Hanging out in Carcassone!

Rene and Jim had very kindly offered to take us along for another day of travel to uncharted territory, but Alan and I decided to stay in Carcassone and enjoy it.  Once we saw the pictures and heard their experiences, of course, we wished we had gone with them. However, we did have a nice relaxing day in a huge walled city!

One reason the day was so relaxed is due to the fact that this part of France takes what appears to be a siesta from 11:30 to 2:30.  Alan and I trudged up the hill to Carcassone with the intention of visiting the Chateau right in the middle of it.  We arrived at 11:15 and noticed the sign that said the Ramparts closed between 11:30 and 2:30.  Since we wanted to see ALL of the Chateau, including ramparts, we decided to wait for 2:30.  There are other ramparts that you do not have to pay for so we wandered up and down and around as much as we could before stopping for lunch in a little, deserted coffee shop.

My delicious French lunch - salad, Croque Monsier and red wine, yum!

The cathedral in the middle of Carcassone is a very peaceful and beautiful place to visit. And on both days we were there, we were lucky enough to be entertained by what we think was a Russian quartet. It was so nice to sit in the cool darkness with the stained glass windows and candles of various saints while listening to such beautiful music. And the acoustics made it sound as if a chior was singing, not just four very talented men.

After lunch, Alan and I wandered back to the Chateau, where loads and loads of people with the same idea all arrived at once. One thing we forgot, this was Saturday!  Not to worry, we enjoyed the Chateau, but after walking all the other ramparts, we decided to skip these since we were getting a bit tired.  After waiting so long to get there when it was all opened, we didn't even go to the part that caused us the delay. Oh well....

With our late start, I was in fear of missing out on Kafe and Kuchen, which is something I very much enjoy regardless of what country we are in.  There are not too many bakeries in the Cite and I was worrying that I would miss out on my last full day here.  But just as we started the return journey, I noticed a display unit with the most beautiful strawberry tarts I have ever seen.  It is called La Vie Dievale.  Since it was getting late and we had coffee in our room, Alan and I decided to take our treats with us.  I became greedy though and, although I had to have that strawberry tart, there was another baked good - the name looked like Jesuit, but I am not sure.  It sort of looked like a pizza slice covered in powdered sugar and almonds.  I got that too.  Since Alan's selection and my tart were already in a lovely little box, I was given the "Jesuit" in a small bag, which I placed with another bag. 

The wind from the Pyrenees can get really mean and we had not realized just how much the wind had picked up in our day of touring Carcassone. The Chateau had a sign about the two different types of wind and the viscious and cold wind coming off the Pyrenees is called "Cers".  I don't remember what the nicer wind is called......However, I did note to myself that we were experiencing Cers.  But knowing this and realizing consequences are two different things.

As we began to leave the walls of Carcassone, Alan offered to take one of the things I was carrying - a bag in one hand and the precious box of baked goods in the other.  I joked that I was well balanced.  Little did I know that just around the corner I was going to pay the price of being greedy - as I turned the corner, a gust of wind caught that precious box and deposited both of our specially selected treats with a splat on the ground.  Alan was extremely nice and did not berate me for dropping his cream slice.  He even offered to cut off the edges and eat it, which he did.  My tart on the other hand was beyond salvation and I had to walk away.  The moral of this story is I am not as well balanced as I claim to be! 

Our last night in Carcassone was fabulous! We met Barbara, Peter, Rene and Jim for a wine tasting at the Vinotheque. In addition to trying out 3 different local wines - one sparkling, one white and one red, we also had delicious cheese to complement the wines.  It was the perfect way to finish a lovely 4 day visit to this area.  We definitely plan on returning!

"The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving."  Oliver Wendell Holmes  1809-1894 

Brie Baguette for lunch

Alan and I must have been acceptable travel companions as we were invited to join Rene and Jim in their adventures once again today!  The plan was not to leave until 12 in order to have some time on our own.

