Twice a week our mailbox is filled with flyers from lots of businesses; both national chains and local businesses vying for our euros. These are called pubs, short for publicités that you and I might recognize with the English word “advertisements” that we could easily stop, but why spoil all the fun, especially at this time of year. It’s grape harvest time so every catalog that we receive is featuring wine.  In the photo you’ll see just a few of the pubs that arrived today. Looks like we need to go shopping!

It’s fun to compare differences between the US and France and this is certainly one of them: advertising alcoholic beverages. We’ve lived in different parts of America from the east to west coasts and the topic of libations, especially the sale of them, has always been a touchy subject. As you can see here, it’s a bit different with entire magazines devoted to their selection, sale, and oh-my, discounts if you buy 2 bottles of local rosé or 6 bottles of northern France’s champagne, for example. This locally produced beverage is celebrated but always with the emphasis on enjoying the taste of it and especially pairing it with another French speciality: food. Overindulgence in either eating or drinking is just not part of the culture.

While grocery stores and boutiques are celebrating this harvest season, the city of Carcassonne itself and many of the surrounding hamlets are joining in the fun. Festivals featuring locally produced food and wine abound this month especially. Although not having a car limits us as to how many of these we’ll be able to attend, being just a 15-minute walk from the main town square where lots of tastings will happen should make us quite happy.