Travels with The Rayman

Was it when I saw the road kill?  or later?  much later?  I’m not sure as it was a day of differences in France.

Before starting out to explore the Mediterranean, we fortified ourselves with poached apricots, croissants, bread, cantaloupe, coffee etc.  Our hosts had written down some places we might want to take in… along with a verbal narrative.  So sally forth we did.  Surrounded by vineyards we felt like we were in our own element.  I was driving.  Ray rode shotgun armed with the maps.  We had a swimmingly good time until we went into a village and noticed the very long line of traffic lined up trying to go the direction we were coming from.  Always in the mode of avoiding  traffic jams, I turned this way and that way and before you could say Jack Robinson, we were on a road that was unmarked and…we were the only ones on it!!  Did it end badly?  Not at all.  It was the only miracle of the day, however.

We drove from Thorny Brassieres  to Brassieres (Besiers).  Besiers is the city with a lot of one way, narrow streets.  After the grand search for a place to park to visit the tourist info bureau, we found underground parking.  I’m surprised they don’t require you to have sunroofs here on all vehicles for easy access.  Because they park so close, its is almost impossible to squeeze in and out of a car.  It would be easier to climb thru a roof.  When we emerged from the garage, we didn’t know where we were.  We walked around a park that was being set up with games, amusement rides (for instance, we exited the garage by the bumper cars).  I looked at Ray and said, “where are we going?”.  He said, “back to the car”.  We  did go back.  Cheapest parking yet!!

We then visited a lock system in the city of Brassieres  which sits on the Orb river.  There were 7 locks but the official name said neuf (nine).  A mystery.  Anyway, it was great…all kinds of people there watching the boats go down the river via the locks.  We have movies but I’ll spare you.  Our friends Al and Charlie told us not to go to Brasseries.   They warned that we would never find our way out.  Well, no problemo.  Did take a few pictures.  Things you never see on a tour bus.

No CC&R’s here.  Le chat (cat) and clothes drying.

We left there and took backroads along the ocean to Sete (pronounced seat).  Stopped on the way for liquid refreshment but that was uneventful.  Sete was very pretty and difficult.  Several things happened there.  We witnessed our first french petanque game!!  above left.  And we spent an hour finding part of their port.  The only way we even knew they had a port, aside from being told, is that we saw postcards of it while we were wandering around aimlessly in another part of Sete.  So we persevered.

Heading out of Sete our luck ran out.  Hit a traffic jam on a frontage road that ran along the ocean and were stuck there for quite some time as everyone in France decided to go to the beach that day and leave simultaneously in the same direction which,  just so happened, to be the way we were going.  After escaping that plug up, we wandered into a small town with a very small port and had dinner at a cafe.  Photos below were taken while still happy.

We left the cafe and headed back to Thorny Brassieres.  It was dark.  Have I mentioned yet that France doesn’t use much street lighting?  All their quaint little signs are very hard to read even with the sun on.  At night they are impossible.  You know where this is going.  Oh, and moi left her regular lunettes (glasses) back at Le Presbytere (name of our B&B).  Well, figuring we would get home before dark, Ray volunteered to the be the designated driver which left me as co-pilot.  So, a tipsy co-pilot, an excitable driver on dark roads…and no moon whatsoever.

I’m not sure if it was the first time around Brasier or the second but the wheels came off, and I don’t mean the car’s.  Sparing the casual reader the details, we finally decided singing would be better than “that other thing” so Ray picked the tune.  It was Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.   Uhm.

When one has the sun, at least you know east from west.  Ray was convinced Thorny was one way.  I was convinced it was another.  So we did a loop or two before finding the A9 freeway.  Oh, another interesting point.  Each road in France has about three different designations (read numbers).  And the road signs often list a city two hundred miles away, say Paris, when you need to know how far the next town is.  Pour that in a shaker and out comes confusion and bewilderment.  But I digress.

