Photos from France (Mhari)

Minerve, France

A cold day in Carcassonne

Like my torch?

Paris metro.

More From UK (Mhari)

(Mhari)
 I have decided to update you all about how I have been doing with my leg and life in general.  I am now walking without crutches.  I can bend my knee well past 90.  My knee doesn't hurt so I think that's pretty good. Christmas was really fun and it is almost the new year  (Yay, more parties) though that means that mom and Sam will be leaving soon (wahhh).
I would also like to inform you that the time when people went to my blog the most was September ( I geuss school has slowed blog reading down) My blog was visited 450 times in one month. (crazy!).

Some photos from France (Sam)

A cave in Minerve

I love French pastries

The Pompidou center fountains were turned off for the winter

Merry Christmas

Carcassonne fire show and torch walk December 4th:

Johns folks' table before we set up for the Christmas dinner.

(John) Yes we borrowed it from the Louvre for the occasion.  It's just gone midnight here and technically it's boxing day.  As usual I ate too much Christmas dinner so now I'm planning to go for a good long walk in the morning but I probably won't because there is lots of good stuff on the telly and there are still some brandy snaps left.  Besides I'll be seeing the whole family tomorrow and that should be fun.  The temperatures are set to hit -10 tonight and I have to admit the Brits are starting to take it all in their stride.  The media are still excited but normal people are just getting on with it.  Did you know CD cases make great ice scrapers?  Merry Christmas.

Photos from Barcelona

I'm putting in a few photos from Barcelona: Characters on Las Rambla; Gaudi building; Statue at Sagrada Familia; Les enjoying the novel bench; Market stall off Las Rambla; 

The Inn/Out hostel in Barcelona: Our bunks;

Torch Walk from Carcassonne

We walked from the Narbonne gate, through the old cite, out another gate and over the old bridge to the Bastide St Louis, to some square in the old part of the main city.  It was great fun especially as we were right behind a Samba band. (Dec 4)

(Lesley) As  you can see we now have access to a computer and our pictures.  We can go online and post some.  I haven't quite figured out how to quickly shrink them for posting but I will work on that and become an expert soon enough. 

 I did the annual shortbread baking this morning.  John and I then ran some errands in town and Sam went sledding.  Mhari worked on her calligraphy and wrote labels for Christmas presents which we later wrapped with easy fill Christmas bags.  We are approaching being ready for Christmas and are all getting rather excited.  We may be too busy over the next two days to Blog so for now I will leave you all with wishes for a very merry Christmas.  Enjoy the feast and the festivities.  Take care, relax, put your feet up and enjoy each others company.  We will check our e-mail and have already enjoyed hearing news from friends and family. Bye, Lesley        

England (Sam)

(Sam)  Well, we have been having a lovely break relaxing with our family in England. I am finished my Christmas shopping and cannot wait until the big day. My sister went to a physio appointment the other day, she is allowed to take off the brace, move it around, and do a bit of walking with crutches. Generally good news. Today I went sledding with my cousin Adam, or "sledging" as it is called here. We went to two hills, the first was less crowded, but the second was twice as big and very steep and icy. At the the top of the second hill there was a garbage bin full of broken sleds, very eery. It reminded me of scenes in Indiana Jones movies where he steps into a cave or something and looks down and sees a skeleton. We have been getting a lot of snow here (a lot of snow for England anyways) and having a good time.

Behind you!

(John) 4 days until Christmas and we are now starting to laze around.   I thought I might try and fill in some gaps from the last couple of weeks.  Our journey back to England from the UK was only complicated by Mhari's accident. We had reviewed the forecast and decided to take an earlier ferry.  This turned out to be a good decision as the snow returned to northern France on the day we were due to leave.  The Uk then got hit quite badly with snow and sub freezing temparetures on friday and saturday.  So we did well to miss the chaos on the roads that inevitably happened.  In fact we had a great trip form Dunkirk to Leamington.  We almost missed the ferry because we turned the wrong way out of Dunkirk and were halfway through Belgium before we realised.  Lesley and I had been rowing about something and we had missed the turn to Calais.  Then passport control at the terminal took an interest in our lifestory and asked a hundred questions.  I think they needed something to do.  We also had our trunk/boot searched three times.  The ferry was fun with our invalided daughter.  We let the ticket taker know at the terminal that we had a passenger who could not handle stairs easily and who would need to be able to open the car door wide to get out.  We were given special consideration and able to drive on at the head of the queue with our warnings lights flashing indicating that we needed to be in the handicapped zone.  We then had lots of room and were parked right outside the lifts.  Inside the ferry we put Mhari on a couch in the bar and told her not to go anywhere while we went in search of really big cups of tea and coffee - it's funny what you miss. 

The weather in the UK has been very cold - for the UK - and snowy - 4 inches fell on saturday.  Needless to say chaos on the roads and in all public transport networks.  Our carols at Warwick castle were cancelled but last night my parents treated us all to the Pantomime - Cinderella at the Coventry Belgrade.  It was an absolute classic, all the usual panto conventions were used - oh no they weren't - oh yes they were. My favourite joke of the night was - He attacked me with a pound of butter and a pint of milk - How dairy!  Bu dum dum tshh.   But the star was the costume designer.  The ugly sisters dresses were fantastic, as good as anything you would see in Rio at Mardi Gras.  Mhari managed OK with her leg.  Although I'm not sure how the lady in front of her felt about having a leg on her shoulder.  What was fun is that everyone in the audience knew exactly what to do, as in when the villain hides behind the hero and we all shout "behind you".   As at all panto's there is a spot at the end when kids get to be invited up on stage and interviewed by the comedic star of the show.  One little girl was asked if her mummy drank a lot - she admitted that she did. 

