Liberation of Carcassonne

Flowers at the Monument of the Resistance, Square Gambetta
Flowers at the Monument of the Resistance, Square Gambetta

Earlier today at three different locations the city marked the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of Carcassonne from Nazi occupation; at two memorials and at the site of a former prison. Each ceremony was similar including the national anthem, a moment of silence and the laying of a wreath. Bill and I have long maintained that learning history is much more interesting when you actually see a castle in person, visit a museum where a famous painting is displayed, or walk through a cave that humans inhabited 20,000 years earlier and view the artwork they created. What I didn’t count on is how moving it can be as well. Continue reading “Liberation of Carcassonne”

In the market for music

Fresh lettuce at the market
Fresh lettuce at the market

Carcassonne has an open-air market 3 days a week and we often walk over there even if we don’t need any fruits or vegetables, just for the free entertainment. The colorful displays of fresh produce, some of which might have been in the ground or picked just hours before, are interesting enough. Add to that perhaps a guitarist, a dance troupe, drummers, a jazz or pop trio, and your morning is off to a great start. Last Saturday was no different except that Bill told me we’d be listening to “The Winds of Angels”. Now I was intrigued. Continue reading “In the market for music”

French mythology

The only mythology in town: Neptune's fountain on Place Carnot
The only mythology in town: Neptune’s fountain on Place Carnot

If you say the word “mythology” I bet that visions of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses come to mind. What if you add in French to the mix? Maybe kings and queens, cheese and wine, poodles and fries? Now that we’ve lived in France for a few months I thought that it would be interesting to compare our experiences with what we’ve always heard it should be. Continue reading “French mythology”

Which one?

A field of sunflowers near Limoux
A field of sunflowers near Limoux

If you’re in the US and tell someone that you are from Washington they might assume that you mean the state but it could easily be the nation’s capital or about 25 other cities, towns, mounts, and ports around the country. According to the post office, if you address a letter to Springfield without including the state name, they will have a choice of 41 locations where it could be delivered. Last Sunday our neighbors asked us to go with them to a festival in Villelongue which we had to look up in a mapping program to see how long the car ride might be. Since there are a dozen towns or villages in France with that name, we hoped they had chosen the one about 45 minutes south of Carcassonne. Continue reading “Which one?”

Small town shopping

Pedestrian shopping street in Carcassonne
Pedestrian shopping street in Carcassonne

Do you remember Western Auto®? Long before big-box stores and their parking lots filled acres of land around the edges of cities, small-town Americans went shopping for kitchen appliances, televisions, washing machines, beds, lawn mowers, and bicycles in a compact, family-owned store like those. It was the kind of place, as Bill tells the true story of when he was growing up, that before you purchased one, would lend you two TVs to try out, even on Super Bowl Sunday. Guess what store we stopped into last week on Carcassonne’s pedestrian shopping street. Continue reading “Small town shopping”

French locks

Yes, a French lock but not for today's post
Yes, a French lock but not for today’s post

I started to write that the first thing we did after getting the keys to our new house was to change the lock, but that’s not actually true. We knew the toilet worked but was a bit wobbly and needed adjusting so Bill took care of that straight away. Our next step was to order a refrigerator. After all, if we were going to be working on the place for the next few months, we might as well be comfortable and the local sparkling wine doesn’t chill itself. With those priorities checked off the list it was indeed time to change the lock and have a French lesson at the same time. Continue reading “French locks”

En-tiley ours

Blue and white tiles in the kitchen
Blue and white tiles in the kitchen

It may have taken three months, that felt like a year, but we have signed the final sales contract on a house in France. The first time I mentioned anything about house buying on the blog was in a post from May when we had been taking some pictures of courtyards. We both crave light, finding dismal days depressing, so a house built around an outdoor courtyard, with glass doors and windows opening each room to the sun was ideal. There are websites (listed at the end) that give complete details about the entire house buying process here, but the highlights of what we went through are below. Continue reading “En-tiley ours”