Wrapping Up Our Last Week in La Belle France.

May 27th - May 31st, 2019 

The last week of  “my birthday trip” in France! 

Monday ... I needed some “city life” as in some retail therapy but not really looking for anything or in need of anything. 

We headed to Carcassonne to a large shopping area on the outskirts. 

Here we found the largest as in massive Carrefour (grocery store) I’ve ever seen. 

It was inside an indoor shopping mall with many interesting shops. 

And of course this happened today ... Monsieur Honey got himself coiffed. 

I had hoped to get myself pampered with a cut however it looks like I’ll be waiting until I get home.

Normally, when we are in France each city, town, village has several coiffures.

Late last week I had asked Sylvie at the Vival where she gets her hair cut/ styled. 

She told me Montlaur does have a “coiffeurs à domicile” ... that does both men and women’s hair and she comes to you. 

Anyway time has slipped away ... so I’ll wait until I’m back home in Canada. 

Some pretty bling in the jewelry store window. 

The grocery store was massive with a great selection of goods! 

You’re sure to find a Rosé you like here ... so much selection.

The cuts of meat are so different to what we are use to / familiar with as the children of butchers. 

Both Monsieur Honey’s and my father were butchers in their day. 

These charts hanging in the meat department of the supermarket might be helpful and also make for interesting conversation with my brother who is a meat cutter (recently retired). 

Tuesday was an at home day ... we visited Jean Louis the butcher and we were in luck ... fresh made « Friands » were in the showcase. Delicious!

These are similar to meat pies. I’ve already searched for recipes, there are several varieties with different fillings. 

The ones we enjoyed were made with fine ground beef, mushrooms, parsley, herbs and a light gravy/sauce in puff pastry.  

We purchased a couple to have for our lunch today.

Wednesday ... date night at Bourdasso, if we are ever in the area again we will definitely add this to the must do list! 

See separate post “La Bourdasso Cucina Italiana” posted May 31, 2019

We shared lots of laughs about my birth “day” that turned into the birthday “month”of celebrations. 

It was an amazing night in a beautiful setting with great ambiance, Italian aperitifs, delicious creative food and wine shared with my best friend. 

Thursday ...was a holiday in France (Ascension Thursday). 

We  did a return trip to Narbonne. 

There was much more boat activity on the Canal today, and an outdoor market lined both sides of the Quai on the Canal de la Robine near Les Halles. The city was humming. And the sun shone brightly! 

Here some tourists walked on the 2000 plus years of history on the ancient Roman road ... “Via Domitia ”.

There was a large number of flower vendors today.

I hoped that I’d still be able to get plants for my gardens when I get home. 

Jokingly I was going to ask the truck driver to deliver some plants to my home. 

Friday -  our last day of our trip! Some packing and preparing for our departure tomorrow.

We did make a reservation for lunch at Le Moulin in Trèbes. 

I’ll be writing a separate post about our lunch on the canal.

The weather was absolutely glorious today and we enjoyed a later supper on the terrace. 

I’ll be back with a few more posts over the next few days.

A Week in our French Life

Week of May 20th -May 26th 

We are on our second last week of our French stay. 

This week the weather was once again mixed. 

Monday we did a village walk; we stopped to smell some beautiful roses! 

Tuesday our road trip took us to Limoux. 

“The Venus out of the Water surrounded by four children riding dolphins” fountain in the Place de la République.

One of the children riding the dolphin ... isn’t he cute? 

Now look at that Wisteria ... can only imagine what it looks like in full flower.

Wednesday to Trèbes for a grocery shop and then some lunch. We first went to Le Moulin however it was full and there wasn’t a table available. We made a reservation for tomorrow. 

We chose the Trattoria Napoli on the Quai, the food and setting were excellent. 

The phylo pastry wrapped goat cheese & honey that look like egg rolls were so yummy. 

I’m going to have to try to make these.

It was a warmer (24C) sunny day and we had a great table to enjoy our meal and watch the activity in the canal.

Everything has a red tinge because of the red umbrellas! 

I said to Monsieur Honey “Let’s do this sometime” ... rent a houseboat and travel on the Canal.