Leamington and the NHS

(John) It is nice to be back in Leamington and soaking in the festive atmosphere.  It was quite attractive this morning in the new fallen snow.  Mhari saw another doctor this morning, that will be the fourth.  An MRI is being scheduled for three weeks from today and the advice is too start to move the joint slightly to keep her knee from siezing and to otherwise keep using the brace unless she is intending to stay in one place for a while.  They think she has an injury to her ACL (Anterior Cruceate Ligament) and the swelling will take a long time to go down.  She will certainly not be able to fly as planned to India.    At this stage we won't know the extent of the injury until the MRI scan is done, but it will be at least six weeks before she can travel.  So we might decide that she and I stay put in Leamington while she recuperates and Lesley and Sam will continue on to India where hopefully we will be able to join them in February.  Or we may come up with another plan altogether. 

UK (Mhari)

I am writing this from a couch which is quite very nice.  The only setback is that my leg is in a brace and I have a pair of crutches beside me.  Our last week in France was nice, other than the last few days, which I suppose you know about already.
Since we have arrived in England things have calmed down a bit.  It is still Christmas time so there is that excitement to contradict the calm. 
I just beat my dad at Gin Rummy.  I was winning by almost 300 points.  Yeah!  In the end I won 7 hands and he won two.  I won with around 200 points.  He got better and I got worse as we played.

Back in the Uk

(Lesley) We are back in the UK, at John's folks', enjoying the comforts of home.  We are done eating French pastries and back onto healthy, lovely, home cooked meals.  Mmmm.  Mhari is resting up, as she has injured her knee and can't put any weight on her left leg.  She has seen two French doctors and will see a specialist tomorrow, here in the UK.  We are hoping her injury is muscular in nature and not something involving ligament damage or a bone fracture. She is wearing a brace and has crutches.  Ann and Stanley even managed to find an old wheelchair that used to belong to Nanny, so Mhari can be pushed around a bit if needed, although she is sticking pretty close to home these days.  We were skating in Arras, France, which went well, but after the skate while changing back into her shoes Mhari stood up with the skates on, but undone, and she did a big flip, turn, lurch style fall blowing her knee out in the process.  It hurt.  Needless to say that after that everything slowed down a bit and we came back to the UK a day earlier than planned. 
Mhari is in fine spirits here and is not complaining in the least.  She has pain pills if needed, a warm cozy bed, as well as lots of attention.  John and I are sorting out plans: what to do next and reimbursement claims.  We also went out and purchased a small notebook computer to use.  It is nothing like our dearly beloved Mac, but it will suffice for now and well, quite frankly, it is cute.  It is blue! ... and small, portable, and far less valuable.
Sam is taking everything in his stride.  He went out in town today for a little shop, he is enjoying the break from the hard core travelling and…well, I think he misses the Paris Brest pastries but...
John will probably add something soon to the blog as he had been taking some notes our last few days in Paris

Paris and back to England (Sam)

Well if you have read my parents' blog you will know that we had a hard time getting into Paris. I'm not going to talk too much about it, but basically there was a big snow storm and we were stuck in the worst traffic jam in the history of Greater Paris. Read my parents blog for details. Other than that our time in Paris was good. Some of the highlights were, visiting the Louvre, the Museum of Modern Art and the Christmas market on the Champs Elysees. With a few days to spare before our ferry to England we headed to Arras. If you have been following the blog you will know that the last time we were in Arras we did not have the best time. It was no different this time. We tried to find a computer to use but were told we had to come back with our Mastercard in 2 hours. So we went to the Christmas market and decided to go skating on the rink that they had set up. The skating was fun but when we were done and undoing our skates, Mhari forgot that her skates were undone, stood up and hurt her knee. At first it hurt a lot and then it slowly got a bit better she could put a bit of weight on it during the walk to the car but then it just slowly got worse. That night it was so bad that we took her to the hospital. The doctor said that she thought it was a fracture but she had to come back tomorrow to visit the specialist. He said that it was not a fracture but that she had popped her knee out instead and should imobolize it for three weeks. Then he looked at it further and said that in three weeks time she should get an MRI because of possible ligament damage. Luckily, we are in England now, safe and sound with our family.

