Tag: Americans in Carcassonne

Life in France

Whatzit, wherezit, and whadwe buy?

Cleaning bottles
Cleaning bottles

We went on a shopping trip today and it took hours. Not because we were dashing from store to distant store; we were only in one. Not because we were buying a huge number of things; our purchases barely covered the bottom of the shopping cart. It was because we had a list of everything we were looking for so instead of strolling up and down each aisle, casually dropping items as we noticed them into the basket, we went in search of each one. Continue reading “Whatzit, wherezit, and whadwe buy?”

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Life in France

We are SO English

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Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

If you’re a fan of British television programs, you may have noticed that if a scene takes place inside of someone’s home, when they move from one room to another they might open and close doors between the different rooms inside their house. On our trips to the UK we have found that really was the case so it doesn’t seem so unusual anymore. Then we saw the curtains on the stairway…. Continue reading “We are SO English”

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Life in France

Meet me in St. Louis, Louis

Chocolate Festival poster from the Carcassonne.org website
Chocolate Festival poster from the Carcassonne.org website

You might have to be a fan of movie musicals and/or Judy Garland plus know a little bit about Carcassonne to understand this post’s title, but you won’t need to read French to tell from this poster where we went today. About a year ago when we decided that this town would be our new home one of the first announcements we read about  was for the annual Chocolate Festival in March. Guess what month it is? Continue reading “Meet me in St. Louis, Louis”

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Life in France

How dry I am (not)

Clothes dryer
Clothes drying in the living room

We washed our first load of laundry today. It took two and a half hours for the wash cycle. It will take another 24 hours to dry them; not because the machine is inefficient. It’s because there is no dryer. It’s pretty standard in Europe for the washer to take a long time to complete its mission just as its location is quite common: in the kitchen. Continue reading “How dry I am (not)”

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Life in France

Stone cold

Part of our stone walls
Part of our stone walls

A few years ago we were in France’s Loire valley which boasts the country’s highest concentration of chateaux (castles) per square kilometer. On some days we would visit one in the morning, stop for lunch, visit a second in the afternoon and then return to our own rented castle for the evening. Even after a week of that schedule we only saw a few of the 300 or so that exist there. One especially memorable chateau was Chambord, not only because it’s the valley’s largest but because of how cold it was inside; colder than it was outside; stone cold. Continue reading “Stone cold”

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Life in France

Coincidences

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Our nearest newsstand with bread and pastries inside and a castle outside.

Do you believe in coincidences? Bill and I feel as if we make our own luck so the same applies here. Our experience has been that when you keep a positive attitude and surround yourself with other like-minded people, your results match your expectations. A few days before we left the US, Bill telephoned Air France just to confirm that Heather’s reservation was in order since our own online record showed only the two of us as travelers. Can you guess the name of the telephone reservation agent who helped Bill? Her name was Heather. We had nothing to worry about. Continue reading “Coincidences”

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Life in France

Our first night at home

A view from our bedroom window
A view from our bedroom window

It’s been just over a year in the making but last night was our first night as French residents in our new home in Carcassonne. We’ve been here for a few days already, staying at the Hotel des Trois Couronnes looking out across the Aude river at that magnificent fortress. Now that same castle looks down on us since this house is literally 100 yards below those crenelated walls. I can’t wait to take Heather on her first walk along a road where Romans once tread two thousand years ago. Continue reading “Our first night at home”

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