Watt are you talking about?

Just hangin' around from the ceiling
Just hangin’ around from the ceiling

Light is very important to both of us and had a lot to do with the house we chose to buy here in Carcassonne. Since it’s built around a courtyard and almost every room has a window and/or a glass door opening onto that space, lots of sunlight floods in even now when the sun is low in the sky. With all of that natural light you might think that we wouldn’t need to spend a lot of time searching for table lamps or lighting to hang on the walls and from the ceilings but it’s just the opposite. Here, when someone moves out of their home, be it a rental or a sale, it’s not at all unusual to take everything with them including kitchen cabinets, all of the appliances, the lights on the walls and ceilings, and yes, sometimes even the kitchen sink. Continue reading “Watt are you talking about?”

Matryoshka

A castle within a castle
A castle within a castle

Today’s language lesson changed from French to Russian because I had to look up the name of those nesting dolls (and this blog post’s title)  that stack inside of one another, each getting smaller and smaller. This folk art was started in a craft workshop near Moscow in 1890 by an industrialist searching for a new style for his country. Carcassonne has its own bigger-than-life version, as in 10 meter (32 feet) tall stone walls, that got their start at least 800 years before those tiny carved dolls. Continue reading “Matryoshka”

Well…Albi

Huge brick cathedral of Albi
Huge brick cathedral of Albi

We had the pleasure of hosting two of Bill’s sisters and one niece on a part of their visit to France and Spain. It was a celebration of Jenny’s passing the first stage of her studies to becoming a sommelier, a specialist in selecting and serving wine, either on its own or pairing it with food. What better place to come than the world’s largest wine producing area to try out those newly-acquired skills? Continue reading “Well…Albi”

Traces

A trace of blue in the kitchen
A trace of blue in the kitchen

Once we figure out what “Mediterranean Style” means we think that’s how we want to decorate the house. After all, we’ve moved to the south of France so we want our home to reflect that choice but just what does that encompass? There are the colors, the styles, the materials, the furnishings, the accessories, etc. I think that we’ve discovered the traces of where to begin. Continue reading “Traces”

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”

No pain from pain

Bread festival poster from the city's website
Bread festival poster from the city’s website

If you read the blog yesterday you’ll know that we got sidetracked on our way to visit a bunch of boulangeries just outside of town. While the ink was still drying, so to speak, on that article, we spent a good part of the day at the park in front of Carcassonne’s train station totally surrounded by boulangers (bakers) and all of their work. It was time for the annual Fête du Pain that we might otherwise call the Bread Festival. Continue reading “No pain from pain”

Temptations

Baguette in a backpack
Baguette in a backpack

Last Wednesday we rode the bus for 15 minutes to one of the zones commerciales on the outskirts of Carcassonne. These are the shopping areas with lots of big box stores and parking lots that just won’t fit on the narrow streets in town laid out almost 900 years ago. But what we were in search of would fit (sort of, as you see in the photo) inside our backpacks: bread. Continue reading “Temptations”