Having found A9 we then commenced to sounding like dueling church bells.  So, we headed the way I was sure was right.  We were looking for exit A36.  Well, we found exit 37 so I was vindicated…until we reached the toll booth and discovered we had been heading in the wrong direction.  Apologizing profusely, we retraced our path and discovered that we had entered A9 at the A36 on ramp.  OMG.  If we had just not jumped on the freeway, we would have tripped over Thorny Brassieres.  So 6  euros and 40 minutes later we were where we were looking for.

And that wasn’t all.  In our freeway driving back to Thorny, we stopped to observe two wrecks that shut down the freeway to one lane.  And people were still leaving that beach apparently at 11 p.m. at night.  Bottomline.  It took us 2 1/2  hours to go approximately 40 miles.  If you subtract the back and forth (I was so wrong) miles, it was probably 20 miles.  Guesstimates of course.

We arrived at Le Presbytere, apologized profusely, and threw ourselves into bed.  We needed to get right to sleep because we knew the dinging and donging would start at 7.

We were invited to a wedding today by a lovely young french woman who is marrying this Saturday.  We had to decline as we’re heading back to base camp this Thursday.  Drats.  This happened when the innkeepers had aperitifs at 7:30 (1930) and the betrothed showed up with a nice french homme (man) for drinks.  We don’t know how they were “related” but he was not the one she was marrying.  Confused?  So were we.

When we arrived at our B & B about 5:30 from Carcassone, we were hot and thirsty.  We presented our hosts with a bottle of rose champagne since we were staying here for two nights and our transplanted Irish hosts were so delightful.  Gee.  We hadn’t spoken this much english in weeks!!!

But I digress.  In fact, I think this is going to be another jump-around narrative because it’s late here and I’m jumping from thought to thought.  Which isn’t really that unusual for me.  But I still digress.

What a great day we had.  It started on the terrace in Lautrec.  Pictured above is the garden of the B & B.  Breakfast was fabulous…croissants, coffee, juice, yogurt, jams, bread and cake.  As soon as we checked out, we walked up the hill which is the highest place …and took these pictures.  The windmill actually works and it dates way back when (I can’t remember).  Then it was on to Thierny Besiers ( which we nicknamed Thorny Brassieres) which is very close to the Med.  We had booked two nights.  As soon as we left Lautrec, we passed a field of sunflowers and I just had to take a dirt road so that we could take the pictures below.  It was stunning.  As soon as we left the field, we drove along country roads lined with trees.  As pictured below also.

Opps.  I got ahead of myself.  Wanted to show you the pool in Lautrec and the host in his wine cave.  2000 bottles.  Fabulous.

The area is known for it’s rose garlic.  It’s the Gilroy of France.

Ray at the foot of the stairs that lead to the windmill.  Looking toward the Pyrenees.  Below, the windmill, view from the windmill, the sunflowers and the tree lined road.

Ray enjoying his first espresso at a sidewalk cafe.  A picture of a beauty salon window complete with pricing.  The far-away Pyrenees.

So, we’re sitting in a cafe in the middle of Le Cite (Carcassone fortress).  And we’re right next to a french couple.  He was a man of some girth, having polished off cassoulet for lunch along with a creme brulee, wine, coffee and lots of small brown cigarettes.  She was a blonde woman with a good smile.  He got up to go somewhere and I asked her, “Ou  est habitate?” (where do you live, Dianna speak).  She told us but I had no clue where it was.  Up nord (north) somewhere.  But that is all it took to get us started.  We had a great time “conversing”…and by the time we finished, we knew that he was a hunter.  He shot canard (duck) and several other things we had not a clue what they were…so after many attempts at translating one word, we shrugged … and she said, “Bambi”.  Oh, deer!!  And there were another two other words we didn’t know.  By this time the waiters had gotten into the act and one of them snorted, like a pig.  Uproarious laughter ensued.  Wild boar.  Ah, ha.  Everyone had a great time and we hugged when we left.  Another thing, our hunter was bewildered by the British.  He said they come to France to live and don’t engage with the french.  They stay to themselves and don’t live like the french, don’t learn the language.  He doesn’t understand why they move to France.  Interesting conversation all around.  They love Americans.

Here’s our picture with our french friends.