Return to Paris

(John) So after a fun packed few days on Carcasonne including the amazing torch walk through the medieval cite at night with half the townsfolk and then ice skating the next day in the central plaza, we headed north to Toulouse.  We hit the city during rush hour and ended up in the middle of a Christmas market so we parked and explored.  Later, we found our hotel which was great and cheap with a superb concierge. 
Next day we toured through the Dordogne region and went to Rocamadour.  This gorgeous town built into the cliffside was all but empty of people and being fixed up in many areas but we still got to see the Black Virgin in the church.  After we left Rocamadour, the rain started.  It poured all the way to Brive where we had booked into the youth hostel.  The rivers all along were swelled and many places were obviously flooding.  However we arrived dry and safe and the hostel was not bad.  We had a small balcony off our room and a view into the broad windows of the local public baths if it hadn't been for the storm we might have been fooled into thinking we are at a resort.  The kitchen was all but outdoors but we used it anyway. 
In the morning, we took our time leaving Brive and explored the town.  We arrived in Vierzon around 5:00 and met our old friends, the staff, who had looked after us so well the last time we were there. It was fun to be back in Vierzon.  The hostel was not quite so empty this time there were two other residents.  One was a rather sad Frenchman who complained that the French have a bad attitude at this time of year, and the other was a young woman who we saw using a translating to device to try and figure out how to cook her prepackaged dinner.
The next day the fun began.  We drove north toward Paris in heavy rain.  We stopped for lunch for an hour just 40 miles south of our eventual destination - the Clichy Hostel.  It should have taken us 1:30 hours from there.  It took over 7 hours!   What happened?  Snow happened.  The weather started to deteroirate right around 2pm and did not let up until around 8pm.  We found ourselves stuck in traffic and at one point stuck and spinning our crappy tires trying to drive up a gentle slope.  Lesley and Sam pushed us up past many other wheel spinning, stuck and abandoned and cars and trucks.  Mhari wanted to help but was ordered to stay in the car.  We found a parking lot, parked and went in search of a hotel knowing that if we encountered any more hills we were truly screwed.  We tried four hotels; they were all full.  So we sought advise from some friendly locals and decided to keep going.  The roads had improved as salt had been put down and we were told to take the autoroute.  At this point we had 20 miles to travel and it was 4:00 pm.  We arrived at the hostel at 9:15pm.  We learned later that it was the worst traffic jam in Paris' history. Thousands were stranded and thousands more spent the night in their cars.  All hotels were full.  The trains and buses were not running and the metro was very slow. 
The rest of out time in Paris has been great.  Lesley had a birthday, amongst other things we went to the Louvre and got our Visa's for India - yay!

Brive (Sam)

Last night we stayed in a hostel in Brive. Today we were driving out of Brive, when I opened the Lonely Planet and read that Brive had a big market today. When we turned our heads we could see the market just over the river so we decided to go. We didn't buy much, just some pears, some apples and two pain aux raisins. Then we went to the centre of town and my dad and I walked around a bit while my mom and sister bought slippers.

Toulouse (Sam)

Before we left Carcassonne, we went to the skating rink downtown for an hour of skating. Despite being Canadians we were not the best skaters there. That afternoon, we drove to Toulouse, the fourth largest city in France. We went to the huge Christmas market that was full of people and had lots of tasty treats. I got a hot chocolate that was super thick, and a hot sandwhich with lots of onions. Later we went to the Capitole which had tons of paintings on the ceiling and lots of paintings by Henri Martin which were good too. There was a huge romanesque basilica that I wanted to see but it was getting late so we went back to the hotel. Today we drove through the Dordogne and stopped at a town called Rocamadour that is built into the side of a cliff. My parents said that when they went before I was born and there were tourists everywhere and you could barely move. We had the place to ourselves.(By the way, I have put a new recipe on the recipes page)

Carcassonne

(Lesley) Well, well, well we are back in Carcassonne.  We were still undecided as to which route we were going to take to go north so the news of snow storms helped us decide to stay south a bit longer.  We thought of going up via Toulouse and that afforded us an easy stop in Carcassonne.   So we drove by Queribus and Peyrepertuse and got permission to re enter to take some photos after explaining that we had lost our recent unsaved ones that were only on the stolen computer.  We ran up those cliffs, as it was just after 2:00 when we got to Queribus and we wanted to get all the way to Carcassonne that night.  It was fun going back; we were pleased to get the opportunity to do it.  We took a different route out and drove through another awesome gorge.  I ll add the gorge name later.  And of course photos too. I ll add those once we replace our computer.  Boy, I m going to have new appreciation for a querty keyboard. The Azerty is hard to use.  We caught some festivities here in Carcassonne.  The torch walk last night was a lot of fun.  I can t imagine getting away with that in Winnipeg, fire hazard or what?, but people were very careful.  I can t wait to post some pictures of it but that may take us a few weeks as there is no way I m buying an azerty keyboard computer here in France. 

Barcelona to Carcassonne (Sam)

Last day in Barcelona
Today we went to the science museum. They had all sorts of cool stuff and I am not even going to try to explain how they worked. The section on illusions was good and the section about Issaac Newtons laws was nice because I understood how it worked.

Goodbye Barcelona
On our way back up through France we were passing through Languedoc anyways so we figured we might as well stop and get back some of our photos (they are on the computer). We stopped at Queribus and Peyrepertuse and had a quick visit (read about Queribus and Peyrepertuse on my parents or my sisters blog. I had a blog about them all typed out but it is on the computer that the baddies got).

We stayed the night in Carcassonne and found out that they were having a big festival this weekend so we booked an extra two nights. Last night there was a big torch walk. We and about 1000 other people held big torches and walked through the city. Lots of people were dressed in Medival costumes and we got the best spot, right behind the percussion band playing samba music. It was tons of fun. Today we will see if we can go skating on the rink they have in the center of town. Of all the things I thought I might do in southern France, skating was not one of them. There was also a fire show last night. There was one guy who just walked around with a flaming torch and every once in a while he would fill his mouth with gas and spray it on the flame creating a big fire ball. I couldn t believe he was doing this, especially at 1.50€ a litre.

Gaudi and Picasso (Sam)

Monday
Today we started the day off with a visit to the Canadian Consulate where we met more people who had been robbed. On our way to the metro stop we saw Casa Batllo, a famous building designed by Gaudi, a world famous architect and Barcelonian superstar.(click on the word "Gaudi" or the word "Casa Batllo" for more info). We took the metro to Gaudi most famous work, "La Sagrada Familia". The architecture is so advanced and so detailed that it has been under construction since 1882 and is only between half and three quarters of the way done. Every inch of the outside is covered in statues; from a distance it looks as if it is melting. The inside is not as detailed but it is vast and innovative in design. Fully worth the small fortune it cost to get in. In continuing with our Gaudi theme we went to Parc Guell. Designed to be a suburb community for the wealthy, the project was scrapped and turned into a public park. Very impressive and a nice place for a stroll.

