Sunday, September 30, 2007
Unexpected surprises
We took the Autoroute all the way home from Arles--expensive toll road but much faster. On our way home from the A-road we happened to stop at the Abbe d' Valmagne which was a very pleasant surprise. Unlike the Abbe Fontfroide where we toured on our bike trip--the people here were much friendlier, let us tour on our own with a written English guide, and did not lock us in. We quite liked it. The biggest surprise is that the church itself contains huge wine vats. Sometime after the French revolution it was turned into a winery and thus escaped being a rock quarry as many ancient structures did. After touring the Abbe we wandered into the tasting room. It is true that in France you can stop in to taste wine and buy a bottle with the change in your pocket. '
Roman Ruins in the Rain
That was the plan. The weather was so horrid here Sunday morning that we set off for Arles. Alas, my short cut was innudee (underwater) so we ended up taking a longer route through the Camargue where they grow grain and not grapes. The weather in Arles was fine. The ruins were not. The colliseum was filled with metal bleachers so we didn't choose to pay to enter. When we got to the Roman baths it was 12:05 and everything in France seems to close between noon and 2pm--so we peeked through the gate. French lesson 21: Avoid eating at outdoor restaurants in the square of any tourist city. Lunch was mediocre at best. We have not had good luck with eating out in this part of France.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
La Petite chat
Our daughter Kirsten is giving us a hard time because I sent her a post card and wrote about nothing but our small kitten. This is the first time we have been parents to a kitten. The kitten showed up here several weeks before we arrived--she was VERY tiny. Chris was on the phone calling everyone she knew looking for a new home for the cat (they travel too much to keep her). No luck. So we are babysitting until they return and can look some more. John, the neighbor, fed her while we were gone on the bike trip. Before we left she was a pretty independent little cat, but after being gone a week she was underfoot continually. Luckily she is mostly an outdoor cat although we spoil her terribly when we are home. She is such good entertainment.
We haven't done much to write about in the last few days. Friday was a fairly nice day and we took off after lunch and went to Sete (a port town) and then north along the beach. (La Mer, The Med) I had a short walk on a wonderful sandy beach but it was getting late. We did stop for a beer in Marsellan. Today we have been at home except for a trip to the Inter Marche. The weather has changed--cloudy and cooller. Time to pack the shorts I guess.
We haven't done much to write about in the last few days. Friday was a fairly nice day and we took off after lunch and went to Sete (a port town) and then north along the beach. (La Mer, The Med) I had a short walk on a wonderful sandy beach but it was getting late. We did stop for a beer in Marsellan. Today we have been at home except for a trip to the Inter Marche. The weather has changed--cloudy and cooller. Time to pack the shorts I guess.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Il fait froid (COLD weather)
Just a couple days ago I was complaining about 12C--well today we saw 4C (That's maybe 40F) And it was drizzly and windy. Luckily today we were wearing warmer clothes. We went up into the mountains to see another medieval town--and then took a diversion to Minerve which is a famous wine and tourist spot. (see photo). France is not like here--there is never a McDonalds or BK or whatever when you need one. The one day I didn't pack a picnic and we couldn't find a village with an open cafe. Luckily we found the one restaurant in Minerve that was open. We had a lovely meal--fish with the head and tail still on.
Expect Surprises
Another one of our rules for living : expect the unexpected. My favorite story from the trip so far comes the past Saturday in Carcassonne. Kit and I went walking in a park by the river. I spied the boules court through a fence so we went to watch. We loved watching the boules players in Paris but are still trying to figure out the rules. So.. the men invited me to join the game, despite the fact that none of us could speak the other's language and I still really didn't know the rules. But I had a very good partner--it was kind of like playing pool with my brother in law Leonard. Except that I am better at boules than pool. Basically it's about throwing some steel balls at a tiny little wooden ball and knocking the opponents balls out of the way. I had great fun and I guess we won.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Carcassonne
The bike tour ended in Carcassonne. It was amazing to come off of the Canal (we rode along the canal the whole last day) and down through a short residential street, along a river, across an old bridge --where there is an amazing view of Le Cite (the enclosed medieval city)--and to our hotel. We were almost the only ones who went out on bikes on Friday (the last day) as the others were all leaving and 6am the following morn and we were staying until 3pm. The city is famous for it's role in the Abisinian (sp?) wars against the Cathars which you will only know about if you have studied French history. It is also famous because part of the Robin Hood filming was done here and "Kevin Costner slept here". It is a place where you expect to see knights and damsels around every corner--but there are only tourists--tons of tourists, even on the drizzly day we spent touring the castle. In most of France if you eat at a restaurant you have to guess at the French food on the menu--in Le Cite there are menus in English, etc. and there are pictures of the food. Everything is expensive and nothing is outstanding. I didn't even enter the tourist shops. Actually I have not bought a single thing (not eaten or drunk) since we arrived. Actually the pictures are worth more than any words I can write --I will add them soon.