In the morning, Alan and I visited the new part of Carcassone.  It is very pretty, but nothing exceptionally special.  The Canal de Midi is interesting and I had hoped to take a canal boat ride, but time was not on our side.  Since this whole part of France is lovely and easy to get to, as long as Ryanair continues to fly here, I was not too upset to miss the canal. I am sure we will be back.

The four of us planned our day a bit better and the first thing we did was to buy provisions for lunch!  Rene and Jim's hotel is near the shopping area - complete with bakeries.  I got a baguette with brie, walnuts tomato and lettuce. It looked as good as it tasted!

Our first stop was the Abbaye de Caunes Minervois, where we had our picnic lunch on the side of what looked like a canal before visiting the actual abbey.  There is a "passport" you can purchase for 2 Euro and it gives you 1 Euro off the 20 various sites in this area.  We had already used it for the 2 castles we saw yesterday, so we were well in profit!  The abbey was also included in this passport.  I, personally, was not very impressed with the cloisters, etc.  It was a much more modern feeling abbey than I have ever seen and did not feel comfortable and cozy, which is what cloisters and abbeys usually feel like to me. 

The attached church had an altar with martyrs and their relics displayed. Across from it was sort of wooden stage like things.  We all began to wonder what these were for  and then we realized - they were for the ceremonial processions on holy days to carry the Martyrs!  Sure enough we looked further and discovered pictures of these processions.  And we also found how you can access the back of the altar and get these relics out without distrubing the church.  I don't associate religious processions down the street as French, but we are so close to Spain that it is possible some traditions have crossed borders.

Enough culture then, off to find ice cream!  On the way we stopped too many times to count to take pictures.  This is one huge hazard of being in a car, in an interesting place, with Alan.  But Rene and Jim were very gracious. So much so that I noticed Jim taking lots of pictures too.  Was he just being polite?  After all they did ask us back today and would be aware of Alan's picture taking fetish!  Could it be that after all these years of me suffering with Alan stopping to take pictures at every bend in the road, that he is actually normal?  All these questions!

When you can't beat them, you have to join them and I also have a really nice camera.  On this trip I took loads of pictures of flowers, but today I mainly concentrated on the beautiful Irises blooming all along the roads.  I was especially aware of Irises becuase I had left one just about to bloom in Scotland.  I bought it 3 years ago at a plant stall. All I knew was it was a bearded Iris.....no blooms since then until now. As we were leaving our house on Wednesday, there it was just ready to bloom and I was afraid I would not see it!  Hence, photos of Irises.  (when I got home it was fine and stunning!  I still can't decide if it is brown or a deep shade of purple! Many thanks to Martin for taking pictures of it just in case it did not last long enough for me to see!)

French Iris

My Iris

Finally found ice cream at a pub in Mazument!  It looked really odd to order cones from a pub, but the ice cream was fabulous. I got a dark chocolate and coffee cone.  (dark chocolate ice cream is wonderful!)

Time to mention the other couple we know who were also on the plane on Wednesday!  Barbara and Peter - Barbara is Lynsey's mother.  Lynsey is my son's girlfriend!  I was looking forward to spending some time with them while we were on this trip, but time was slipping away so quickly.  So I organized for the 6 of us to meet for dinner!  And we had a great time.  Even though no one knew each other very well, we all seemed to gel nicely.  Any onlooker would have assumed it was a gathering of old friends.  I don't know what possessed me, but I ordered something safe - lasagne!  Not like me, but nothing really stood out on the menu and I was craving pasta.  However, Peter ordered salmon and then very kindly shared it with me when I saw his and almost cried!  Alan and Rene got chicken and chips and it looked so good, Alan and I came back to this restaurant the next evening so I could order it!  Topping off the dinner with a Grand Marnier crepe and Calvados!

