If you lived in the USA, especially the south, during the 1950’s and 60’s, just the mention of this blog post’s title word might have made your blood run hot or cold depending upon your upbringing, experiences, and/or outlook on life. To live successfully in another country, or perhaps even in your own, we find integration a very important word. In fact, for us in France intégration is a requirement. Continue reading “Integration”
If you asked Bill and me to come up with a nickname for our new hometown, we’d probably say Festival City since it seems there’s always some kind of celebration going on all year long. The 6-week-long summer music festival attracts worldwide attention while a food or wine exhibition might only be covered in the local press…and on this blog since we never miss one of those! Last month Carcassonne sponsored a flower contest to encourage residents to decorate their balconies, terraces, and yards for all to see. They neglected to mention that the city itself was going to give all of the contestants a run for their money with floral displays at lots of gardens and monuments. Continue reading “Flower power”
It’s hard to compete with the sight and sound of a 30-minute non-stop fireworks show that never stops to take a breathe or to let you do so either. Imagine sitting at the base of the castle above which all of these explosions are going on every few seconds and you’ll know what we did last night to celebrate the July 14 Fête Nationale or what we know as Bastille Day. Continue reading “What’s all that noise ? (part 2)”
Last month there was a trial run of the Tour de France through Carcassonne where local riders got to leave as a group from the official starting point and follow part of the route that the competitors would be taking one day soon. That day arrived yesterday and it felt as if the whole city turned out to greet the racers. Their official departure time was 1:35 PM but all of the activities got started well before then. Continue reading “And they’re off!”
That blog post title sounds like the name of a romance novel, doesn’t it? You may have read an earlier post about how we got to know our mailman simply because for a month we were waiting daily for him to deliver our appointment letters from the French immigration office. We don’t get very much paper mail since most of our communication is electronic so it’s quite the event when there’s actually something in our box. That was the case two days ago when we found an announcement about a jazz singer that would be appearing in one of the two Irish pubs in town. Continue reading “The postman’s wife”
For over 3 months we’ve gone past this church at least twice a day to pick up a fresh baguette, go to the market, drop off some glass bottles for recycling, or just to take a walk. There’s not a sign on the front to identify it and the door has always been closed so we’ve often wondered about its history. On Monday we were headed over to the main square when we stopped in our tracks because the door was open. Naturally we had to go inside. Continue reading “Photo op”
After over 700 years we could probably all use a bit of refreshing to our faces and that’s exactly what’s happening in Carcassonne this summer. The façades that we’re talking about here are for many of the buildings located inside what used to be the walled lower city laid out in 1260. According to the city’s tourist office, few structures survived the fire of 1355 but there are many examples of mansions, shops, and apartments from the 17th and 18th centuries when the textile industry rivaled only the King for power, that today are getting some help. Continue reading “We’re getting a facelift”
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