A.B. Away: 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) ...