Frilly Panties, Baked Goods and Grapevines Undulating Across the Valley

angry skies over La Cite'
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Thursday, September 27.

Just in case you think all I’m doing is whooping it up here…wrong. I am getting very close to actually having to do laundry! And I have been washing dishes. There is a dishwasher here, in the bottom half of the stove, but besides having to figure out how to work it, that would come dangerously close to having to use an appliance! The sink in my cottage is a huge farmhouse sink, shallow, but 2’ x 3’ with the built in side counter with ribs to drain the water back into the sink from the dish rack. I guess washing dishes in France is not THAT bad…J.

just in case you think all I'm doing is whooping it up here...wrong. I am getting dangerously close to doing laundry!

frilly panties!
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The weather has turned windy and cool, and it whistles across the roof tops at night. I seem to have lost a day somewhere, but I have been back to Carcassonne to use the internet and wander the streets of the Ville Basse. (I tried to use the internet at the Trebes tourist office, but the characters are so different on the keyboard, and it is sooo slow, I give up after 20 minutes. I can’t even find the @!) The “old” town is still ancient and architecturally interesting, but very vibrant and lively. This is one town that is not deserted or hiding behind the shuttered windows of its houses, there are lots of people around. Rap music in French blasts from the windows of passing cars. Place Carnot is where the outdoor markets are held every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and I arrive just as they are breaking down the Tuesday stalls. The streets on either side of the square, Rue G. Clemonceau and Rue A. Armanac, are lined with shops and I am attracted to a place with linens from Provence, and another with colorful glazed pottery and cute little French signs (Attendez Le Chat!...Beware the cat!). The clothes here are fun and very stylish, and if I had it to do over again I would consider bringing less and buying things here. There is a lingerie shop with frilly panties and bustiers, right across the street from a Patisserie (bakery). This is wrong on so many levels, because the way I see it you can only patronize one of them…slinky lingerie and baked goods just don’t go together!

slinky lingerie
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I eat lunch at one of the bistros on the square. The server is jovial and constantly singing as he comes and goes from the kitchen to the terrace. There’s that singing thing again! It’s hard enough to speak in another language, and I’m sorry that I don’t know how to joke or banter with him. I have also realized that it doesn’t matter how perfectly I pose a question, I have to be able to understand the reply as well. The “better” I ask, the faster the reply. Oops. I am often left staring at them blankly. If I could just stop time for 30 seconds, I usually understand them, but by that time they’ve switched to English or shrugged it off. Now I am starting to prepare myself to listen for what I “think” they may say. After using a credit card at the gas station, they may ask you to press the “v” for validation. At the grocery store, they ask if you have a store card, or if you need a bag. (You have to pay for bags here, and most people bring their own). At a restaurant they always ask if you are finished (terminee’) or if you want coffee or dessert.

my cottage, #5 with blue shutters
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I discover there are boxes you can buy at the post office that are prepaid, and you can pack them as heavy as you want. For 38 euros, Colisimo XL is not really that big (18” x 12” x 8”), but it does offer possibilities to shop and send things home, or just mail my heavy maps, brochures and books home instead of paying overweight on the airline. I buy two. I also had fun at a video store reading the titles of movies. When the movies are issued to a foreign market, they sometimes change the names to fit the culture better. “Meet The Parents” is “My Boyfriend, My Parents, And Me”." Freedomwriters " is "Writing for Safety". Some are completely different, but sorry, I can’t think of them now! They did give me a good giggle, though.

falling down cottage, but see the wall oven and built in cabinet on the right? A shelf on the wall, and on the left the skinny stairs. Inhabited by kitties!
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On Wednesday I wake up to torrential downpours. Most of the Cathar castles are outside, on top of a mountain and involve a hike. You can take a 3 hour ride on a canal barge from Trebes or Carcassonne (in fact, from most of the ports along the canal), but that’s out too. I decide to take a country drive. The sun comes and goes, but being wine country, when it highlights the precise rows of acres and acres of grapevines undulating across the valley, it is beautiful. The colors just pop… the greens of the vines, the red-brown of the earth, the yellows of the scattered fields are picture postcard perfect. I drive to Caunes-Minervois, but honestly, there was nobody home! I stroll the streets and see one other man, with a camera too. Picturesque, narrow winding cobbled streets, I start to wonder if I will be able to find my car again! Just north of here is a dense forest, but I only drive for 10 miles or so just to see it. I turn around and drive to Bram.

restaurant Auberge des Lices
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Bram has an archaeological museum that is small, but filled with Roman artifacts. This area was a major crossroads and a base for pottery making. There are amphora (earthenware jars for oil and wine, etc.), buckles, knives, and old, old coins. Apparently it is rare to find tombs and sarcophagi from the Roman period, but there are lots of them here. Only the wealthy or famous warrior would get a tomb. They have overhead pictures of local fields that show the outlines of ruined towns; they are everywhere. Towns were either built circular, around a castle or church, or in a spiral like a snail’s shell, and Bram, Capendu and many others around here still are built in a circle. You just might not notice as you walk or drive, but the aerial view pictures are definitive. If you are interested in that kind of thing, it was worth a stop.

more Carcassonne at night
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I hit the grocery store on my way home. You can buy Blanquette de Limoux, a sparkling white bubbly wine that tastes like Champagne to me, for 5 euro. I guess the method is different, but I’ve overheard several Australians and Americans ask for it, so I buy a bottle. I also fill up with gas and find a vacuum to clean the bread crumbs out of my car. Tomorrow Iam planning on driving south to Peyrepertuse and Queribus, two Cathar strongholds perched way up on the mountain tops, and maybe Montsegur, the last to fall, if I can fit it in. Then I think I will have reached” castle ruin burnout”, just in time to pack up and head for the Dordogne region.

A toute a l’heure!