Tuesday
We woke up to pouring rain and decided to stay indoors and visit some museums. We spent about 30 minutes looking for the Picasso Museum, so much for our staying indoors plan. They had hid it in a small alley. Despite all that it was only 9 euros for the entire family and well worth the money. When you think Picasso you think cubism, it turns out that he was much more than that and Cubism was only one of his phases. One of my favourite parts was a room full of variations of a single painting. For the rest of the day we wandered around, went to two different markets, ate Tapas for lunch and, following their 5-0 win against real Madrid, I bought an FC Barcelona cap.

Gaudi Stuff

(Lesley) Yesterday we went to the Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell, as well as toured around Barcelona.  The Sagrada was neat to see.  I preferred the inside to the outside.  The outside was a bit much for my tastes.  There was a display showing  how the building techniques and structures related to nature and  that part helped me make sense of some of the unusual or bizarre aspects to the architecture.  It was quite cold inside though.  I certainly wouldn't worship there without a down sleeping bag with foot holes. However, the same can be said of most of the cathedrals we visited in France too.  That's the thing about off season travel; it is COLD.
Parc Guell was lovely.  We enjoyed taking the bus there and had a nice walk around.  We went into Gaudi's house and saw some of the furniture he designed too.  Unusual but pleasing.  We found a great bakery that was a snack shop too and had lovely eats in a smoke free environment (very difficult to find in Spain).  I ordered a hot chocolate and we watched the lady unwrap a big bar of chocolate put it in a double boiler and melt it, then pour it into a mug.  It was delicious! Ok I may be embellishing slightly here but if that wasn't pure melted chocolate I don't know what it was.  It certainly wasn't just chocolate powder and warm milk. I may yet move to Spain.
Actually not.  We met more people today who were robbed.  I think we are counting them on two hands now and we have only been here for 3 days.  We are regretting our stupidity in having pulled over on Sunday and we miss our computer but we have our wits about us and are back on our game.  The south of France and the layed back gite life must have dulled our brains or our senses.
Today, (Tuesday) we went to the Picasso museum, saw the Barcelona Arc de Triomph and ate a tapas lunch. We also went to the market and drank more melted liquid chocolate at the chocolate museum. It was wet today, though.  Rain, but with the milder weather here, it is manageable.  We were starting to get really cold in the massif centrale in France.

Barcelona day 2 (Sam)

After that bad start to Barcelona and a bad nights sleep (the rooms were boiling hot), we were not very inclined to wake. But we had to eat and be out of the rooms by 10 am. We took the suburban train to Plaça de Catalunya. We found the Canadian consulate but it was Sunday and therefore closed. We headed to La Rambla, a world famous boulevard. It was crowded and we had heard that there were lots of pickpockets. Despite this it still retained a fun atmosphere. There were human statues all over the place and souvenir shops full of keychains, postcards and various FC Barcelona products. When the street ended at the port we took a little break, watched a boat try to park and soaked in the atmosphere a bit. We walked back up through Barri Gotic (the old quarter) and went back to the hostel to relax.

A bad start to Barcelona

(John) We decided to take the coastal road into Spain.  It was a lovely drive Sam likened it to the sea to sky highway to Whistler except a la Mediterranean.  The next part is not easy to write as we are still somewhat traumatized and embarrassed by what happened next.  We joined the motorway to Barcelona and were doing fine we were minutes from our junction to get off and head to find our beds when a seemingly nice Spanish couple urgently flagged us down, there was some problem with our tire.  NOT.  The next minute went by in a whirl.  Basically we were seriously conned.  The man got out of his car and got my attention on one side of the car while also distracting Lesley who stayed in the car with the children but was looking backward for the problem.  The next thing we knew Sam was yelling that they had taken the computer. The couple was not a couple but were 4 people, some had been hiding in the back seat ducked down.  As I got around to the drivers side, Sam was sprinting after the car and got to it just as it was screeching away.  I had somehow kept the keys in my hand and not in the ignition - just an old habit - which meant we at least were still in control of the vehicle.  We tried very briefly to follow to get a license plate but knew it was pointless.  We had lost the laptop computer.  By the time we had slowed down and pulled over to asses the damage we were well and truly lost and it took us a long time to find the hostel that we no longer had directions for, as we were using the map on the computer to get there.  We then realized that we had also lost a bag that had some of Lesley's personal effects (toiletries mainly).  We arrived and checked in and managed to get the staff person to call the police for us.  We were directed to go to the police station and give details.  We were given a map with direction and we set off into Barcelona by car to find it.  It took over two hours and by the time we got there we were hungry tired exhausted, upset and feeling very stupid.  We made our report and were told the crime was common.  We got back to the hostel where the hostel restaurant was just about still open and where the staff were very kind.  We spoke to a lovely Dutch man who helped make us feel better and eating didn't hurt either.  Unfortunately.  Lesley and I did not sleep a wink all night. We kept replaying the scene in our heads.   Today has been better but we feel jet lagged.  This morning we heard about then met a British couple who had just about the same thing happen a few days ago at the same junction on the same highway.  The only difference was their car was shunted by the criminals then they were urged to get out and check the damage.  The criminals drove off just as they noticed that their wallets and one bag was gone.  It was lovely to chat with them.  It helped made us feel more normal.  The fact is only good, decent people get conned like we did. 
(Lesley) Today we went into Barcelona despite not a lot of sleep and we had a decent day.  We saw lots of nice Spanish people enjoying their city.  It was good after our first experience.  We already miss the computer as today would have been a great day to Skype some folks back home.  Oh well, life goes on.  Bye Lesley