The only other time I tried Calvados was actually in Carsassone, about 50 yards from where we were sitting.  Mom and I had shared a book that she thought was good, and I really, really hated.  I think it was called Arc de Triomphe and was about a German doctor who was in hiding in France during WWII.  All I could remember about the book was he and his girlfriend drank alot of Calvados.  While Mom and I were travelling together 33 years ago, the subject of this book came up and I told her how I struggled through it.  We laughed, but decided we really had to try Calvados.  It is a sort of apple brandy.  Well, I didn't like it 33 years ago, and with more mature tastes this time around.....I still didn't like it!!!

View from bridge going into Carcassone

Two different types of tripods! 

The actual colors on this bridge are not this brilliant, I was just lucky.

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."   St. Augustine

A Day in the Pyrenees

On our first full day in Carcassone, we did what we usually do – jump in  a car and explore!  However, the car  was not our’s!  Rene and Jim invited us to join them in exploring the Pyrenees, which are not too far away from Carcassone.  Rene had been told about a village called Rennes le Chateau, and that was our first stop.  There was not a Chateau, as I expected, but it was  a darling village on a mountain top. The tower was closed, unfortunately, but it was a wonderful place. There is a little church there, which is beautiful. But the best thing was the coffee shop, called Le Jardin de Marie.  We sat outside and enjoyed cafe noisette and apple tart while listening to David Bailey play the piano.  Apparently, he is famous and the information says he has played for the late Queen Mother and the Royal Family in Windsor.  It was very pleasant to sit there with good company and good food.  But we could not relax too long as there were miles to go and chateaus to see!

Our next stop was the top of a mountain and a castle called Puilaurens, which is a "spectacular citadel in the Aude Pyrenees region.  In the heart of unspoilt mountain country.  Perched at nearly 700 metres, it has a wide range of defensive architecture on show."   It had one Michelin star and we thought it would be interesting to see it.  Once we parked the car though, there was a pathway to get to it.  This pathway was practically straight up.  Usually in a situation like this, I come up last. For some reason, I was not born with uphill gears and I really do struggle.  I was pleasantly surprised to realize Rene travelled uphill at the same speed!  The view on top was spectacular and well worth the sore muscles that were starting to complain a bit.

This reminded me of driving through Zion National Park

Alan, Rene and Jim

Puilaurens almost blends in totally at the top

Inside the Chateau walls

the views at the top were spectacular!

When we arrived back at base, we enjoyed a picnic of tangerines, cherries and breakfast bars! This was the total food we all had in the car!  Little did we know this was about all we were going to eat until dinner time. 

In our travels to the next destination, we passed a few villages, each very cute and with different things to make them special. But my favourite was Cucugnan because it had an old fashioned windmill. 

Cucugnan

Our next stop was Peyrepertuse Castle at Duilhas.  "Hugging a limestone outcrop which peaks at 800 metres."  Another chateau on an even higher mountain top!  It had 3 michelin stars so we hoped the path would not be so strenuous.  It was not meant to be, this path made Puilaurens look like a warm up!  In fact, this path started up the mountain by going down, which is not really a good sign!  The path was so rough that Rene and I ended up rock climbing - thinking we were on the right path!  We hit a dead end, looked back and realized we had made a big mistake.  When I say "we"  I mean "me".  Poor Rene was following me at this point.  However, once again, this was spectacular and even better than our first chateau.  I think this would have rivalled Carcassone in its day.  Peyrepertuse is divided into three parts and must actually sit on the summit of more than one mountain.  At least it feels that way.  I managed to visit 2 of these, but the third is accessible by a stairway to heaven.  This stairway looked so steep and forbidding there was no way I felt comfortable trying it. But the other three explorers managed it just fine....

Peyrepertuse Chateau

a different view of Peyrepertuse

the stairs that stopped me in my tracks!

