My girlfriend and I were living in Zaragoza, Spain , planning to relocate to southwest France, when the pandemic hit. Like a lot of people, we were suddenly trapped and all our future plans put on hold. To make matters worse, Brexit was on the horizon. As British citizens, this would make obtaining residency elsewhere nigh on impossible after December 31st. These paralyzing pincers held us in place but as the end of the year approached and the deadline came into view, we found ourselves feeling increasingly tempted to throw caution to the wind.
Unfortunately, most real estate offices were obviously closed and it was proving difficult to contact anyone. The next problem would be organizing the necessary paperwork to set ourselves up as self-employed and begin the frustrating process of obtaining residency. While chained to a grand piano— a cruel final test of how serious you are about emigrating. However, eventually, things started to fall into place and we booked our Covid tests. When it cries out in the middle of the night a heated discussion ensues about whose turn it is to deal with it.
One of us then begins the process of re-pressurization, releasing its valves while gently cooing words of encouragement. It became a Roman colony back in 36 BC and was an important station on the trade route to southern Spain, but in the thirteenth century, it suffered a horrific massacre. Many refused and the entire population was massacred, some 20, people. Resting high up on a rocky precipice it nobly overlooks the city, offering sublime views of the surrounding vineyards and the Canal du midi.
The jewel in the crown of this engineering feat is the Fonserannes locks on the outskirts of Beziers, a staircase of seven gated basins. And then, on a walk in the nearby countryside one day, I saw some men looking at a pig, like it was the second coming. They explained how their families had searched for them for generations and that it was not just a gastronomic delicacy, but a connection to their past; an essential part of their cultural heritage.
These underground fungi require a strict set of conditions to grow and cannot be cultivated on a large scale. Their smell is unique, their taste unlike anything else, and they are believed by some to be an aphrodisiac.