Barcelona (Sam)

We left Languedoc yesterday and are in Barcelona. We had been warned about pickpockets and scammers before so we were ready to watch out once we got there. What we did not expect was to be robbed on the motorway in broad daylight. We were about 15 minutes away from Barcelona and nearing our junction when the car beside us started waving at us, pointing at our tire and telling us to pull over. My dad had been noticing a bit of wheel wobble earlier and was therefore not surprised. We pulled over and the man came over to us while his wife stayed in the car. He was panicked and pointing at the tire and talking frantically in Spanish. Then another man jumped out from the car (he had been hiding) and grabbed our computer and my mom s daysack. I was the only one to see this as Dad was out looking at the tire and Mom was looking back. I jumped up and screamed: they re taking the computer.
I then learnt that in situations like this, I do not stay calm and collected, but instead Adrenalin takes hold. Not thinking, I started running after the guy. He jumped in his car and they sped away with his door still open. I ran after the car swearing at the man as loud as I could. Unfortunately, I only later realised that all my efforts were lost as we are in Spain now and he probably did not understand English. When we got to our hostel we got directions to the police office and spent some time seeing the city while we looked for the station. 2 hours of time, to be precise. The streets are a maze and seem to all be one way. I had a nice blog written and ready to post about our last week in Azille unfortunately you will have to be stuck reading this one instead. By the way, does everyone like the youtube video?

Nov 21-24, 2010

(Lesley)  I mentioned, last post, something about Cathar castles.  We went to see two big ones: Quéribus and Peyrepertuse.  They sit south of us, in the Courbières (mountains).  They are both big old castles in some state of disrepair, real fixer uppers.  They are up on high rocky peaks.  I posted some photos in the last post. 

We really enjoyed seeing those castles.  They were great fun to drive up to and for each castle we also had a good walk as well.  The views from the castles were breathtaking.  I can’t imagine what it would have been like to live in them.  Not handy to anything, but that is their advantage in terms of defences.  Quéribus had one side (east) that seemed a little vulnerable because although the valleys to the north, south and west were very deep and anyone defending the castle had good views of approaching invaders, the east side didn’t have a deep valley and the peak to the east was just as high as the castle.  You may have noticed how thick that wall was that Sam was looking out over in the photo from last post, well that is protection against potential attacks from the east.

Peyrepertuse was bigger that Quéribus.  The drive and especially the walk up were both quite fun.  You can see each castle from the other though a fair distance separates them.  I wouldn’t have wanted to have to take a message from one castle to the other, not without a donkey, a warm sleeping and a pack of food. 

It was cool and rainy the day we saw both castles but there were moments of sunshine.

After seeing the castles, the next day we took a day of rest and stayed home to read.  Mhari wrote for her blog.  Sam and I went for a little wander around the village.

Then on Monday we did a big hike.  It was one of those 2.5 hours uphill, followed by 1.5 hours downhill. We left from Caunes-Minervois and took a trail to Citou (where there is a castle).  Now, we never intended to go all the way to Citou that was 20 kms through a gorge and a few valleys. Our intention was to go just over halfway then find the turn around (doing the petit boucle).  Well, we did that and a bit more because we didn’t have a proper ordinance map, just a little leaflet with a rough outline.  We ended up doing the petit boucle with a Carrière du Roy (King’s quarry) 5 kms detour.  We knew we were adding a little loop and the quarry was interesting so we were happy to add the kms.  It rained lightly all day long so we ate our lunch in a little shelter made for the lookout herder.  It was a dry stone hut, (a capitelle). It was quite small, but we fit in, had our snack and stayed dry for a bit then carried on.  We took some photos along the way and should post some because it was a superb walk.  It was nice to get some exercise after our day of rest the day before.

Today we went in search of nougat. We nearly attempted that on Saturday but ran out of time and energy after the castles.  We went to Limoux, the place of origin of some rather nice nougat we had previously tasted.  We hunted down the little artisanal shop where it was made locally and purchased some samples, not many mind because they weren’t cheap.  Then we went to Esperaza a little town we had heard was cute or quaint.  It was cold out, so after a quick walk around we headed back and lucked upon another small local nougat making operation. (They had chocolate too..) We bought some samples, tasted them in the car then Sam was sent back in to make more purchases.  The lady smiled and asked if we had finished the seven nougat bars we had just bought.  Sam assured her we had only sampled them as of yet but was picking some up for the family. He asked if they gave guided tours of their operation. She laughed, but they did not do guided tours despite how keen we were.

Other news…

·      -We had mustard potato chips today.  Yes, paprika ones were new for us in Iceland and today we stumbled upon mustard ones, so we had to try them.  Not bad. 

·     - We found a scorpion today.  It was on our couch.  We think that it came in with us from the hike yesterday as it was with our stuff from the hike, that or it came in with the wood for the fireplace.  It was a small scorpion, Mhari picked it up thinking it was a bit of balled up string.  She dropped it once she realized it was alive. What excitement!  I don’t know how common they are here or if all scorpions sting and I didn’t test it out or play with it too much.  John chucked it outside after capturing it in a jar.