Hotels and Breakfasts (back to the bike trip)
Kit's biggest worry about the bike tour was French breakfasts (typically coffee and croissant). But we had great breakfasts in all of our hotels. Besides breads and croissants and juice there was almost always cereal, yogurt, meats and cheeses--and even eggs at our last hotel in Carcasonne. All of our hotels were quite nice--smaller family run hotels like we stayed at on the Rick Steves tour. We were lucky to have rooms on the lower floors. The hardest thing to adapt to is the French idea of a narrow deep bathtub with a handheld shower. (So we are glad to be back to our stand up shower).
Une balade (a walk)
Today we had a break from medieval villages and decided to go out for a hike. Our hosts have lots of hiking books (in French) so I picked one that looked interesting and not too far away. Not far away is relative when you are driving windy roads through narrow village streets. We got to one village that we HAD to get through to go anywhere but what seemed to be the only road through town was blocked by a barricade. Finally I asked the working dudes and as soon as they figured out that Octon was Acktoong (the nearest I can get to phonetic spelling) they told us that we had to go left around the barricade and then go right. Sure enough as soon as you drove right up to the barricade you could turn left into the town center. We did get to Octon, and past the street pavers to the parking lot, and had a wonderful hike. Saw no other tourists but did see a medieval ruin and an ancient church.
Les Magasins (the shops)
One of our primo rules to live by is "Never make assumptions" but we still do it all the time. We found out quickly here that the shops in the village are open until 12:30 and then close until 5 when they open again. The shops selling tourist stuff in the town open at 3pm but virtually everything is closed from 1 until 3pm. Except of course the supermarket. So we made the assumption that the supermarket would be open on Sunday--not so. Here we were with almost no food in the house and company coming for dinner and the Marche was ferme. Alas, the centreville was crawling with people--all of the small shops are open on Sunday. So we shopped the French way at the boucherie (meat), boulangerie (bread), wine shop, fruit and veg shop, and got the other things on our list at the 8 to 8. (Actually 8 a Huit) And we waited until Monday to do our big shopping at the supermarket. The walk from our house to the village boulangerie and back takes an hour and a half so we don't do it every day and I have yet to make the trip before breakfast in time to get croissants.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Post bike adventures
Apologies to any of you linear thinkers. This blog is going to jump around through time. I will get back to the bike trip and to adding some photos when I can. Since we have been back "home" in Salleles we have had two short day trips with the car. The car by the way, is a Renault Clio and I'm sorry to say that as far as we know it does not have a name. All of the cars here are tiny which you could understand if you see some of the roads going through the villages. Actually both adventures involve a bridge. Today we went north up into the mountains to see the famous bridge of Millau. It was just completed in 2004. It is very near an area where we were on our 02 tour, on the Tarn River. Both of us forgot a basic rule of the world--the higher you go the colder it gets. We have been living in T shirts and shorts so here we are up at 800 meters or some such heights where the temp dropped down to 12C--plus windchill. On the way up we stopped to see yet another medieval village. This one has an unspellable name and it would have been really cool if it wasn't so chilly. Not quite so touristed as Carcassonne where we were on the bike trip (I'll write about it later), though there was a tour bus load of folks there.
Yesterdays bridge was built about the year 1000 (and is on the Campestello pilgrimage route)and we passed it on the way to the very touristed village of St. Guillam de Desert. It was quiet when we arrived as well and continue to take many photos of buildings. We took a hike up into the hills to look down on the village and had lunch in the square with many other English speaking tourists.
Monday, September 24, 2007
End of the Day
After the days ride you could find most of the Brits at the nearest bar with a beer. Not that you wouldn't find us there too. Mostly the beer was reasonable though blonde. At a bar in Carcassone we paid 7.50 for about a pint of beer. You can buy two bottles of wine for that.
