Tag: Markets

Life in France

In the market for music

Fresh lettuce at the market
Fresh lettuce at the market

Carcassonne has an open-air market 3 days a week and we often walk over there even if we don’t need any fruits or vegetables, just for the free entertainment. The colorful displays of fresh produce, some of which might have been in the ground or picked just hours before, are interesting enough. Add to that perhaps a guitarist, a dance troupe, drummers, a jazz or pop trio, and your morning is off to a great start. Last Saturday was no different except that Bill told me we’d be listening to “The Winds of Angels”. Now I was intrigued. Continue reading “In the market for music”

Unknown's avatarBob
Life in France

Which one?

A field of sunflowers near Limoux
A field of sunflowers near Limoux

If you’re in the US and tell someone that you are from Washington they might assume that you mean the state but it could easily be the nation’s capital or about 25 other cities, towns, mounts, and ports around the country. According to the post office, if you address a letter to Springfield without including the state name, they will have a choice of 41 locations where it could be delivered. Last Sunday our neighbors asked us to go with them to a festival in Villelongue which we had to look up in a mapping program to see how long the car ride might be. Since there are a dozen towns or villages in France with that name, we hoped they had chosen the one about 45 minutes south of Carcassonne. Continue reading “Which one?”

Unknown's avatarBob2 Comments
Life in France

Change to change

Bill's new coin holder
Bill’s new coin holder

In the US we never spent money. I carried around the same five 20 dollar bills in my wallet for years, literally. So how did we exist? With credit cards, of course. At one point I think we had 7 of them. Now before you call Credit Counseling Anonymous for us, I should say that we used them for convenience and paid everything off at the end of each month. It was just difficult to resist the offer of 50,000 air miles or 400 dollars rebate after the first use, for example, on a card that was free and you could then cancel a year later without penalty. That’s now all changed…or more correctly, change. Continue reading “Change to change”

Unknown's avatarBob3 Comments
Life in France

Liverpool ladies

Our photo of the postcard they sent
Our photo of the postcard they sent

We encounter a lot of people on a daily basis essentially because we walk around town quite a bit. Since we don’t have a car, anything that’s close enough to go there by foot, we do. Today we needed to replenish our supply of local sparkling wines because we had served a few glasses…ah, bottles…to some lovely ladies from Liverpool, England last week. And just how did that happen? Continue reading “Liverpool ladies”

Unknown's avatarBob1 Comment
Life in France

Your train is a bus

Bus at stationWe love trains, so much so that over the years many of our European vacations were planned around train schedules and where we could find a station. Once we had settled on France as the country to where we’d be moving, we then had to choose a city or town and one item that was on the must-have list for any final choice was a train station. So then, why do you see a picture of a bus here? Continue reading “Your train is a bus”

Unknown's avatarBob2 Comments
Life in France

Little choices, big impact

Team Farmers!
Team Farmers!

You’ve seen several posts on this blog about markets. In Carcassonne we have the open-air fresh fruits and vegetables market on the square three days a week; inside the heated/air-conditioned Les Halles covered market you can buy meats and seafood all week-long; and every other week or so there seems to be a fair that highlights the local wine, honey, nuts, cheese, and other products made here. In other words, we’re faced with an embarrassment of choices. Continue reading “Little choices, big impact”

Unknown's avatarBob2 Comments
Life in France

Accidental vegetarians

At the open air market
Walking towards the open air market

One of the many reasons that Bill and I moved to southwest France was the cost of living. For the quality of life we were seeking we were unable to find it affordably in the US, if it even exists there. Walking to the open air market two or three times a week to pick up fresh produce from near by farms is something we really appreciate. Next to the this square is Les Halles, the huge covered market built in 1768, where some of those same farmers also sell their meat and fishermen display their catch from the Mediterranean Sea that’s about 30 minutes away. That’s probably where we’ll be buying everything that we eat from now on, and here’s why…. Continue reading “Accidental vegetarians”

Unknown's avatarBob1 Comment