Changes in 4 years

[SaligoBay]

We've been in this village east of Montpellier for just over 4 years now.

In that short time:

- there's a new lotissement between us and the village, probably adding about 1000 people to the village population.

- house prices have risen by something ludicrous like 65%

- the local cave co-op has built a shiny chrome-and-glass shop to sell the wine from. No more vrac, the cheapest is 7.50 euros for 5 litres baginbox. Quality hasn't changed! We're on some new "route des vignes" or similar touristy thing.

- when I go back to the UK, I no longer feel I'm holidaying in a car showroom, because there's not such a huge difference between the cars here and the cars there any more.

- traffic has increased considerably in that time. Rush hour is rush hour, and is no more fun here than in the UK!

- there's a slow but steady "tarting up" of the area. Nearest small town suddenly has an expensive lingerie shop and a touristy Provenal gifty shop, and the big supermarkets have all modernised inside.

- food. Broccoli in sealed bags, South African grapes in winter, apples from Chile are cheaper than French apples, etc. More "foreign" stuff, Marmite, Bird's Custard, Oleo biscuits, Japanese stuff, weird Italian pasta. And DIPS - how popular are they suddenly becoming!!

Well, that was longer than I was planning it to be!!

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

I envy you your clarity; I had been coming here regularly for eight or nine years previously and so I'm not so sure of when things started to change. Still, in comparison with five years ago it is definitely the case that:
- there are now lots of horses where there were only cows
- this was a tumbledown farm among many, now it's a tumbledown farm among des reses (sp?)
- the whole area is relatively gentrified, lots of lawns & new & done-up houses; supermarket has been taken over by major chain
- village post office has closed
- foreign and English food is far more available as you say
- house prices have risen
- there are lots of randonnes
- the sleepy chemin is relatively busy during the tourist season
- there are a lot more English & Dutch home-owners
- there are a lot more road signs
- the verges are cut more often
I suspect that I've changed a lot too.

[Dick Smith]

We remarked this evening that cafs and restaurants are staying open later than before, and this seems to be due to a change in habit amongst the locals.



Regards

Dick
BONO ANIMO ES