Carcassonne

Bonjour! I appologise for my absence - the trip wee're on at the moment is frantic in its schedule - but only because we're fitting in so much fun! while I am in Lourdes today, I wanted to post about my weekend in Carcassonne. I'll do a Lourdes post soon. Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in hearing about our 'Tour de France' trip, one of our guides is keeping a blog - so visit Pete's site for more regular updates and great photos.

Carcassonne is a medieval city in the south of France. It's been the subject of many books, but the author I know best is Kate Moss. So while wandering about the city I was invisaging the events of the Cathars war and stories from her novel 'Labyrinth'. I am constantly in awe at just how old these towns are, the history and the stories that these roads could tell..... I spent quite alot of the weekend 'imagining'.

A highlight of the weekend for me was going to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing in the old amphitheatre of the castle. We had a fantastic night, enjoying Mozart, in the open air, watching the stars come out. Just purely magical!

The history of Carcassonne is embedded with religion, politics and wars. It's complex and deep. I cant even summarise it here. But every street we walked through took us down another pathway to more stories.

Despite there being loads of other tourists here, we had a thoroughly enjoyable time, and found the locals incredible welcoming and friendly.

We arrived in Paris on Wednesday after a 24 hour flight from Sydney. All the romantic idea’s I had of Paris, and “mon rendez-vous avec elle”, return to me as the Pilot is reporting our decent into Paris and CDG. After a chaotic final few weeks in preparation for this trip, I had forgotten what it was that I was planning, i.e. a rendez-vous avec Paris and a vacance in France. All that I was hoping for come wafting back as the wheels hit the tarmac – but I wasn’t as ready for the culture shock, the force-field of Paris.

My partner, also exhausted, was having trouble hearing my mumbled directions and our passage through the Gare de Nord was an experience far from the romantic visions I had for my rendez-vous. However it wasn’t long before our luggage and bodies were safely installed in our minature Parisienne Chambre. After a short rest and shower, my partner decided to keep us awake until dark. Mais, Quelle probeme! It is dark until after 1030pm and we had already been awake for some 20 hours.

As we walked around our ‘Quartier’, Le Marais, the real romance of Paris began wafting across our paths. Cafe’s with sidewalk tables and red & white wicker chairs, their TV’s playing the Tour De France, Persiennes and their dogs returning home with their baguettes and bottle of wine, scooters, smart cars, bicycles, patisseries and boulangeries tempting us with their scent of fresh bread or sweet flavours of croissants’ au chocolat!

Sadly, I had to be in meetings most of our first day in Paris , however when they were finished, my partner and I walked through Paris, meandering with no real plans. This walk was relaxing, and at the same time rewarding. We felt confident with our knowledge of the city, and yet constantly surprised by unique discoveries – the architecture, the gardens, the lane ways – and what I love the most – the sneaky peak inside those big wooden doors into secret court yards and private gardens. At one stage I was completely surprised to look up above me and see the Eifel Tower peaking over the buildings around me. It really is awesome just how that Tower is ever present in Paris.

After 2 days in the hussle’n’bussle of Paris, in all her glory, we were on the train to the south, the Languedoc region. But we’ll return to Paris many times during our holiday, the next time being for the finale of the Tour de France (to see Australia’s own, Cadel Evans, on the podium!)

I apologise that this post is a little later that I had hoped, but travelling and finding Wifi is still a challenge. I tried to post this yesterday but lost the internet connection and then lost the blog. I have a second blog planned for Monday as tonight we are going to see a concert inside the walls of a medieval castle!

C'est ne pas loin!

Thank you to all who have signed up, to those who have posted your intentions, and to those who have joined as followers. the 1st of July is not far away now... And this week I've confirmed my place at the language school in Montpelier...... it's very exciting!!

I have a few more kilometres to do in my training program, and I have more French homework to do before I leave... so I'm a little pre-occupied. But when I get on location I'll be up to posting more frequently....promise!

Can you imagine standing in this archway?
Wondering what life was like here in the past?
Listening to the music of the streets?
What would it say to you?

