Yesterday was Easter and as you might expect most places were closed. In fact, almost everything is closed around here on Sundays: shops, restaurants, even the buses don’t run. Having moved from being within a 5-minute drive of several supermarkets and a supercenter that literally never close we thought it might take a long time to adjust. It didn’t.

By the end of our first week here we were ready to hunker down and survive a Sunday without the ability to run out at 3:00 AM (or PM)  to buy that one item we just had to have. We came from hurricane/tornado country after all,  so we had our checklist: our food, dog food, water (for Heather), wine (for us), flashlight, and of course, bathroom tissue. But it was a non-event; we fell in with the rhythm here and just relaxed.

Traditionally Sundays in France have been spent with family and friends; big lunches, long walks, enjoying time together. That holds true in Carcassonne too…unless you’re part of the tourist industry and with 3 million visitors a year to the medieval walled fortress, that’s a lot of industry! We could have rented a house up there inside the castle, but the thought of all those people walking past our front door made us choose a place outside the walls. Although we’re only about 100 yards/meters below those massive walls we’re a world away with quiet lunches and tranquil walks along the river and canal. We like Sundays just fine.