One at a time
I have been working at this blog for a LONG time and am extremely frustrated that I cannot put photos and captions together and keep losing all of my work. So I am going to do photos one at a time.
Every day we stopped for bread and cheese and fruit and had a picnic on the way. This spot is a bit of almost grass between canal and path. Forget my rave about the fine path along the canal. For the most part we got bumpy dirt tracks so riding was slow.
Food and Drink
This is more about the bike trip. Kit says I cannot 
spell cycling with a k--
spell cycling with a k--French lesson #16. Do not order shrimp in France--they come with feet and heads and guts and everything. All of the fish in the market have heads on as well. The photo I am including was from the famous indoor market--Le Halles-- in Narbonne. I have not yet been to the Med but we are very near. I quite enjoyed my no bike day in Narbonne but did a LOT of stair climbing. It seemed every museum was at the top of a hundred stairs. I went to a place called the Donjon which I thought would be a dungeon but it was actually a tower. I climbed up and up this tiny circular stair with the wind whistling through the arrow slots and decided not to go out onto the top of the tower. That day Kit was out biking with part of the group and they really fought the wind.
I have more photos but shall have to do a new post.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Cykling in France
This will be a short message as am at an internet cafe and the keys are in all the wrong places. We are several days into the bike trip: The bikes are good and I am glad I have my own seat; Yesterday we rode 48 miles along varied terrain: Some of the track along the canal is quite like biking along the willamette; Last night we had a lot of good food and wine: Today I am doing a non cykling day in Narbonne: Tomorrow we ride only 33 miles to the next town: There are 16 people in our group and all but us are british:
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Leaving "Home"
After some lazy days at our home here, we are off in a little over an hour to meet up with the bike tour. Tomorrow is our first day of cycling. It has been really hot and humid so I am hoping for a cool down soon. There are showers in the forecast for Monday. At least we have new rain gear. Unless we find an internet cafe along the way, I'll report, with photos, when we get back in a week.
Friday, September 14, 2007
French Lessons
Lesson #1: Always check the price before you buy. We were exploring the market at Clermont on Wednesday. A man offered us tastes of cheeses. So I said I'll have a bit of this and a bit of that. Ended up paying 20E for two smallish bits of cheese. One of the ones I chose was 44E per kilo. Well, now we have some good cheese and some good wine. We actually paid 12E for a bottle of wine. At home that would be a reasonable price but here most bottles are 2 to 5E.
One of my desires was to buy some French sheets because they have such fantastic colors here--unlike the boring linens at home. Alas, lesson 2--sheets/beds in France come in two sizes, one person or two persons. I don't think they have heard of queen size beds, let along king. We Americans are so over the top.
All French houses have shutters. I thought they were about quaintness and history. Alas, we have found out they are about keeping the burglars out. If you go away and don't close the shutters and your house is broken into--your insurance won't pay.
Electricity is cheaper at night. The clothes washer is on a timer to come on at 5am. Then you hang the clothes out in the morning. Today is cloudy and humid so we hope our clothes will dry. We leave tomorrow for the bike trip. The first hotel is only 2 or 3 miles from here.
European toilets are not the same as ours. We are going to have to find someone who understands French plumbing. Our toilet keeps running and we can't just jiggle the handle like at home, or take the top off and pull the chain.
One of my desires was to buy some French sheets because they have such fantastic colors here--unlike the boring linens at home. Alas, lesson 2--sheets/beds in France come in two sizes, one person or two persons. I don't think they have heard of queen size beds, let along king. We Americans are so over the top.
All French houses have shutters. I thought they were about quaintness and history. Alas, we have found out they are about keeping the burglars out. If you go away and don't close the shutters and your house is broken into--your insurance won't pay.
Electricity is cheaper at night. The clothes washer is on a timer to come on at 5am. Then you hang the clothes out in the morning. Today is cloudy and humid so we hope our clothes will dry. We leave tomorrow for the bike trip. The first hotel is only 2 or 3 miles from here.
