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!
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