We were recounting our story to our new Irish friends, the host and hostess in Thorny Brassieres.  And Martin, the host, told us a similar story.  He was in a cafe in Italy and wanted explanation of a menu item.  The waiter tried over and over to say the word hoping that Martin would understand.  Martin couldn’t get it.  In desperation the “waiter practically did three acts from swan lake around the dining room table… flapping his arms and moving up and down”.  Too funny.  The word was goose!!

But I digress.

The fortress.  Fabulous.   The romans started the project when the number of years was less than a 1000 a.d.  Eventually the Cathars settled it.  There is so much history, that I’ll leave it to the reader to google it on their own if they want more info.  It was just massive and you could image the arrows being slung, the spears being thrown, and the hot oil being poured on those trying to advance up the wall.  Not to mention rocks and boulders being heaved.

This is a picture from afar.   Below a short film and then another picture of the of the inner walls.  Someone said, everyone should visit Carcasonne.  Great idea!!

This was our activity for the this day.  When we left there, we drove to Martin and Sile ‘s B and B and that’s when we got invited to the wedding.

We had a wonderful dinner on the terrace and spent our evening with our hosts and two of their friends from Ireland who were visiting on their holiday.  We had so much fun.  A whole evening of  Irish english!!  At 2300 (11:00) I excused myself.  Ray stayed on until mid-night.  Fun was had by all!!  And in the morning we were awaken by church bells.

Church bells are an interesting phenom here in France.  At Lautrec, there were at least 3 different sets that began clanging at 0700.  But they didn’t just ring seven times.  It went something like this:  ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.  Then just when you rolled over, another one went dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong.  Okay.  That must be it.  But oh, no.  Then you had ding, ding.  Pause.  Dong, dong.  Pause.  Ding.  Pause.  Dong.  Long pause finally so you turn back over.  Ding, ding, ding.  At this point you are wondering…”when are these things going to STOP?”  Ding.  Pause.  Dong.  I imaged two religious orders competing for the last word, or the final word?  or, maybe…”I’m right”.  “No, I’m right”.  Finally they stopped.  And then they started up again at 7:30.  They were relentless.

Well, it was much the same in Thorny Brassieres.  Won’t bore you with the details.  You get the idea.  Other than to say, that the bells were not precise.  For instance, they rang sometimes at 7:02 or at 6:57.  It was silly and fun.

After leaving the house about 0700 (7 a.m.) this cold morning, the first place we stopped was this impressive…well, I’ll let you take a guess.  It is so modern.  It was most modern thing we saw today, quite possibly.  The structure was magnificent and placed above wonder gardens.  What a sight to behold.  It was a gas station/rest stop.  There are rest stops with no food, just les toilettes and picnic tables and they are shielded from the freeway with big trees to make it more pleasant.  Then there are gas stations with full meals, les toilettes, wine, cheese, etc.  Then there was this one.  It has to be the all time best gas station I’ve ever been to!!  And did I mention that the powers that be have thought of everything for the traveler.  There is a place to relieve yourself about every 30 miles.  It is so civilized.

I don’t have to tell you but we in the U.S. are lucky to have a rest stop every 200 miles.  It is cruel and unusual punishment with those not blessed with camel bladders.  Okay, enough all ready.

We were making our way to Albi, home to the Toulouse Lautrec Musee.  A very interesting painter that lived in these parts and gay Paris in the late 1800’s.  He died at the age of 37 probably from alcoholism.  A man with a regular sized torso but deformed legs because 1.)  he broke them in separate accidents and 2.) his father married his first cousin.  Opps.  They downplay reason number two but I’ll bet that’s the real problem as he came from money.  Some of his most famous paintings were billboards for performers.  He also painted almost exclusively women of the night and of the Moulin Rouge (red windmill).  His painting are housed in a museum in the heart of Albi.  Here Ray is standing on the steps leading down to the museum.   The photo on the right is what you see when you emerge from the musee.

