3 weeks in France
This is what we saw when we got off the plane in Paris. Bruce just had to shoot this, even though we have been to france 3 times before... We are back from our 3 weeks in france and all I can say is it was life changing. I'm going to do this blog in groups. This first blog will be the first 5 days. We flew from LA to Paris and Paris to Barcelona Spain. We chose Barcelona because our first stop was in a little village called Maury, just west of Perpignan which is just over the Spanish border into France in the Midi Pyrenees region and the department of the pyrneese orientals. The flights were cheaper (much cheaper) than flying to Toulouse, france and the car rental was much cheaper too and the drive is about the same. We left at 3:00 pm on Sunday the 2nd of September (my 44th birthday) and arrived in Barcelona at 4:00 pm on Monday...what happened to my birthday??? Bruce said we were celebrating my birthday for 3 weeks in france...I like that idea. We then had to get the bikes (we took our bikes with us) and luggage (just 1 piece for the both of us) and then our rental car and then had to head north to the french border. We arrived into our little town at 8:00 pm Monday night, starving! We rented a village house and the management company met us there with the keys and then we headed down to the center of the village for some food. We were beat - completely exhausted. We came home and fell asleep at about 9:30, but woke up at 2:00 am (france is 9 hours ahead of us here in Los Angeles). We read for a bit and fell back asleep at about 4:30 am and woke around 7:30 am. Where are we? What day is it? What time is it?
Ah, we are in the village of Maury france in the Pyrenees oriental department and they have a market every morning, up in the town center right by the patisserie. So I grabbed the basket and headed up to get some coffee, croissants and fruit. The basics, just get us by this morning until we go to the Intermarche (the big grocery store). We are staying in our village house for 5 days so we need breakfast, lunch and dinners. Today was a rest day (no biking) since we were so tired and a bit confused. We walked around our tiny village for a bit (it was very small) and then went grocery shopping and then went for dinner that night. I was so tired I couldn't cook. We had a great dinner with some wonderful wine and met really nice people. Time to start speaking french - nobody spoke english here or if they did we would ask them to speak french and they loved that.
our 2nd day we decided to go for a bike ride. We picked a village about 15 miles away called Tauteval (above), it would be about 30 miles round trip..perfect. We looked on the map and chose very small roads so there wasn't much traffic. Found out that these roads were probably the original roads, I wouldn't call them roads, they were just 1 lane paths, but they were paved. They were also right in the middle of all the vineyards. It was so beautiful, riding with all the grapes...no traffic, just beautiful french countryside. We went to a village called Tauteval, home of the Tauteval man, at 450,000 years old, said to be the oldest European. This area had a constant history from approximately 1 million years ago....crazy! The ride there was wonderful but the ride back was so hard. We are in the Pyrenees mountains in a valley and the wind (le vent) is horrible...the worst wind I have ever biked in. It took us twice as long to get back. Everyone says that it is windy all the time here...why didn't the people we rented our village house from tell us that!!!!!
Decided to take a bit of a road trip today (only 1 hour away) to visit the medieval city of Carcasonne. We strolled the busy but pleasant streets and walked through the medieval castle (above) which despite the tourist trappings and accompanying tourists, was quite amazing. We tried to imagine daily life in this storybook medieval village. I made dinner tonight and we are settling into a better rhythm, helped along by a bottle of Chateau de Blanes 2003, Cotes du Roussillon, the local region. Still having trouble sleeping, so we stopped off at the pharmacist and they gave us these little sleeping pills. I would take 1/4 and bruce 1/2 and boy did it help us. Our 4th day we awoke at 8am...we both slept through the night - yes! Tonight we have reservations for dinner at a restaurant where everyone sits at one long table.
Dinner was a success, Bruce was seated at the head of the long table and we enjoyed a true french meal from start to finish. A bottle of the proprietors own label, tartine breast of duck with potatoes and veggies and amazing calamari in a pesto sauce. We had chocolate cake and profiteroles for dessert. We were stuffed and high on food. The highlight was the two British couples we dined with. Des & Phil, Brenda & Pip provided a great conversation. Dogs, french, America, lady di, the princes were all topics of discussion, along with much laughter. It was truly an experience to dine together by chance. The owners were gracious and warm and the husband seemed to get a kick out of our conversation. Their dog came in for a visit (of course) and then let himself out of the door, much to everyone's amusement. Bruce ordered some local aperitif, "Maury hor d'age" some local wine that simply tasted like eating wine. We bought two bottles for later and staggered up the narrow path under a starry sky to La Maison.
This is the front of someone village house - looks like a postcard! Maury has grown on us and we have come to appreciate the local terrior and it's offerings (we picked up some local chevre from the tiny store in town and it was pure heaven on a fresh baguette, which cost 66 cents). We don't really LOVE this area...we like it but don't love it. Very arid and very very windy. We leave tomorrow for Najac, which is in the Aveyron region, just northeast of Toulouse. We'll spend 15 days up there. Our trip is starting to unfold slowly, growing better each day as we relax into it and the underlying tensions of daily life in busy los angeles fade away. It really is the life!
