Author: Bob

While living in North, Central and South America, in the middle of the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, and now in Europe, my passion has remained the same: travel and meeting new friends.
Life in France

Go towards the light

View at the end of our street
View at the end of our street

The house that we’ve rented for our first year in France was advertised as une petite maison which can translate as a little house or even a cottage. What I have yet to discover is a French word that means “home” in the sense that we normally use it as being a warm and welcoming place. That certainly is not to say that it doesn’t exist considering how welcome we have always felt there and the fact that their culture values friendship to the point that they have divided it into seven levels. We just have to keep looking. Continue reading “Go towards the light”

Unknown's avatarBob2 Comments
Life in France

Bathrooms and ice trays

Mini ice trays
Mini ice trays

It’s all a matter of interpretation or translation. Before we knew for sure that we were moving to Carcassonne, we rented an apartment there for a couple of weeks so that we could explore the area. Although the listing for the place said that there were two bathrooms, we contacted the owner just to make sure. He reassured us, in perfect English, that the listing was correct and he answered another question in the affirmative concerning ice trays. You’re getting an insight into our priorities, aren’t you? Continue reading “Bathrooms and ice trays”

Unknown's avatarBob
Life in France

What’s the pont?

Pont Vieux, Carcassonne
Pont Vieux, Carcassonne

There are two pedestrian bridges (pont in French) that connect the old and new cities in Carcassonne. As in most places in Europe, those two words are relative here as well. The foundations of the old city upon which the castle sits above are from around 100 BC (with evidence of settlements there beginning in 3500 BC) while the new town below was founded in 1258. The old bridge, Pont Vieux, was built in 1359 and provides a great vantage point of the castle and of the Pyrenees mountains. The new footbridge, built in the 1960’s (I’m guessing), gives quick access from the park below the castle where we’ll be living to the heart of the city where we’ll be walking at least 3 days a week to the market. Continue reading “What’s the pont?”

Unknown's avatarBob
Life in France

Back from the future

Bill between the cité (castle) above and the city below
Bill between the cité and the city

We’ve just returned from a couple of weeks in Carcassonne and if this is any indication of what life is going to be like there, we’re in for a real treat! As on numerous previous vacations, we rented an apartment through a holiday home agency so that we could pretend that we lived in whatever location we had chosen as our base for the vacation. When we first booked this trip the purpose was to find a place to live. Since that had been taken care of weeks prior to our departure, we were free to pursue an even more personal goal of meeting up with people. Continue reading “Back from the future”

Unknown's avatarBob3 Comments
Travel in France & beyond

And we thought France was cheap

Yachts in Barcelona harbor
Yachts in Barcelona harbor

You’ve already read a couple of blog posts about the cost of living in the southwest part of France and I’m certain that there will be more. In fact, in the works is another section of the blog that will show monthly budgets of other Americans living in different parts of the country plus we’ll include our own expenses as well.

While in Barcelona this month we had ample opportunity to visit shops, restaurants, markets, and supermarkets to get an idea of what it might cost to live here and it seemed pretty cheap. Restaurant meals in the 10 to 12 euro range abound including an appetizer or dessert with the main course plus a glass of local wine adding only 2 euro to the bill. Fresh fruits and vegetables, coming from only miles away were especially affordable. Drinkable bottles of wine from the supermarket start at just over 1 euro. Yes, really.

Continue reading “And we thought France was cheap”

Unknown's avatarBob2 Comments