When we left the musee we jumped on a trolley-like vehicle.  It looked like a train in that there were cars held together much like a train.  We were thrilled.  Our timing was superb as the tour was just about to begin.  We paid our money and the driver escorted us to our “car”.  Oh, my, god.  It was sardine city.  I became intimate friends with the man sitting across from me.  His knees only touched my seat, ehr, the seat I was sitting on, for heaven’s sake.  Ray became good friends with his wife.  Ray sat with his knees toward me, making it impossible for him to look gouche (left).  We were three abreast.  And every time the trolley started went forward from a stand still, we felt like we were going to fall forward.  And that would not have been pretty.  The entire 40 minutes tour was in francais.  So we recognized approximately 10 words…gouche, droite (right), rue (street), century (siecle), cathedral, Toulouse and Lautrec, merci, au revoir.  Oh, and did I mention that it was chaud (hot)?  Anyway, here is some of what we saw.

From one bridge to another.  And the cathedral (episcopalian).  From there we proceeded on to our final destination for the day, the 12th century village of Lautrec.  Here are some pictures.

View from the hill where the village is situated.  Picture number two is the garden in the back of the bed and breakfast we’re staying at for one night.  And this is where I must give a plug to our new friend in San Diego, Diane, who helped us find and then book all these fabulous places to stay.  I found her through our francais professeur, Maurice.  He shared her website, au-chateau.com with us.  And she authors a newsletter about traveling on your own through France.  She has been invaluable to us.  A few more pictures of the chateau which was built in the 1700th century.

The view from the terrace looking down at the foundation of the ancient wall and a picture of the “barbecue” with a snippet of the lawn furniture that graces the piscine (swimming pool).

Before dinner we took a stroll Here’s some pictures from that walk.

Moi in the middle of a very old street.  Ray from the terrace of the visitor’s center.

And the door to our chateau.  It belies what waits on the other side.

There were 8 for dinner.  Our host and hostess(who were english speaking) joined us for aperitifs which, in this case, was a dry white wine with a truffle liquor.  Very interesting.  It was cool and refreshing and it got us loosened up.  Of the 8, we and Frederick from Paris, spoke english.  Everyone was exceedingly polite making sure that Ray and I were served before they were.  Dinner was fabulous, the walk to the room was short and sweet which was a good thing since we had had lots of wine to drink.  We ate duck and garlic confit?, cooked and peeled peppers as an appetizer.  Eggplant parmesan with white rice, fabulous cheese, and peaches poached in red wine.  Oh, and about a loaf of bread each!!  It was perfect and dinner lasted from 8 until 10:40 p.m.

What you will probably find interesting is Frederick.  He and his wife run a restaurant in Paris.  We talked all about how much he loved Americans.  His mother loved Americans because they liberated Paris and she was there.  We discussed food, wine, and muslims in France.  They have just passed a bill outlawing the veil.  It’s one thing to pass it, another to enforce.  He’s worried about that.  His employees, chefs, come from other countries because the french don’t want to work that hard.  They have big immigration issues.  At this point in the conversation with us…he still loves Americans.  He served in the military for one year and when doing his duty, he was stationed near the Pyrenees.  They used to see lights moving about the mountains at night.  Very dangerous.  Illegals.  The gypsies also are a big problem.  Well, don’t want to bore you.  Suffice it to say, it was a very funny fun evening and I was exhausted from trying to listen to the french being spoken.  Again, could pick up a word here or there…but they are speed demons!!!

Editor’s note:  My spelling is ruined.  I can’t spell anymore.  Francais has ruined me.  I keep getting confused.  So, if I misspell things, english or francais, please ignore since my dictionary is in the car and I don’t feel like going to get it.

Ah, here are the directions for the one of the chambre l’hotels we will stay at during our pilgrimage.   What could possibly go wrong?

From Carcassone follow signs to A61 Motorway.

Enter Motorway in direction Narbonne Montpellier Barcelona.

After about 50 km the motorway exit to Barcelona keep on the A9 direction Montpellier

After about 40 km take exit 36 (Beziers Ouest)

At roundabout take 1st Exit direction Mazamet/ Castres

At next roundabout take 2nd Exit direction Montpellier/ Millau

After about 5 km just after you have passed over the River Orb take a slip road to the right direction Lignan Sur Orb.