I don’t think he was too interested.

Thursday back to Trèbes for lunch at “Le Moulin de Trèbes” situated at the locks on the Canal du Midi.

Has the weather finally broken? Let’s hope so! Looking out the window this morning it was clear and sunny! 

The menu and our lunch.

We enjoyed our lunch immensely (très bon!) so much so, we’ve decided to go here again on our last full day in France.

As the sun was shining and temperatures were finally warmer, we watched the activity in the locks where three boats were passing through, one of which was sporting a Canadian flag. We chatted and found out that these three couples were from B.C. The boat they rented had 3-bedrooms, 3-bathrooms ... sounds perfect.

Friday and Saturday we were experiencing some dreary weather (dark, cloudy skies and rain)  ... we spent those days at home in the village. 

Sunday we headed to Lagrasse where there was a vide-grenier, school festival with lots of activités for the children.

Our highlight of the day was our lunch at Le 1900 ...

All in all a fairly full week! 

You can’t do anything about the weather and just have to make the most of it. 

Oh and let’s not forget it was Mother’s Day in France ... every lady guest at Le 1900 was given a beautiful rose!

Just Day to Day Living!

17th/18th May 2019

Our week finished with a dark, wet day on Friday which forced us to take a break from our vacation and just slow down for a day or two. 

You see when we travel we don’t like to have a full calendar/ detailed itinerary for the whole period we are away.

That defeats the purpose of doing a longer stay, where we want to just live as at home but in another country.

Plus some our best experiences have happened by not planning too much so there is flexibility to attend events that we did not otherwise know about. 

So we spent Friday and Saturday “à la maison dans la village” ... we stayed at home in the village! 

This was the view Friday morning and it did rain most of the day.

 

Saturday it didn’t rain but was cool and cloudy most of the day. 

We shopped locally in the village, where we could walk to the shops for the day’s necessities. 

We purchased a couple quiches for our lunch and fresh chicken legs for tonight’s dinner from Jean-Louis at the butcher shop.

Next stop the Vival for a fresh baked baguette, butter and the most delicious eclairs for dessert.

 

Some reading for Monsieur Honey, some blogging for me and some “Netflix” movies watched together were enjoyable activities. 

Today’s roses in the Church’s border garden ...

Sunny Days

Well the past two weeks have flown by ... today is Tuesday, May 28th, 2019.

Two weeks ago today our little “Peugeot Airbus” did another run to the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport. 

Travel time is about an hour and half depending on the weather, time of day and if there are no “bouchons” (traffic jams) on the auto route. 

We made it in time for an unrushed checkin for Jennifer’s return flight home to Canada. 

On our return trip back to Montlaur, we stopped in Trèbes for a little snack on the Quai before some grocery shopping. 

The skies were blue and the sun was shining. 

The tapas menu at “Les Vignes de Bacchus” is delicious plus they have a great wine cave; it’s a great spot on the Quai for people and bird watching. 

We watched this female mallard duck being wooed by the male ducks. 

Poppies just starting to show their pretty faces along the Canal du Midi ...

We spent the afternoon outside enjoying the sunshine on the terrace.

This is one of the simplest pleasures we enjoy while travelling. 

Who wouldn’t want to sit here? 

Of course it’s all dependent on Mother Nature. 

Like the saying “You have to make hay while the sun shines” and take advantage of the chance to do something while conditions are good. 

Remember those cherries from Ceret, Monsieur Honey hand-pitted them and later in the week he baked a cherry galette for my birthday. 

Later in the day we went for a walk and wandered to the Tuesday market in Montlaur held from 4:30 to 7:00pm near the Place de la Maire.

We watched some of the local activity ...

Sights today ... the bus and one of the many farmers that regularly travels thru the village. 

We woke to beautiful sunshine the next day and continued with some more down time. 

Today was a perfect day for an alfresco lunch! 

This is the view from our bedroom window over the patchwork tiled roofs and the mountains. 

I look every morning, it’s like my personal weather barometer. 

We did a little container gardening (dead-heading/watering) on the terrace and relaxed the balance of the day. 

Tomorrow (May 16th) I will wake up with my personal odometer having added another year!