We have at last decided, I think, what we are about to do with the garden.
Having considered gravel, stone , wood , beaten earth, and various other expensive, shoddy, uncomfortable or inappropriate surfaces on the ground we seem to have gone for the obvious solution, that is the obvious solution in Ireland but not here : Grass.

Then following the various books- inevitably written by British ex-pats- which contain extensive advice on what type of grass to use, we decided to go and have a look at some to make up our minds.
The first decision, easily made, is that we will not attempt to spread grass seed ourselves, a difficult and often unrewarding job in this climate- all the books tell you that you are much better to prepare your ground and then lay sods. (no giggling there at the back)

The French word for these types of sods is Gazons.
It seems we had several distributers of Gazons here in the Languedoc, all offering, according to their websites, a wide variety of different sods with different types of grass.
Without exception each of the nearer ones scoffed when we asked them what type of grass they offered- there was only one, and No, we couldn’t see a sample, they only cut it to order some place else and then we could collect it, sight unseen, but money upfront, at their convenience.
One particularly impressive website seemed to offer us more, the Gazoniere was very close to Montpellier, about 80 klms from us, but I managed to persuade Síle that the journey was worth the effort.

We headed off this morning at 10ish on our journey. Before we left we had decided to make another few calls on the way to the Gazoniere, one to another
turf cutter in Florensac, and one to Pinet to purchase gazillions of Picpoul.

Those errands done we discover that the hour is fast approaching noon, lunch time in France so, like the good French people we have become, we get a little peckish and where better to get peckish that at the edge of the Bassin de Thau, wher the very best Oysters and Mussels are produced. (As God is my judge I had not planned this-well truth to tell it had crossed my mind)
We parked in Bouzigues, which is really a village of seafood restaurants, and then walked up and down, reading menus, for a happy fifteen minutes deciding which one we would honour with the Dwyer presence.
As all of them basically offered the same menu, plateaux of Fruits de Mer, Oysters etc we eventually decided to make our decision purely on price. Most of the set three course lunches were about the €20 mark, one brave man alone Bruno at Restaurant 29, offered one at €14.90.

Well given the limitations of what was on offer we ate there extremely well.
Madame, after a few unpleasant encounters with the bivalve, no longer eats oysters. I thrive on them.
While she tucked into a superb fish soup, with all the cheese, crouton, rouille trimmings, I had a platter of Oysters and Mussels all beautifully served on a bed of cracked ice and seaweed. I chomped and slurped my way happily through them.
For my main course I had a rather luxurious version of Moules Frites as the moules were dressed with an excellent white wine and shallot sauce and Madame had some barely cooked and excellent Swordfish (I bartered some for some of my chips)
With this we drank a typical chilled Picpoul, and then finished with the national dessert of the Languedoc- Creme Catalan-a cross between Creme Caramel and Creme Brulee.
All this with change from €40.00.

We then headed off top our Gazoniere.
Comme Toujours he only had one choice but he was able to offer us a view of the sods he would cut for us- a sufficient enticement for me to want to return and buy from him.

If it hadn’t been for the excellent lunch in Bouzigues one might have thought it a waste of a day.