Exceptional start to the year I must admit. It seems as if last summer turned to fall and winter got lost somewhere! I am eating an improvised market lunch outdoors today with a bunch of friends and talk is all of global warming, weird weather and so on. Here in Uzes in the Gard, southern France, the locals haven’t seen a winter this mild since 1956. But let’s hope it doesn’t finish up the same way. The warm days of January fooled Mother Nature into thinking it was April. Everything started budding and blooming until a long cold snap put an end to it and destroyed almost all the olive trees in the region. Afterwards, dismayed paysans planted vines instead of olives and were able to do very well for many years selling cheap so-so wine to thirsty consumers.
These days with fierce competition from the new world and changing habits cheap plonk is close to extinction. A winemaker must make great grog in order to survive. Thankfully there are lots of great small producers in Uzege. Young entrepreneurs like Amy Lillard and her husband Matt who moved to the area from Colorado about six years ago. They make a great Cotes du Rhone village after only two vintages. Their place is called Domaine la Gramière (http://lagramiere.typepad.com/) and if you ever get to St. Quentin la Poterie and go for a visit tell them the Wine Ranger sent you. That’s me by the way but that’s another story.
 St. Quentin (we shorten the name all the time out of sheer paresse) is were we live. Just down the hill from the fist Duchy of France, Uzes. Hard to imagine the beautiful facades, the chateau and the winding cobble stoned streets were falling to bits in the 1960’s. But thanks to changing laws and much investment the mediaeval core of Uzes was saved from certain death.
Lets get back to St. Quentin. A great small community of people from all over the world that have taken a liking to the laid back, sunny way of life here. A mix of retired French and assorted northern Europeans with a smattering of Brits, a few Americans and two Canadians. And of course all the St. Quentinois who’ve been here forever. For them we won’t qualify as locals for at least another two generations. But in spite of this everyone seems to get along very well.
There is a word here that is essential to learn as soon as you arrive. And that is normalement. The concept of normalement is not easy for outsiders to grasp. It’s placed at the end of many conversations by artisans, merchants and everyone else. Example: I can come next Monday to fix your smelly toilet, normalement. This means that the said artisan will not be there next Monday. You may see him a day later or a week later or you may never see him again. What this means is you end up learning how to fix a smelly toilet all on your own. I am exaggerating a bit. It takes some getting used to but normalement eventually grows on you.
Did you know that St. Quentin has the coolest butcher shop anywhere? Really. A jolly, rather round guy named Franck runs it and besides making  prize-winning sausages, patés and andouillette (an acquired taste) he knows just about everything about everybody in the village. Franck’s neighbor Kanska decorated the place recently. Hordes of dainty dancing dairy cows and cute little pigs are everywhere. Even a chair Franck keeps on hand for older folks looks like a Holstein with metal legs. Several awards posted by the door attest to prize-winning pâtés and special sausages.  And true enough, Franck specialties are very good but people come back as much for Franck as for the meat. Normalement, you can get in and out in under 20 minutes but it can take much longer. Such is the charm of St. Quentin. Time doesn’t really work here the way it does in the hectic modern world of say New York or Chicago. A quick trip to the market for bread and eggs can take over an hour as you always run into at least four or five friends. A short coffee break with another friend can last a morning. I must assure you that the whole country doesn’t run this way. Most people work in France but they also know how to enjoy life and take the time to be.
 Friday is market day in St. Quentin and I love nothing better than heading out on a fresh morning to meet up with my favorite producers, share a joke or two and feel the buzz of a dying way of life. If all those nasty multinationals get their way we’ll all be eating the same industrial produced crap within a generation. Thankfully there are lots of people in St. Quentin and all over France that are preserving the quality and traditions of old.
Winter is the time the locals reclaim the market, especially the Saturday market in Uzes. I love spending the better part of the morning touching base with old friends. For several years I sold local wines on the market in Uzes, St. Quentin and three other towns. So I always run into people I know and invariably we end up chatting at one the local cafés. Michel for example. He is known all over Provence as the king of accras, those crispy morsels of fried cod. He makes great falafel too and the best brandade or creamy salt cod paste, anywhere. He's a veritable star on the Place aux Herbes. In summer the line-ups are so long I don’t even bother saying bonjour. In winter we catch up. Just opposite is another market legend, cheese vendor Néné le Berger. He has what the French call le bagou, the gift of the gab. He can charm an unsuspecting victim with a mix of silly prose and slightly suggestive claims about the side effects of his excellent ewe’s milk cheese in no time. You end up with more cheese than you could ever consume in a week but the show makes it all worthwhile.
Spending a Year in Provence
 The really exciting news is we are on the move. My wife and three kids (daughter Julie 20, sons Sam, 11 and Simon, 8) decided over a year ago to go back to Canada for a year or so. So I am very busy finding work in Canada and finishing up our house in order to rent.
If any of you are interested in coming to this very special part of France you can check out our place at two addresses:
http://sabbaticalhomes.com/Home_Exchange.aspx (long term rental info)
http://www.maisondesbalais.iowners.net/index.php (vacation rental info)
You might ask yourself why anyone would want to move away from such a fabulous part of the world. Well all I can say is that I love a bit of adventure from time to time. Wishing all of you a healthy and successful year.
Slainte, Joe McLean
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