·      -Mhari washed and brushed her hair.  This is the first time it has happened on the same day! WOW!

·      -Sam is learning to multiply and divide fractions.

·      -William and Kate are engaged!  Uk news from our British telly.

·      -We have booked beds in Barcelona. 

Wed Nov 24th

We did another hike today.  Just 10 kms with less ups and downs.  It was the Sentier des capitelles. (those dry stone herder huts providing a dry spot to sit and watch the flock while sheltered from the cers: the cold wind from the north) It was basically a hike to see all the capitelles around Villeneuve-Minervois.  There were lots on the hike at least 25 of them.  The views were pleasant but less spectacular than those from the other day. 

Cathar Castles

We have been touring around in the car, visiting Cathar Castles, going on hikes, hunting down fantastic nougat and generally enjoying life.  No one has done any blogging, except Mhari!!! I will however put up a couple of nice photos so you can see a bit of what we have been doing.

 Queribus Castle

 Peyrepertuse Castle

Sam on top of the world.

Castle bits through castle bit. 

Other cars that drove up the steep winding road to Queribus.

Youtube (Sam)

I figured out the Youtube thing now.
I have my first video on. It is of the Pompidou center fountains.
Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAuvlGs_HqE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Queribus (Mhari)

Today we went to Queribus (Q)  and Peyrepertuse (P) castles.

Queribus  was the smaller castle but also the more important one historically; it was the very last castle where Cathars (Bons hommes) could roam, at all. The first known documentation of Q was in 1020. From 1162 it was the north gate of Aragon! I didn’t know Aragon really existed! In 1255, the French crusaders took the castle in their hunt of the Cathars. I think that Queribus fell because Cathars ran out of water, but I’m not sure about that.

Queribus and Peyrepertuse are both on rocky/cliffy mountaintops. 

The drive up to Q was on a small switch back road with amazing views.

It was a short walk to get to the castle from the parking lot. The walk and the castle had great views of the surrounding area. From the castle we could see the Pyrenees (with lots of nice snow on top). The castle sits at 728 meters in altitude.

Queribus Castle was in better condition than Peyrepertuse. We walked up a few stairs onto a viewing platform where we could see for hundreds of miles! Not that you couldn’t see for hundreds of miles from Peyrepertuse too, but you could not climb up stairs inside a building to get to the special viewing because the hole of the upper stories were in ruins.

We found a staircase in Q that led down to a dark passageway that went to a little room down the mountain. From there you could fire arrows and such at enemies that were still out of reach of the castle.

 

When we went to Peyrepertuse the road was even better than the Q one in terms of very sharp switchback roads. We had been warned by guidebooks that the walk from the parking lot to the castle was very very windy but there was actually no wind at all. Unlike the walk to Q it was sheltered most of the time and the views were short and sweet.

I will put stuff about Peyrepertuse later.

Hopefully.

Aude

(Lesley) We are in Aude!!  Yipee.  And the weather is a little better.  We arrived after a great drive through the rest of Auvergne, some Haut Languedoc and bits of Midi-Pyrenees.  The views along the drive were really a treat.  I did most of the driving through the Massif Central and quite enjoyed the ups for their great views and the downs just for the fun of the drive.  We saw paragliders flying off cliff faces.  Not an everyday sight for a prairie girl.  I drove over the Millau Viaduct though not until we had stopped to take some pictures, climbed around and thoroughly checked it out.  It is quite the structure: looks very delicate. 

Once we drove over the Millau Viaduct, the land changed immediately - more arid.  There was no longer the lush vegetation we had hiked through in the Massif Central, the hills were less steep and we saw more sand, more beige and grey.  We started to see vineyards as we drove into Lauguedoc-Rousillon.  For the last hour of our journey we were never far from vines.  Nearer Carcassonne, we saw olive trees alongside the road (with olives!!) I’m sure the kids have never seen olives growing on trees.  What a great sight.  Some grow across the road just down a bit from the house.  Today, we tasted some off the trees at the olive cooperative up the road, yuck!  They really do need the salt. 

The place we have rented here in Aude is fabulous.  We know we are going to enjoy ourselves here.  The house is spacious and clean.  The bedding is provided; so no sleep sheets for the next two weeks.  We have big windows that look onto the street and Sam and Mhari each have their own room!  There are English books to read, and UK TV! John appreciates that.  We all do actually.  The kids and I manage fine with the French TV, but John, although he gets the gist of it, prefers to disappear and read a book when we are watching and laughing.  The house is very nicely decorated and comes with everything we might need, including two bikes.  John has been out two or three times already.  The house is for sale in fact, so Sam and Mhari have asked us about purchasing it.  (Mary- you might want to mention it to David’s friends who were looking to buy in France) We can vouch for it and the owners too; they are very kind, friendly, helpful and live just up the street.

Pics: View from the bedroom window in early morning; Living room; John cooking in kitchen.

Sunday morning there was a big garage sale out our front door.  It was the town’s “vide greniers” (Empty your attics) sale day.   The whole town was full of people and their “junk”.  It was great fun to wake up at dawn to the sounds of people setting up to rid themselves of their stuff.  We saw lots of locals laying things outside their houses, as well as the weekend warriors, who travel from town to town, selling stuff every weekend.  We didn’t buy much at the sale: a couple of old keys (Lesley), a book (John), a shirt (Lesley for Sam), and some deep fried doughnutty things (Mhari).  Despite having not spent much, we did spend a lot of time wandering around the town having a look.  In France, people have no shame selling off their old stuff.  I’m not meaning to sound critical.  I think it is great to use and reuse and keep reusing.  I did notice however that there was a lot for sale that would have been chucked in the bin long ago in Canada.  Things like dead digital watches, used binders for school etc.  We re-use our old binders, as do many of our friends, but generally kids have new ones each year that tend to fall apart after a year of use.   I had noticed this trend with respect to used books earlier in our “tour de France”. Used book sellers sell, or try to sell, old, out of date, road atlas, maps etc. maps not out of date enough to be worth anything, but out of date enough to be rather useless. I’m sure they wouldn’t have sold in Canada. 

