryan, from Virginia, took me to a lovely little bar, Le Saint Roch, just by the church of Saint-Roch de Montpellier which is my new starting point for the Camino de Santiago, or le chemin de Saint-Jacques as they call it down here. As soon as the weather gets better we plan to walk a short section of it up in the mountains. It is quite cold during the night at the moment and I am drinking lots of hot herbal tea to keep warm and help to get over the flu that I brought with me from Amsterdam.

The first dinner I ate in Montpellier was in a place opposite where Nostradamus studied medicine. This city is steeped in history. Found my land legs quickly and at the moment I am eating far too much of the delicious food here. People are really friendly, and my school French gets me through the day. Found a really cool bookstore le bookshop where I drink a coffee and browse during the afternoon. It is sunny but cold at night, and the fountains are frozen at the moment. Mais c'est très joli ici.

Of late I have been doing a lot of lateral thinking, mostly because the linear sort has had me running around in circles for far too long. Far away from the internet, in the heart of the country, with just books, a Moleskine, and a Waterman's pen for company, I managed to change my perspective, and view things from another angle. To celebrate I have chosen a new template for my personal Posterous, and hope to scribble a few emails, using some of the contents of my notebook, in the not too distant future. I also hope to be able to master the art of writing shorter sentences. Watch this space. Three words. Not bad.

It was a lovely wedding. The sun was shining. The invited guests were assembled on the lawn of 10 Downing Street. London was excited as the Queen's fifth cousin tied the knot with the half Dutch leader of the LibDems, after getting the Monarch's permission to marry. Is it true love or a marriage of convenience? Today nobody seemed to mind as the political map of Britain was redrawn. It was a peaceful revolution, just like the last Dutch one in 1688, and if all the details of the coalition agreement bear fruit, today could have just as many far reaching consequences. Compromise replaces confrontation in the British political landscape. ID cards will be scrapped, there will be no third London Heathrow runway, and there will be a referendum on proportional representation. It has been a most remarkable couple of days. We now have a coalition dedicated to the national interest, in a time of economic crisis. Let's hope that the marriage is as successful as the wedding. David Cameron and Nick Clegg have a tough job ahead. I wish them well. They did look a lovely couple.