European toilets are not the same as ours. We are going to have to find someone who understands French plumbing. Our toilet keeps running and we can't just jiggle the handle like at home, or take the top off and pull the chain.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Harvest time
I heard the machines out harvesting grapes this afternoon so ran to take pictures. This mechanical harvester shakes the vines and sucks up the grapes. They are later dumped into a trailer behind a tractor and towed away. Some grapes are harvested by hand. Kit met a man picking grapes today and got a handful to take home. Yummy but tough skins.
Dinner on the Terrace
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Hard Life
Our wonderful hosts have left us access to their computer so I will be able to update the blog frequently except when we are on the bike trip. They left today and we have the house to ourselves--except for a small white kitten. The kitten wandered in (was dropped off?) a few weeks before they left and Chris has been unable to find another home for her. So we are catsitting until they return. Mostly that means feed her--she is an outside kitten. Anyone want a really nice kitten?
Yesterday was a very social day--we met a lot of their friends--all English speakers. Hannah who is German and lives round the corner wants to sell her house in a few years. It is VERY old French. Kit is ready to buy it but I don't think I'm ready to fly to France every year. Hannah is taking us to the start of the bike tour on Saturday. We have already been to Pezanas (the town where we start) as it is the closest big shopping area to us here. Today Kit and I had a practice bike ride on borrowed bikes. The wind was fierce. We went fine into the wind and back and then decided to take a back way home (Richard showed us on the map). First we found the dump, then decided that was the wrong way. We thought we were lost several times but found helpful people to ask and we were on the right track. The main roads are very smooth but these were rough and rocky tracks. We did make it back eventually.
Later this afternoon we went to visit the winery which is just around the corner. We bought an "expensive for France" wonderful red. Some other day we'll go back to taste the pinks. Luckily the woman there spoke excellent English so we could talk wine talk. Guess I should mention that it is harvest time here. There are big picking machines in the fields and on the roads are always tractors pulling wagon loads of grapes. If the grower is not a winery, the grapes go to the cooperative in Pezanas.
Yesterday was a very social day--we met a lot of their friends--all English speakers. Hannah who is German and lives round the corner wants to sell her house in a few years. It is VERY old French. Kit is ready to buy it but I don't think I'm ready to fly to France every year. Hannah is taking us to the start of the bike tour on Saturday. We have already been to Pezanas (the town where we start) as it is the closest big shopping area to us here. Today Kit and I had a practice bike ride on borrowed bikes. The wind was fierce. We went fine into the wind and back and then decided to take a back way home (Richard showed us on the map). First we found the dump, then decided that was the wrong way. We thought we were lost several times but found helpful people to ask and we were on the right track. The main roads are very smooth but these were rough and rocky tracks. We did make it back eventually.
Later this afternoon we went to visit the winery which is just around the corner. We bought an "expensive for France" wonderful red. Some other day we'll go back to taste the pinks. Luckily the woman there spoke excellent English so we could talk wine talk. Guess I should mention that it is harvest time here. There are big picking machines in the fields and on the roads are always tractors pulling wagon loads of grapes. If the grower is not a winery, the grapes go to the cooperative in Pezanas.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Arriving in France 2
I am having bad luck getting published tonight. This is our second full day in France so I thought everyone would like to know that we have arrived safely. Our flights (all 3) were relatively painless. We were half hour late into Montpellier but Richard and Chris were waiting for us. We are staying at their house in a small hamlet called Salleles. There is a fine view of the vineyards from the terrace. There are many lanes for walking amongst the vines. Some of the grapes have been harvested but there are plenty still on the vines. Today we have been out on a weekend adventure to picnic at a lake higher toward the mountains. Lots of other weekenders were about as well. We had dinner outdoors on the terrace and he took a photo which he wants me to post--if I can get the text online.
Monday, September 03, 2007
Flying to France
We are leaving Alice (5th wheel and Wayne (truck) behind and heading off on a flying adventure. Thursday morning we catch the 6:30am ferry and meet the 7:10am shuttle to SEATAC. Our flight to Amsterdam leaves sometime after noon. If all goes well we will arrive in Montpellier (after 2 more flights) about the same time the NEXT day. Our friends Richard and Chris will meet us at the airport. I hope to update this blog whenever and wherever I can find internet service so stay tuned. One week of our trip is a bicycle tour along the Canal Du Midi so we've been doing a lot of bike riding to get ready. Yesterday I had a flat tire on the way to the ferry so hope I've got THAT out of the way.
