Tag: Carcassonne

Before leaving the US

Cathar(sis) country

Our new hometown, Carcassonne, is situated in southwest France right in the heart of Cathar country. It only seems fitting, therefore, that we should have had a catharsis this morning with the emptying of our closets. It was quite freeing to let go of clothes that we purchased as recently as a few months ago to our tuxedos that we bought when we lived in Chicago nearly 30 years ago. cummerbundsAnd why did we need five cummerbunds and matching bow ties that you see here? Those tuxes used to accompany us on an annual cruise and we certainly could not show up from one year to the next with the same accessories. By skillful trading of cummerbunds, ties, studs, and cufflinks, we were able to come up with “new” outfits for quite a few cruises. Continue reading “Cathar(sis) country”

Unknown's avatarBob5 Comments
Before leaving the US

Here, you need this

Bill bought me a Fitbit®. Do you think that he was trying to tell me something? Actually we’d been talking about wanting some way to track our activity, or lack of, since we anticipate walking a whole lot more than we do now once we move to Carcassonne. Considering that we won’t have a car it should be a relatively easy goal to achieve of the recommended 10,000 steps a day.

But just how far is that? It’s about 5 miles. I read that a sedentary person takes between 1,000 and 3,000 steps a day so you really do have to make a conscious effort to get up to make it up to the much higher level. If we make daily trips to the bakery, cafe, market, etc., and long walks along the Aude river and the Canal-du-Midi with Heather then we shouldn’t have any problem. Continue reading “Here, you need this”

Unknown's avatarBob
Life in France

Double or nothing

When Bill and I first got together nearly 30 years ago, we moved almost every 18 months. No, not because the rent was due but because job changes within the same company for me required it. With all of that packing and unpacking we came to an agreement that if we had not used something within the last year then it was not going with us to the new location. I think that we’ll be invoking that rule and a companion one as well, especially once we’re in place.

That new rule, called “Double or nothing” means that anything we buy in France to replace something that we’ve left behind here must do more than one thing. For example, we have two popcorn poppers, an air one and the oil kind. They each do just one thing: pop corn. The ice cream maker you could argue also does frozen yoghurt, sorbet, and sherbet but they’re all just variations on a theme. The juicer juices. The tortilla press makes tortillas. The apple peeler peels apples. You get the picture. Continue reading “Double or nothing”

Unknown's avatarBob3 Comments
Life in France

Carcassonne it is, but why and where?

So why Carcassonne? First, there’s the climate. On average, it’s 10 degrees F cooler in the summer and 10 degrees warmer in the winter than Atlanta. No snow! There’s a fresh fruits and vegetables market three days a week in the main town square that’s within walking distance of any apartment or house we are likely to rent, as is the train station and even the airport. There are a dozen super/hyper markets around the edge of the city all accessible by sidewalks, bike paths, or the 1 euro bus. For water access there’s the Aude river and its parks, the Canal du Midi with tree-lined walking/riding paths, and a huge lake for swimming. For history, how about living beside two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Canal du Midi, opened in 1681 and Europe’s largest medieval fortress that is a town unto itself. Each summer the city hosts a 6-week long music festival with dozens of concerts weekly, many of them free. Famous singers known throughout Europe plus worldwide names like Elton John, Sting, and Bob Dylan have performed. Did I mention that Carcassonne sits in the middle of France’s largest wine-producing area? Talk about living in wine country! Continue reading “Carcassonne it is, but why and where?”

Unknown's avatarBob
Life in France

France it is, but why and where?

Once we returned from Florida, right after Thanksgiving 2014, knowing that we were going to move somewhere we started looking for ideal places to retire. The website of US News & World Report offers quite a few options if you’re searching for sunniest places, historic places, or even wine lovers places, to list a few. One of the ideas mentioned online was where to retire on Social Security alone which averages a bit over $1200 per person a month according to the Social Security Administration. In that top-10 list were several northern US cities that we had already eliminated in our desire to avoid the snow. Delving deeper into that same website we discovered an article about the “other” south of France, meaning the Languedoc-Roussillon region which is further around the Mediterranean Sea towards Spain than the more well-known Cote d’Azur that includes Nice and Cannes. The paragraph that really piqued our interest said that in the city of Carcassonne a couple could expect to spend about 1000 euro (there’s that magic $1200 price) per month on all living expenses including rent, utilities, food, and insurance with money left over for entertainment and dining out. Continue reading “France it is, but why and where?”

Unknown's avatarBob