Follow signs for Lignan and pass through the village.

(Ignore signs for Thezan Le Malhaute)

Continue to the next T junction and there turn left and then take the next right into Thézan Lès Béziers.

Drive towards centre of village and when you reach a T junction turn left.

Pass Post office on Left and then turn right between brown bollards.

Pass café on left and take a turn to right after about 100 mtrs.

Go up that road for about another 100 mtrs until you see sign for Eglise on right.

Turn into this street and go to the left around the church.

Le Presbytere is about 50 mtrs up on left hand side.

You can usually find a parking space if you turn right into the Church yard just after our house.

So, today we walked around La Ferte St. Aubin.  The picture of me was taken in the village jardin.   So modern in such an ancienne (very old) town.   Below is more of the town jardin.  Quite lovely.

Now I may look pefectly comfortable, but, my pants are tight.  This french food is adding inches.

This is the bagette from Vincent’s.  We eat one every day.  It is tres bon.  If I could, alas, blog the scent of this pan (bread), you would really, really know what I mean.  And it costs less than a euro.  And it is so much fun.  In the morning you see the residents scurrying about with a bagette or two under their arm or in their hand.  Which led me to an ah-ha moment.  I am French.  My habit of going to the market just about every day of the week is so french.  That’s what they do.  Finally, mystery solved.  There’s a whole country over here doing it exactly the same way.  The line is often out the door at the boulangeries and the meat market.  I’ll send pictures but not today.

While I posed in front of the flora, Ray did something quite different thanks to my photographic eye.  But I do think that watching horses smooch is as male thing, don’t you?

We discovered these chevals (horses) at the town’s chateau.  In the horse barn.   Below is a snapshot of the chateau itself.

You are aware that they don’t operate on the same electrical system as we do.  They are 220.  We knew that.  But we didn’t completely appreciate what that might mean to us.  When we first arrived we needed to do “electrical things”.  So we plugged in the transformer.  And there it sat.  So when I went to dry my hair, all was going swimmingly well until the dryer got a burst of energy and died.  And the transformer “smelled” funny.  Bottom line, don’t leave a transformer plugged in with nothing to do.  So…we were without our hair dryer and a transformer.  Ugh.  This did cause me concern because as many of you know, Ray was an electrician for the U.S. Air Force.  Looking with jaundiced eye ever since, I am careful not to leave a transformer plugged in and I have been undercharging everything…especially le ordinateur (computer).

One other thing.  My hair keeps growing.  It’s getting grayer by the day as well.  Well, you know where this is going.  I need a haircut, etc.  The logical things to do was to email our new french friends and ask where she, Martine, gets her hair done.  When she shared this information, Ray and I headed for the coiffure shop.  To tell you the truth, I’ve never involved Ray in my hair appointments.  But this time, I needed him to help me explain my situation and make an appoint.  Well, sure enough, it’s a good thing he came with me.  No one in the shop spoke english.  It was three against two but we managed to make an appointment for 13 aout (8/13).  I’m hoping we set the time for 2 p.m.  She gave me a card with the info on it and I’m still not all together sure.  And it went something like this, “ Vous visite La Ferte y , uhm, uhm,”.  Ray said in english, “what are YOU TRYING to say?”.  I said in english, “I’m trying to tell them that we are visiting and staying at Martine’s house”.  And so it went.  And we all jiggled.

So, now we ready to head south in the morning.  I’ll keep it all a surprise.  Don’t want to “overhang the market” as they say in marketing circles.  But, we do have exciting plans that are sure to produce some fabulous pictures and stories!!

Until then, au revoir!

Correction:  I have never involved Ray in helping me make a hair appointment.  In truth I used to drag him to Carmel to get my hair done for about a year.  But he never made the appointment with me…but that’s another story!

While Ray was relaxing in the shade of the pomme arbre (apple tree), he decided he wanted to wine taste on Saturday…so we set out in search for good chenin blanc which is available in the region of Tour.  Wow.  Was it beautiful.  But I must interrupt myself to show you our dinner last night!!

