Voting Day in Canada …. and it is supper time in France!
Hello Canadian friends and family! Get out there and vote 🙂 I voted before I left on vacation and have been waiting to see results …..  
Today I started out early taking Francesco to a meet to catch a ride to Italy. Then back to the villa to wait for the others to rise. I enjoyed the quiet and scenic drive home. In fact fell in love, again, with the tree lined roads. Wow! Several times today I have again enjoyed them. Very close to the villa I go through several miles of them broken up by round abouts … LOTS of roundabouts.
We headed to the beach today … south towards Spain and the border. We did not make it all the way but we did get to Leucate Plage. It was a fantastic beach, big surf and miles of beautiful coarse sandy beach rich with shells and exfoliating sand massaging the feet. The surf was strong and powerful and beautiful. Some people swimming in the sunshine, some playing with families and some flying kites. Not too many people out there – I guess the season is all but over. I would stay here sometime if possible and really explore the area.
There was some delay getting here and we did not get as far south as I would have liked. Partly as we had an injury. Steve shut his right hand in the car door so we searched high and low for a pharmacy with tensor bandage and some antiinflammatory cream – which we found in Leucate town.
After the injury and before the pharmacy we found a town that does not show on my map. Fitou. We stopped at a wine tasting hoping that would help with pain management. They only offered a few sips of different wines so not really much assistance 🙂 Then we took an off road to investigate an old castle looking touristy area. Pretty spectacular and we took pictures and all enjoyed Sangria and some tapas for lunch. I could not partake in either so took pictures of antiques, the view, tapestries, quilts and flowers at the spot we had lunch. Magnificent and funky – like a hippy stop 🙂 forgotten in time. Almost no one there but a warm fire place on inside with big leather and very worn furniture. So fun – we took some time and enjoyed our stop.  
The beach at Leucate was amazing. The wild sea waves crashing in and meeting the coarse sandy / broken shell beach. Magic. I even recorded a video of the sound and motion so I can revisit the experience another time. Shoes and socks off and up to my knees in surf. It was not very cold, in fact, surprisingly comfortable and inviting. Mom collected some shells and small stones and the odd piece of well worn beach glass. It really was magical.