HIDDEN TREASURES
T
ell us your treasures and we may print them....
Today...Trish Walker
A
t the risk of sounding blasé, it is probably safe to say that the acknowledged treasures of the Hérault - the climate, the food, the wine, the scenery - are a given for those of us who live here or visit frequently. That’s not to say that they go unappreciated, but they simply form the background against which our daily lives are led. It’s often the more subtle pleasures that make more impact and make us stop and think how lucky we are to be here. These will be different for each individual, but here are a few ideas to get you thinking about yours. The fact that most people always say hello, acknowledging the presence of another human being in passing is a real feel-good actor. It’s a strange feeling to see a Mohican haircut dressed in an outfit of chains and ripped T-shirt wending its way towards you, only to be greeted with a polite smile and “Bonne soirée, Madame” as it passes. It’s easy to see how this charming habit became so deeply ingrained when you see a class of small children being taken out on a trip, with each child expected to stop and greet each person they pass. It can take quite some time to pass an Lac du Salagou
entire class, but I can think of worse ways of spending my time. When you think about it, our
mairies are remarkable For the next few weeks the area institutions. They will be transformed - the streets sometimes come in for in both towns and villages some stick, and it’s will be full of grape picking probably true that they vehicles. The caves vary from place to place cooperatives will be a scene of in terms of efficiency great excitement as each load and helpfulness. But to of grapes is tipped into the have such a facility right waiting containers and tested on the doorstep, even in for the potential alcoholic quite small villages, has content of that particular to be a huge community load – this is mainly because advantage. Where else could the vignerons are paid by the you go to ask for a bit of cave according to the strength photocopying to be done, of grape juice they produce. I to buy tickets for the local remember once asking at the festivities, to discuss planning local cave how the vendange permission, to report a straying was going and was given dog, to have a drain unblocked, straight from the fridge some to…well the list of what they of the juice from the do is endless. chardonnay grapes picked the In the same way, the service previous day. It was ice cold provided by mobile traders and delicious, a clear taste of enhances life and serves the pleasure to come. This is the community well in rural areas. kind of moment you never In a perfectly ordinary village forget. you can see on a regular weekly basis the vegetable Good manners.....excellent! lady, the cheese man, the horsemeat man, and the seller of shellfish from Bouzigues, the fishmonger and the butcher. Speaking as a grocer’s daughter, I know it’s a huge shame that the advent of the hypermarché has meant that many old-style corner shops have closed, but we are very lucky to still have such a range of services virtually outside our doors and it sometimes seems as if all human life could be sustained in this way. Now, this last one is more of During warmer months, I love a guilty pleasure than a hidden an evening picnic, arriving at gem, but let me share it with a favourite spot at dusk, just as you. What I love about local the sun is going down and after beaches is not just the sun, sea the last of the crowds has and sand but the churros stalls. disappeared? This is truly one There is nothing like sitting on of life’s simple pleasures in the beach munching a bag of the Hérault. The evening still these freshly cooked, crispy, warm, a hush descending, the sugary, doughnutty delights, water still inviting; and as you occasionally dipping them eat your picnic you can into-now here comes a really watch the sunset. shaming admission - a little tub Everyone, locals and of nutella. It’s great! You’re visitors alike, can enjoy covered in sand already so this experience and it’s all you need to do when you’ve easy to find your own finished is to wash the lot off in ideal spot. Mine is at the sea. Would that everything Lac Salagou, but I’m not in life were so simple! revealing exactly where! The Hérault still has Do you have a ‘Hérault many places where life is Treasure’… a neighbour, a centred on wine production. So favourite place or experience? the start of the annual vendange If so, please write to us at: (picking) is a very special time. editor@theheraulttimes.com 8
Herault based, award winning novelist
Fiona talks
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W
ncing
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about...
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Thin
riting a novel was easy. Until I got the first draft down on paper, then I had to learn that two thirds of the writing process is revision. I re-wrote to dramatise certain events, to answer questions from writer friends who read the fledgeling manuscript, and I re-structured the whole thing to reflect the psyche of the protagonist. Writers’ on MA Creative Writing courses in the UK are usually required to keep a journal (alongside writing a novel) reflecting on their writing process. Writing independently I didn’t keep a journal, but struggling to write a second novel, and returning in the same period of time to teaching creative writing, catapulted me into a serious and intense exploration of the process of writing. I went to seminars and presentations, read about other writers’ processes and lots of ‘how to’ books on creative writing. But I have learned most from observing the writers I teach. My conclusions : the successful writer’s process is as much about ways of seeing and being as it is about technique (and writerly ways of seeing and being CAN be learned); a process that works well will achieve a balance between left and right brain thinking, solitude and the kind of social activity (different for every individual) that stimulates writing, between plotting and writing into the unknown, between the adult and the child in the writer. When I begin any project I have lots of abstract ideas and questions in my head, ‘What is love ?’ for example, or ‘How does one create a sense of belonging ? ’ But abstract ideas are more likely to lead to essays than to stories. In practice my writing relies on concrete events, images, objects and characters as starting places. Sometimes I sit down to work knowing I’m going to continue the story from the point at which I left it yesterday. Sometimes I can’t do that, then I write what is in front of me until something comes up. Today it was a light left on in the sitting room of the house next door. Why it stimulated story I don’t know – perhaps the incongruity of it when the day was so light and bright. You can’t tell how your imagination works, but you can trust it.