We have been away for a couple of weeks. We went to Sweden and visited friends and relatives. We were very lucky with the weather. Not one drop of rain, which is quite unusual at this time of the year. The short days are a bit frustrating though even if we should be used to it having lived in Sweden all our lives. It is nice to come back to longer days and temperature around 15 ºC during daytime.

The day after we came back we were invited to our American friends for Thanksgiving party. My good what a lot of food; and it was so nice. We really had a good time. There were another American couple and two Irish couples at the party as well. It is amazing that most people who renovate the old houses are from other countries. The locals prefer to build new bungalows in the outskirts of the village.

The foreigners who live here are mostly retired and have found that they get a much better quality of life in France that they do in USA, UK, Sweden or elsewhere. It is a combination of economic conditions, social security, social life and climate and last but not least the quality of food and drinks that makes life better here than many other places.

We went to Narbonne today to buy a few things for our dinner. We decided to eat lunch in Les Halles. We ate at a little bar called Le Zinc. The counter was full of people when we arrived but people just moved together to make place for us and we ordered “bavette”. The barman shouted “deux bavettes” to the butcher next door and after a while a little package with our meat arrived on the counter and was taken care of by the lady who did the cocking. Meanwhile they placed a bottle of wine in front of us and we could serve ourselves as long as we kept track of the number of glasses we pored. The guy next to us started to talk to my wife – he was working for the tax authorities and the two guys on the other side were discussing the excellent wine in our village with me. When I told them I was from Sweden they had to tell an IKEA story. It goes like this:

I lady bought a cupboard from IKEA. She went home and put it together but when the bus passed on the road the cupboard collapsed. Off course she contacted IKEA and they told her in detail how to assemble it again. She did exactly as she was told but when the bus passed the cupboard collapsed again. She rang IKEA again and this time they sent a specialist from the shop that assembled the thing and said that this time it would be all right. But – when the next bus passed the cupboard collapsed again. The guy from IKEA came back and this time he decided to wait for the bus and see for himself what was wrong. He assembled the cupboard and stepped into it to see what went wrong when the bus passed.

While he was standing there the husband came home and he was so happy when he saw the cupboard still standing so he had to look inside and found a man standing there.

-  What the hell are you doing in my wife’s cupboard? he shouted.

-  I am waiting for the bus, said the IKEA man.

Two things are quite interesting. First, there are always rumours that the quality is bad when a company start so sell things less expensive than others do. I wonder who start those rumours. Secondly, a company has really become successful when people start telling stories about them. It does not matter if the stories are true or false, positive or negative, it is still a sign that they have managed to get a position in peoples minds.

I really hope they sell Xmas trees and Swedish ham at IKEA; otherwise I will have a depressing Xmas.

The food we got was excellent and the wine as well. My new friend shared the last of their rose wine with me and the taxman insisted to buy me a Calvados. We also got his business card and he got our telephone number. I would not be surprised if he really calls us as he promised.

Things like that would never happen in Sweden. We would not have got a place at the bar the first time and if we had managed to squeeze us in – which would be very un-Swedish -  we would have pretended the other guests were invisible. If someone had talked to us he would certainly have been drunk or an immigrant that hadn’t passed the course for immigrants in “Adjusting to the Swedish Culture”. They say that one of the tests is to take the “New Swedes” on a ride in an elevator. If they just stare into the wall without saying anything or greeting anyone they will be passed otherwise they have to take the course again.

To round this up, the bar bill was 20 Euros for the two of us. That included wine and coffee.

In the evening we went to Conilhac, Corbières on the last day of their annual Jazz festival. It has been going on for a month now every weekend. We listened to Tania Margarit Quintet – a fusion jazz band that was very good. The main attraction was the famous accordionist Richard Galliano who played music inspired by Astor Piazzola but also modern interpretations of traditional French musette music. The audience and among them many elderly ladies were absolutely thrilled.