On Monday we awoke full of excitement to think that Karen and Bruce would be joining us later that day. First though, we had to hang around the house waiting for DHL to deliver a document to us which they had said would happen in the morning. However their mornings are long at DHL and it was after 3pm when they finally arrived. Meanwhile, we were not entirely sure of Karen and Bruce’s arrival time as I had misread her last email, but we thought it was somewhere around 5 o’clock. We had a couple of chores to do in Narbonne (where we were due to collect them), so we hopped in the car and took off. Our chores were managed in far less time than we had thought it would take, but we went and found parking at the station anyway and tried to contact Karen. She replied that they had missed their train because it took too long to get from the airport to the station, so they were now on another train due to reach us at about 7.30! WE went for a walk around town to while away some minutes but as it was by now about 5.30, everything was closing uup for the day. Suddenly the phone rang. It was Karen. Not in any sort of panic, but just calmly telling us that they had been under the impression that the train that they were on was a through train to Narbonne, so were not concerned when it stopped at a station, most people got out and a few got in. But they were concerned when it started going back the way they had come. We told them to get off at the first stop and see if they catch another train back to what turned out to be Perpignan, and we would fetch them from there. Which is what we did, and two very relieved people were waiting for us when we got there. It was only 65 kms away and a drive that we hadn’t yet done, to a town we hadn’t yet seen, so it was fun for us. Not so much fun for them though, as they had been traveling since the previous night. Anyway it was wonderful to see them and it has been more wonderful to have them here and to show them around.
The next day, Carol and Steve flew in from England to Carcassonne where they hired a car, and then drove the rest of the way here. So then we were six in the house. Lots and lots of chatter from every room as people caught up with each other after years of being in different countries!
The following day was the quarterly market in Lezignan, so everyone was up bright and early for the experience. We had thought that the previous week’s market was big, but this one was three times the size! Apart from more clothing and more plasticky kitchen-ware stuff, there was this time a fellow making giant paella’s, there were stands selling cooked chickens; the vegetable and fruit stalls seemed endless, and all the cheese sellers wanted one to taste their cheese. We came home laden with strawberries, cheese, chicken, ready to eat shrimps, bread and a whole range of salad ingredients. Mmm! Delicious!
Along the way, we had met Andy, Liz’s friend, who then came back and had lunch with us before taking us on a guided tour of a village close by called Lagresse. I think it easily falls into the ‘prettiest village’ category. Old buildings of warm pinkish stone, with flowers in glowing colours highlighting the flowerboxes and pavements. Ancient woodwork, grey with age abd bending under the stresses of hundreds of years. Gargoyles and other stone carvings peeping out of unexpected corners.. What a treasure.
Not yet having had enough of old bastide cities, we decided that the next day we should all go to Carcassonne which is one of the few towns which is still entire. I don’t like it much as I think it very over-commercialised, but it is one of those places one really should visit. The height of the walls, at nine metres in places, is quite mind-boggling when one considers that it was built in the 1100’s and 1200’s, although there are parts which go right back to Roman times before Christ. Once more, there were just too many people there but one can get a good idea of what an old city must have looked like. We had a wonderful duck cassoulet for lunch and then decided to start home along a different route. Happily this brought us out along the Canal du Midi and at a funny little place called Homps, we stopped and had a look at all the river craft moored there. Someone off one of the boats, when asked, told us there a set of lock-gates about 500 metres up stream so we set off, to walk off the cassoulet and to find a lock so that Karen could see how they work. As it turned out, we got there just before three boats came down and crowded into the lock. It was quite a sight, with the lady holding the front boat in place by pulling on the rope with all her might to stop the inflowing water from pushing the boat backwards, while the one at the back which had had to get in almost sideways to avaiod being squashed by the gates, had to keep fendng off the walls as well as the other boats. Finally the lock filled, the gates opened and they all spilled out into the canal again. And just at that moment, another boat appeared from the opposite direction, so we watched again as it manouvered in, tied up but this time had to let rope out as the water level sank, then glided out again.
All the past few days activities had been made in the campervan, but on Friday we picked up a small hire car and set off in two cars to do a round of tiny villages in the vicinity. Oh my goodness! Talk about stress-free! There is nothing better than attempting to drive up skinny roads in a skinny car! What a pleasure. By doing this, we found that we covered so much more ground, obviously, as we didn’t have to walk it, and could explore side roads that we wouldn’t have bothered with on foot. And that was how we found Pavares and a delightful old wine cellar. It said ‘Ring the bell” on the door, so we did, and some huge gates creaked open an inch or two and someone said ‘J’arrive’ (I’m coming). Then the door of this colossal barn started to slide open until we could see rows of barrels inside and ‘Madame’ waiting to greet us. She invited us to have a look around while she fetched some clean glasses and that was when we discovered that the far end of the barn had been converted into a mini-museum of wine-growing equipment. Some of the implements were really primitive which made us realize just how long wine-making has been around. The wine she offered was delicious and we left with a box to enjoy at home.
On Saturday we had a long-standing date with cousin Nicky, so we started very early to be able to accomplish the 300 kms in time for lunch. Not a problem as our little hirecar, apart from being skinny, was also speedy and seemed to enjoy the autoroutes, flying along at 120 kms per hour. Nicky was obviously pleased to see us, and we were glad we had had the opportunity to show Bruce and Karen another area of France. The area we are in now, the Languedoc-Roussillon is very like the Western Cape with it’s almost harsh light, gravelly soil and grey-green scrubby vegetation. The Gers, on the other hand, is softer. Rolling hills of lush green pastures alternate with dense copses of darker green trees, while the ploughed lands appear almost chocolate coloured.
Our final day with Karen and Bruce was spent exploring the coast from Narbonne eastwards. We found a much more vibrant atmosphere here than we had encountered so far. Each town has a marina simply stuffed with boats of all sorts, while all around are low-rise apartment blocks painted in the warm Mediterranean colours of cream, beige, apricot, yellow and orange. One is constantly aware of the twanging of halyards against masts, the brilliant blue of the sea and the bright, harsh siunlight. The beaches are unbelievably clean and are sandy beaches not pebble, and believe it or not, there were even some people swimming! Judging by the size of some of the boats, there are a lot of people with a lot of spare money around here.
Then suddenly, the week was over and we were on our way to Narbonne again to put Karen and Bruce on the train for Barcelona. What a wonderful time we’ve had with them; we just hope they have enjoyed it as much. Soon we will be losing Steve and Carol as well, which means we will very soon be leaving this very comfortable little house and moving on again.
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