Seeing the old road atlases in the shops reminded me of a family trip to Prince Edward Island in my early teens.  There were antique shops around every corner and as kids, our fun was to find all the antiques we were still using at home like mom’s button tin, our egg beater, the thermos in which we took our hot drinks among other things.  We would find a few things in every shop that we still used everyday in Winnipeg.  It was our plan to return, sell our stuff and be rich one day.  Five years ago, when my parents gave me the last bag of frozen brussel sprouts from their chest freezer, I did try calling to see if the antique shop took frozen food.  No such luck, but I thought the Dominion packaging and its price tag must have been worth something.  I think I put the bag in our chest freezer to bequeath it and its contents to one of the kids. Maybe one day it will net them a fortune.  (For those not familiar with Winnipeg, our last local Dominion store closed from Confusion Corner when I was probably about 10 years old.   I am nearly 44 now so those brussel sprouts have been in the family for quite a few years.) (John) there are no brussel sprouts or any other out of date food in our family.  I threw them out years ago after she phoned the antique store.

vide greniers sale

Back to France…

We saw the Med!-la Mer méditerranné!  It is huge, no surprise.  It was fun to see it.  Mhari is pleased to see it at 11 years, knowing I hadn’t seen it before now.  She figures she’s got something on me now, as she has seen it at a younger age.  

(Bruce, you can sing your favourite song, the one your kids learned at Sacré-Coeur so many years ago:  It était un petit navire. I did.)

We also saw the Pyrenees.  Wow, they are high.  Again, no surprise, but it had to be said.  When you compare the view with the Montagnes noires that we see from our gîte, the Pyrenees are noticeably huge and dramatic.  My eyes are pulled toward them when they are within sight.  I cycled to a little town north of here and got an awesome view of the Pyrenees in the early morning light.  They are spectacular.  I’m not sure how far into them we will go.  I imagine we would have to drive over some high passes to really be amid them and without snow tires or chains, after our experience at Mont Dore, I’m doubtful we will head to the heart of them. 

People in this region have a different accent.  They are a little harder to understand.  I noticed it because I was finding it all super easy, and I was surprised how well I understood and how well I was understood. But now, in this region, when the grocer tell me how much I owe at the grocery store I have to listen carefully.  The accent is harsher.  Maybe more Spanish, though it is clearly still French.  I suppose it is influence from the Langue d’Oc of the area. 

 More great news!  The nougat here is fantastic.  Oh, we have only just sampled some local stuff and wow, what a delight.  I can’t wait for a full tour of a nougat making operation.  I have visions of sampling all different kinds and lingering to learn trade secrets.  I’ve never attempted to make nougat, but I have certainly tried sampling as much as possible.   I’m not sure when we will dive into the nougat, but I will put it on our list of things to try while here. 

We are having rabbit stew for supper.  John is working on that now as I write.  We figured since it is available in all the Épiceries we should give it a shot.  John and I have had rabbit before, but I don’t think the kids have.  We did have Kangaroo sausage last month in Bretagne.  It was from Auvergne where we went later.  In fact we rented a gîte just a few kilometres from the kangaroos, whose parents or siblings we had already consumed. 

Rabbit stew

 (John) Our visit to Carcassonne today was not the way I had imagined it.  I had envisaged a cloudless sky, a warm breeze, expensive parking, and crowds of tourists jostling to get the best shots and the best positions on the ramparts for the amazing views.  We got none of the above.  We could have parked in any of the expensive tourist parking lots, but we didn’t have to because there was free parking available on the street just below the cité walls.  Most of the time the rain blew in sideways from the north.  There was virtually nobody there and very little was open. 

However, the chateau was and so was the Basilica.  There were no line-ups and we were able to get a good idea of what it would have felt like to live in a medieval city in the middle of a cold wintery day.  There were some highlights for us.  We were aintereste to read the Catholic Church described as a cult and Sam noted that guys with potbellies were not allowed in the church.

We had all read the Labyrinth by Kate Moss that focussed much of its storyline in and around the Chateau and the walled city of Carcassonne, so it was fun to be there walking on the hourdes (wooden structures hung over the battlements from which to defend the castle) ...

...admiring the skill of those who built the cité over 800 years ago. 

...and looking over the ramparts trying to imagine the thousands of crusaders
camped below the walls laying siege to the fortress.

Hopefully, the weather will change and we can return on a nicer day and enjoy some company. 

Languedoc (Sam)

On Saturday we left the cold and rain in Auvergne in search of warmer weather in Languedoc. The Motorway was amazing. It hugged cliff sides as it climbed up gorges, and then crested hills with views over the plains for hundreds of miles. On our way south we got to cross the Millau Viaduct: one of the tallest bridges in the world, and certainly the tallest in France (although it was designed by an Englishman). Our gite here is great. It is really big, in a nice town and only a short walk from the bakery. Since the owners are British, we get British T.V.   As I write I am watching the England vs France football (soccer) match on i.t.v. So far it’s not looking good for England.