On the way home we ended up in Perpignan! This might seem like a long way back to Carcassone, but it was a very lucky break for us!  We were hungry after surviving on fruit and breakfast bars the whole day.  We parked the car in this thriving town and wandered up and down looking for something – and we found it!  We walked down a side street called Lazare Escarguel and there were two restaurants virtually side by side in the tiny street.  Jim was looking at the menu of one, and having difficulty translating it. Being fluent in French this surprised me! But a server came up and spoke to us.  Then he explained that this was a Corsican restaurant!  No wonder Jim did not know exactly what the menu said! We were all intrigued and decided to eat there.  And it was fabulous!  I don’t remember ever having such a good meal.  Jim ordered a Corsican wine, at 28 Euro, this was quite a risk, being a dry, white wine. But it was magnificent and I would order it again myself.  High praise from someone who prefers red wine.

The restaurant was called Pitcholina and I would hope anyone reading this and finding them selves in Perpignan would go!

“Boy, those French. They have a different word for everything.” – Steve Martin

Carcassone

Alan and I have flown away to France for a few days!  Although Alan is retired, he took a summer job, so we are not getting a big summer holiday this year.  Luckily, Ryanair had a great deal and we jumped at it, so did half the population of Ayr!  Apart from travelling with the Guides to Switzerland, I have never been on a plane where I knew so many people!

Mom and I visited Carcassone 33 years ago!  We went on a fabulous bus tour of France.  I was very lucky because Bob could not go and I was able to travel on his ticket.  We visited all kinds of wonderful, off the beaten track, places in France.  One of those was Carcassone.  Which is very photogenic, something Alan is rather partial to!

Memory is such a fragile thing, and can be very frustrating. I really do remember being here and I recognize the skyline.  How could anyone forget that?  But that is all I remember. So it is like being here for the first time myself.

There are two couples here that we know a bit better than anyone else on the flight.  One is Rene and Jim Andrews, who attend the same church and whose granddaughter is one of my Rangers.  We really did not know them very well, but offered them a lift to the airport.  Martin’s girlfriend’s mother and her partner also flew to Carcassone today.  We have seen them a few times and hope to have dinner together while we are here.  

Since we got up at 4am and spent the day walking around Carcassone, plus having to wait for the hotel to open again at 3 so we could get in, we are really tired tonight.  But it has been a great day, wandering and looking at all the beautiful buildings.  We also saw what we thought was an otter, but on closer look, thanks to the wonders of powerful camera lenses, we think it looks more like a beaver, but its tail is wrong.....

In our wandering, we stumbled upon the most beautiful and amazing dried fruit shop. When we were offered a taste of the dried strawberries, we were hooked and then filled a bowl with melon, pineapple, strawberries and cherries.  Then we realized how expensive this was!  For about 6 Euros we got 10 pieces of fruit! 

I also discovered a cookie store, which is beautiful. We got a free sample there, but I controlled myself and did not buy any cookies. (yet)

“When you come to a fork in the road….take it” – Yogi Berra

Highlands and Islands

Loch Lomond from Firkin Point

Alan and I were invited to spend a weekend with Jim and Jennifer in Tarbert. Scotland is such a funny place when it comes to lack of straight roads and Lochs everywhere, that it would have taken normal people about 4 hours to get there. If we could go in a straight line, Tarbert is just a bit north of Arran and we think it would take about 2 hours. But without a boat, this is impossible!  Lucky for me, we could not go until Saturday, so there was no conflict with me watching the Royal Wedding!

We sauntered up the road and stopped numerous times to take photographs. Anytime we go anywhere, we take pictures. Alan has been known to stop every 10 feet until someone (meaning me) stops him! So we left Ayr at 8am and got to Jim and Jennifer's caravan about 4:30 pm!  I know this sounds like I am complaining, but I also have a camera and take pictures!  (If you can't beat them, join them!)

Inverary on Loch Fyne



On the way, we stopped for a very short time in Inverary.  This is a darling place and we have spent alot of time in Inverary, but today, it was a short 20 walk  up and down the main street.

A short history of Inverary -  In 1770 the Fifth Duke of Argyll rebuilt the entire town in a more pleasing manner.  To this day, the beauty and symmetry continues, although the buildings are beginning to show their age.  I think the town continues to be owned by the Duke. 

