Awaiting a flight to the US, I was walking through the Barcelona airport back to where Bill was sitting when I heard someone calling out “Monsieur, monsieur” from directly behind me. I turned around and there was Sophia Petrillo from American TV’s Golden Girls (well, the French version in my head, anyway) trying to find gate 48B. We were at gate 18 at that point so we had a long way to walk. Continue reading “Joy is where you find it”
If you’ve read the posts over the past few weeks you’ll know that we made a lot of day excursions by car on this most recent trip to Carcassonne. Although we won’t have a car once we move, we did this time because the original plan was to use what has now become our new home town as a base to explore the area to find a place to live. Surprising what you find in your own backyard, so to speak. Continue reading “Feels like home”
On Tuesday we went to see Narbonne, a former Mediterranean seaport about 30 minutes by train from Carcassonne. The two towns have the similarities of population, Roman historical connections, Canal du Midi links, and being on our original list of places where we might move. Bill had done some advance planning on what parts of the city we’d probably want to visit with the first stop being the covered market. It was lively, clean, and despite having all the usual vendors of breads, pastries, fruits, vegetables, beef, pork, chicken, and fish, the only smells we detected were good ones. But that was not why we were there. Continue reading “In the market for a smile”
We took Heather for her annual checkup this morning and and I’m happy to say that she came through with flying colors, as usual. The one difference today, however, is that she got chipped. In preparation for the move to France and getting her own pet passport, Heather had to have an internationally-accepted microchip ID tag implanted. As gross as that sounds, it truly is tiny and fits through a syringe needle, so in theory was no more uncomfortable than getting the rabies shot that she also had to have at the same time. Continue reading “Chip off the old block”
We moved to Atlanta two weeks before the Summer Olympics began there in 1996. I can still hear the roar of the crowd when the procession of the torch passed within a mile or so of our house. What an exciting time that was. Fast forward by almost exactly 20 years and we’ll be in Carcassonne when the Tour de France passes through on July … Continue reading Tour de Force
This morning on their way over to our vacation apartment, Gaynor said that they walked by a trash bin on top of which was a shoe box with a pair of creme colored high heels inside. Upon closer examination of the soles it was clear that these had been worn maybe once if at all. So why were they being thrown away? Did they not fit, were they a one-time-only indulgence for a wedding, was somebody moving to America and downsizing? I had another idea. Continue reading “Keeping with tradition”
One of the many things that we really like about Carcassonne is that there’s so much to do and that the city documents much of it on YouTube. The main square, called Place Carnot, has the fresh fruits and vegetables market three days a week and then at least two nights each week (and up to 7 nights a week in the summer) there is some kind of live entertainment there. Before we found our place to rent, we looked at several attractive apartment listings that open right onto the square. While quite convenient to everything in town, we might not have enjoyed all of the sounds coming up from there on so many nights of the week. It’s really nice to walk there, participate in the events, and then walk home to our quiet neighborhood. Continue reading “Elvis does wine tasting”
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