Turkey brochettes as done by moi mere( my husband)!!

Turkey, fresh grilled green beans, baked potatoes, fresh tomato.  All veggies from the jardin (garden) picked just minutes before they were required!!  C’est tres bon!  A picture of a just-dug up and just baked potato!!!

So on to today.  Below is Ray in the tasting room at Vouvray.   Looks modern inside.  But here are some of it’s neighbors on the outside!!

The two pictures just above are a couple of doors down from the other modern one.  We achete (buy) deux botellas d rose champagne.

The village of Amboise from across the reve (river).   Below are pictures of the non-chocolat display cases in the chocolat shop!!!

A small fixer-upper on the Loire.  And the Loire as we passed o’re it.

Blois on the river Loire (above) and a dirt road we found by mistake (below).

We had a blast.  Started out on the freeway.  It cost us 12 euro to go for an hour.  On the way back, we took the back roads.  They took longer, but we followed the Loire most of way and the views were superb.  The day was warm.  We found a great parking place almost without effort in Amboise (home of the chocolat and fig sorbet).  We purchased a whole box of chocolat noir filled with hazelnut cream, cafe, walnut, raspberry, chocolat…really, we’re not even sure.  All we know is that it cost 26 euro for a little tiny box and it was worth every euro.  We came home, barbecued chicken, wrestled up some potatoes from the garden and a tomato off the vine and voila!!!  Dinner followed by chocolat!!!  and red wine.  We bought 6 bottles for an average of 5 euro a bottle including two bottles of rose champagne that is excellent.  That was purchased at that place we took a picture of (above) in an old “cave”.   Wow.  Makes you wonder why our wine costs so much where we live.

Anyway, wanted to share mostly pictures today.  Hope you all enjoyed them.

Okay, one comment from the peanut gallery.  California has a lot more in common with France that it does, say, Alabama.  Or the mid-west.  Or almost any state.  It makes me think that someone had a good idea (bon idee).  We should succeed from the Union and join the EU.  We love good food and wine.  Our attitude is more relaxed and non-judgmental…it’s a great fit!!!  There are other benefits as well.  However, it is late and I’ll leave it to your imaginations!!!

Tomorrow we prepare for our trip to the south of France.  We plan to be gone trois jours, lundi to mercredi (monday to wednesday).  We bought quiche for petit dejeuner (breakfast) demain (tomorrow).  Beyond that, everything is a surprise…to you and us!!

We miss our friends but we aren’t homesick, if that makes sense.  This trip is fabulous!!!

Try as I might, I can’t figure out how to get the whole picture on this page.  It was an impressive statue at the Mont.  Forgot to include it earlier.  It was one of the few statues at the Mont.  An angel slaying a big lizard…the kinder, gentler side of the church!!

So, yesterday, Vendredi (Friday) was a day of delicious naps, homecooked meals, a walk to the boulangerie, listening to audio books, reading books, studying maps and plotting our next great adventure.  Oh, and did I mention the tasting of  vin and eating of chocolat?  We needed it.

So today we’re off the local haunts to wine taste, buy chocolate, track down that fig sorbet.  You know, the normal things that a hedonist would do.   So to entertain myself and others, I provide here a few pictures that have not yet been included.

This is a cracked tree in the parking lot of the chateau.  Luckily we didn’t park underneath it.  It posed quite a dilemma because there are parked cars under it.  Yikes.  That would ruin you day, wouldn’t it?

A lovely street in Amboise, home of the fab chocolat and fig sorbet.  We will go back there today.

Good picture of Ryan.  We really miss him.  Especially his map reading abilities!!  Just kidding.  It was terrific having him with us here in France

Ray buying bread at the boulangerie.

Camels?  Yes, we came upon these camels in a small village.  They were part of a traveling circus that apparently hits all the small villages in this area (Loire).  It was such a surprise, I insisted that we stop for a shot!!!

Signing off for now.  Bon jour y au revoir!!