Sunday was the town’s “Vide grenier” kind of like a big town garage sale. People had set up shop right outside our window, and since the main floor is at ground level, with no front yard and the house has a big “For Sale” sign on it, there were people looking in our window all day long. It was very weird.

Later that day my dad and I went for a bike ride with the bikes that came with the gite.

Well, our attempt to find better weather seems to have been futile as today (Monday), was wet, windy and cold. Luckily our destination today was nice even with the rain. We went to the medieval city of Carcassonne. The city is on top of a hill and it is surrounded by not one, but two rings of ramparts with a combined 52 towers. It was so well built that no one dared to attack it. What a shame seeing as they built the second ring of ramparts and thickened the walls to defend from the Spanish who never came. With the weather as such we had the place to ourselves, (not even the shop owners to keep us company). The French store hours are very hard to understand).

Where we are staying there are vineyards everywhere and olive and almond trees growing on the side of the road. It is very strange.  Although I do not recommend eating raw olives off the tree because they taste so bitter I thought they might be poisonous. They are much better after soaking in whatever they soak them in. They’re also good on bread, and in pizza (mmmmm…)

On Wednesday we went to a pretty town called Minerve. They had a big gorge and in the side of the rock was a giant entrance to a cave that passed under the cliff to the other side of gorge (The gorge does a U-turn).

Auvergne (Sam)

Sunday 7th of November 2010

We’ve left Paris and are now staying in the Auvergne, a hilly, sometimes mountainous, region in the middle of France. It is a traditional area famed for its cheese and sausages.  We have a nice gîte in a small village near St-Nectaire.  Today, we explored the town of St-Nectaire itself. The town is a popular tourist destination in summer but it seems that everyone has gone on vacation for this week; we figure they have all gone to Corsica, as it is the only place in France where it’s not raining. The bakery is closed half the week and most of the sites and attractions are closed also.  Luckily, they had a nice Romanesque church for us to see.  It had very ornate, colourful pillars.

Monday the 8th of 2010

SNOW!!!!!!!!!

We wanted to go to Mont Dore today, to do some hiking. Somewhere along the 1400+ meter mountain pass, it started to snow. By the time we got to the top, it was so snowy and windy that we could barely see where we were going, luckily, we could see enough that we knew we were at the edge of a big downhill. We pulled over to the side of the road and got out to look around. The wind was blowing so hard that as soon as I stepped outside my jeans were frosted with the cold, blowing snow. When my sister tried to get back inside during a particularly strong gust, her door would not open. We decided not to continue and instead we went back to the gîte and sat around in front of the fire and read all afternoon.

Tuesday the 9th of November

After our failure to hike yesterday, we decided not to give up and to try again. Unfortunately it was still slushy. We went for a 3 km hike around a lake then decided our feet were too wet and we returned home.

Wednesday the 10th of November

After two failed attempts to hike and knowing it was going to rain we gave up on that and went to Clermont Ferrand, local metropolis and home of the Michelin tire empire. When we finally parked our car, we walked through the old town up to the “Lord of the Rings-esque” black volcanic rock cathedral. Since it, along with everything else was closed till 2 pm, we went to the tourist information office and watched a movie about Romanesque architecture, very interesting and educational too.  When 2 O’clock came we went to the Michelin Boutique in the main square. They had all sorts of interesting memorabilia, including Michelin Man keychains (known in France as “Bibendum”), Michelin Bags, Michelin t-shirts, Michelin postcards and a little Citroën C3 with the Michelin Logo and pictures of Bibendum all over it. Since the C3 was less than two Euros, I decided to ignore any discouraging comments made on my blog, (Janet!) and add it to my collection of little Citroëns.  Then we visited the cathedral and another small church too. On our way out, we drove past the city’s huge Rugby stadium “Stade Marcel Michelin” (Clermont Ferrand are reigning French champions), The Michelin Adventure museum, and many Michelin warehouses and factories.

Thursday the 11th of November

Happy Birthday to Mady and Christy, our cats! They are 5 today.

Well, our first sunny day yet. We took advantage of it and headed out on a sixteen km hike. Three hours, tons of amazing views, a few big hills, one muddy road and one cow with giant ears. A hike worth waiting for.

Friday the 12th of November

It turns that the nice weather was too good to last. Another rainy day. Despite the rain we had a good day. The snow had melted on the road and we made it to Mont Dore. Although the snow was gone it was still gusting with wind and pelting with rain. The highlight of the drive was when we saw someone in the distance whom we thought was on a motorbike. When we got closer we realised it was a scooter. At this point we were blown away by the fact that it had not been blown sideways on the road up. When we passed it, we looked and saw that it was an elderly women bringing her groceries home. We still do not know how she managed to do it.

The town of Mont Dore was not that great as everybody was away and most of the stores were closed. Besides we could only see a couple hundred metres in front of us. We went for a three km hike between three waterfalls it was all very nice, but wet. On our way back to our gite, we stopped at some caves that used to be Roman baths and are now a major tourist attraction. We had to wait for 45 minutes and pay a bit but it was all… not worth it. A couple of years ago I went to two amazing caves in South Dakota. They had all sorts of Amazing stalactites, and the walls seemed to be covered in snowflakes and diamonds. These caves had some cool limestone stalactites but nothing that amazing, there were only a few “rooms” you could go into and the Romans seemed to have left without a trace. They just used the pools as they were, No columns or statues like in Bath.

I rate it a 1 out of 4 fountains in our new rating scheme.