Tag: Carcassonne

Life in France

Who needs a treadmill?

Walking guide to Carcassonne
Walking guide to Carcassonne

Well, I do, but those details are for a bit later. When we decided to move to Carcassonne about a year and a half ago, we started reading everything we could find about living in the city. There were articles about the cost of living, housing, transportation, shopping, education, entertainment, taxes, history, sports teams, and recreation. As long term users of various types of cardio equipment, one line I read really caught my eye: “Get off of your treadmill and get outside”. The author was suggesting that instead of joining one of the gyms here in the city, you could use the many walking trails that take you along the river, beside the canal, and up through the 12th century fortress and castle above. Continue reading “Who needs a treadmill?”

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Life in France

Winter blooms

Traditional winter blooms at the base of the war memorial
Traditional winter blooms at the base of the war memorial

Former Carcassonne residents Tracy and Alan, whose “An Italian Point of View” blog we follow (link in the right column), told us that although the streets here might seem deserted if the weather is bad, as soon as the sun comes out, so do the people. That was definitely the case last weekend when the city seemed to come alive after being cooped up for several days running. Continue reading “Winter blooms”

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Life in France

Business as un-usual

The new ironing shop
The new ironing shop

We were walking home the other day when we noticed a lot of activity going on in a storefront that had been for rent ever since we arrived here. One advantage of living where we do is that there are lots of businesses close by so when we need something it’s often just a few steps away from our front door. We were curious and excited to see another shop opening since it would just enhance what is already a great neighborhood. After a few days of cleaning and painting it was time to post the name of this new enterprise on those sparkling front windows—La Repasserie—an ironing shop. How unique is that? Continue reading “Business as un-usual”

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Life in France

Door to door

Firefighters' calendar
Firefighters’ calendar

We’ve only just started living full-time at our new house but that has not exempted us from encountering a multitude of solicitors at our front door. The first was a roofer who arrived the day after we had signed the closing papers and we, ourselves, were only just looking around our new purchase. He pointed out the plants growing on our roof and showed us a couple of loose tiles at one edge. Like almost all houses here, ours has a ceramic tile roof and once we got a ladder, we quickly remedied the problems he showed us.  After him were 2 painters, a plasterer, another roofer, a psychic, and representatives from a religious group. With Bill’s quick “Sorry, we don’t speak French” comment to those last folks, they left with a smile. Continue reading “Door to door”

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Life in France

Christmas bonus

The bouquet on our table
The bouquet on our table

Last Saturday we were invited for dinner at the home of one of our neighbors on our “old” street; that is, where the rental house is located vs. the “new” street where we’ve bought a house. Of course those terms are both relative when you live someplace where the castle has been defending the land for about 1000 years or so. The first gathering we had attended like this was just two weeks after we moved to France and those invitations with the resulting fun evenings haven’t stopped. But this was going to be different since it was Christmas Eve and we’d read about the Réveillon, a feast often served after midnight mass. We were going to need some extra sleep! Continue reading “Christmas bonus”

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Life in France

Close to home

Onions by the 5 kilogram sack
Onions by the 5 kilogram sack

Although I grew up in a city in Virginia with twice the population of Carcassonne, we still weren’t that far from the farms that produced a lot of the food we ate. Leisurely Sunday afternoon drives would take us out into the country where our parents could buy vegetables that had been picked that morning and we could have them for dinner that night. I remember as a child being overwhelmed by the huge burlap sacks holding 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of peanuts, standing taller than I did at the time. Recently, although our backpacks weren’t quite that heavy (but felt that way), we did bring back from the market a woven bag of 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of onions. At a cost of only 1.49 euros for that entire sack, it was hard to pass up. Continue reading “Close to home”

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