Loch Fyne

Inverary Castle - home of the 13th Duke of Argyll, who is also Chief of the Clan Campbell

Alan and I had spent a weekend with Jim and Jennifer last year in the same area. It was the first time we had seen the Crinan Canal, which goes for Ardrishaig to Crinan.  On this journey, we drove from one end to the other and had lunch on the side of the canal.  I think it must be one of the shortest, if not the shortest, canals.  Lunch was very peaceful, no boats went by while we were there.  Most of the locks are not automatic and it looks like really hard work to get your boat through!

Our next stop before arriving at our destination was the shore opposite the Isle of Jura.

When we got to the caravan, Jim and Jennifer were sitting on the deck in the sun.  It was a lovely welcome!





On Sunday, Alan and I took the ferry to the Isle of Islay.  Being Sunday, we knew it was a gamble because the islands are known for being much more religious, with even ferry service not running until recently.  And it was even worse than we imagined, absolutely everything was closed!  Not even a place to buy a bottle of water!  But it was beautiful and we had a nice walk along gorse lined roads.  We got to the nearest distillery to the ferry - Caol Ila.  I loved it anyway, I have always wanted to see the Scottish islands, so hopefully the is only the beginning!

Gorse lined road on Islay

Ferry between Islay and Jura

Alan had to work on Monday, so we got up early to get ready to leave.  This was the day it was announced that Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals in Pakistan!  It was a wonderful, patriotic feeling for me and a huge relief for the world, I hope!  It is almost a week later now and very disappointing how so many  Americans put a negative spin on something they should be proud of.  If any other President had accomplished this after so many years of the world searching for this man, it would have been shouted from the roof tops how good the President was.  But not for President Obama.  After the initial wave of joy and respect for him, the narrow minded Americans searched for ways to discredit him.  Now saying it was not Osama and all other kinds of things.  Why can't we just live together and respect each other's differences?  It is so depressing for there to be this underlying hate and suspicion in the certain aspects of US citizens of people that don't think exactly like they do.



"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened." Cora Harvey Armstrong

Our Celebration of the Royal Wedding

Our version of a wedding cake!

Call me silly, but the closer the wedding day of William and Kate got, the more excited I got!  I even bought bunting and matching paper plates and napkins!  (they were the Union Jack with a heart in the middle, I also forgot to use them!)  I have very fond memories of a formal slumber party with my female colleagues from Butler Shoes in Atlanta.   We brought our best nightgowns, got up at 3am, toasted Charles and Diana with Mimosas (or Buck's Fizz depending on what country you live in) and ate beignets.  It was one of those magic memories, even though we had to leave for the drive to work before Charles kissed Diana.

This time around, it was a smaller occasion which seemed odd.  But many people in Scotland were not as excited about the wedding as other countries.  In fact, mine was the only house on the street with bunting, and there was no chance of a street party.  (sadly, there was a street party in Glasgow that ended in violence and deaths. Not good advertising for Scotland) 

My friend, Sue, and I decided on a menu for our "wedding lunch".  She was bringing Salmon Wellington for Mom and me, and Beef Wellington for Alan.  I provided the starter, which was a selection of salads from Marks and Spencers. And for dessert - cupcakes!  I was really pleased with my cupcakes and used them as the centrepiece!

With Alan's job having such an early start, he went to bed really early and I just got more and more carried away with preparations!  Complete with polishing silver at midnight!  I used wine glasses Martin gave me ages ago, which I had never used, chilled champagne and used my best dishes, so the table looked wonderful when I finally forced myself to go to bed.  (days later I discovered the paper plates I bought.  They are so specific to the wedding I will have to wait maybe to celebrate the first anniversary!)

Toasting the couple after our wonderful lunch

The wedding itself was wonderful, with the bride looking as beautiful and happy as possible.  We all watched every moment of it. Even Alan watched, but mostly in a different room. Our enjoyment was probably just a bit too "female". 

After missing the last Royal kiss in 1981, I loved the headline on the next day's paper ( I don't remember which paper though)  -

"After waiting years for a Royal kiss, two come by at once!"