Paris in July - Idea's

I know when I'm in Paris when I arrive at Gare du Nord and find myself a room in one of these small hotels. Now, I know that our own Paris in July is getting close when I read what people are planning to read, watch, eat and do for the month of July. If you're look for idea's you might like to visit

1. The Novel World
2. Naked without books
3. Only Orangery
4. Rikkis Teleidoscope
5. Gabriel Reads
6. Kellys [former] France Blog
7. Literary Relish
8. Fleur Fisher in her world
9. Flowers and Stripes
   

And as for the little surprise I mentioned last week, I've selected Only Orangery for her terrific selection of options. Also, I was kind of taken by her own little 'Paris in July' button. But if I was having runners up, I'd have to mention the creative post titles of Bybee at Naked without books, and Fleur Fisher. There's so much to choose from and so many options to consider, I am looking forward to the experience this year.

Paris in July - Surprise

We currently have over 25 participants signed in at either my blog or Bookbath, which is quite overwhelming and very exciting. To start with, I wanted to award a small surprise to Raidergirl3 at Adventures in Reading for being one of the first to get a post up about Paris in July. We love to see just how you are thinking about using the challenge. So let us know in your posts.

I love surprises, so here's another chance to win something. I'd love to see some posts with recommendations for either books, movies, exhibitions or albums (or recipes etc) that have a french theme. It's an opportunity for you to let other people know what french stuff you've read or watched in the past and help others plan for this July. I'll review posts next week and randomly (or not) select a winner.

May's Gardening Report

Mandarins living in an old wine barrel.

It's very exciting to see so many joining us for our Paris in July event (if you haven't signed up yet -now's the time!), and it's pretty exciting preparing for my real trip to Paris. One of my preparatory duties is to get the garden ready for it's winter hibernation. Last weekend I was in my element, harvesting, weeding, pruning, and planting. I thought I would share with you some of my successes in the garden.

I successfully harvested:- beans, bok choy, lemons, artichokes, leeks, brocoli, sweet potatoe, gooseberries, guava's and rubharb

I planted: - onions, lettuce seedlings, more brocoli, leeks and radishes.

I prunned:- stuff that was bothering me.

The Loofa vine has decided to keep on producing. I thought that when I got two loofa's off it about a month ago that it would be the end of it, but there's more. I've been told you can eat loofa's when their young, but I tried some at different ages and decided they're better as loofa's for scrubbing with. I guess now I'll have a supply of sponges for a while now..

The radishes have come up and are looking good this season.

I harvested over 2 kg's of Jerusalem Artichokes. They are root vegetables that look like Ginger but taste like nutty potatoes. This is my first season and I think I'll try them again next year. I've been enjoying them in soups, salads and risottos this week.

This is a Chinese Gooseberry on the bush. These are self seeding in my garden now and I literally didn't have to do anything. I love these little surprises in my garden. These fruit are my treats for working in the garden. When they're ripe they taste like sweet little tomatoes with a hint of crispy citrus.

This is the little Gooseberry package just waiting for me to find it and open it.

Voila!

I hope you have enjoyed this little visit to my productive garden. From here on in, I think it'll be slow going in the garden, it's winter and I'm going to France!!!

Paris in July - 2011

Here it is!!!! For the second year Karen from Bookbath, and I have decided to come together to host "Paris in July", a month long blogging experience to celebrate our love of all things French and Parisian. We just loved the experience last year, we just had to do it again.

For those of you who participated last year, the guidelines for the event will be pretty much the same (although we reserve the right to throw in some surprises here and there). Paris in July will run from the 1st - 31st July 2011 and the aim of the month is to celebrate our French experiences through reading, watching, listening to, observing, cooking and eating all things French.

I will actually be in France during July this year so, taking on the role of French Correspondent, I hope to be able to post from the scene!

My travel plans include some time in Paris, then actually riding my bike along with the Tour de France through the Pyrenees and the Alps from July 11 - 24th. Then I will be in Montpellier for two weeks attending an intensive French language program. This means I will be able to post on regional cuisine, art, culture and local history and geography. I will also be able to investigate or research any questions participants choose to send me during the month... Imagine what fun we can have with that!

There will be no rules or targets in terms of how much you need to do or complete in order to be a part of Paris in July - just blog about anything French and you can join in. Some ideas for the month might include:

- Reading a French book - fiction or non-fiction

- Watching a French movie

- Listening to French music

- Cooking French food

- Experiencing French art, architecture or travel (lucky Tamara!)

- Or anything else French inspired you can think of...

If you are interested in being a part of this experience leave a comment on this post and we will put together a side bar showing all of the participants. There will be weekly French themed prizes during the month for which we will randomly draw the winners from all the French themed posts of that week that link back to us. We will also be writing weekly wrap up posts for you to link your posts to.

We have designed a couple of images to represent our Paris in July experience so feel free to add these to your blog if you are joining us. We will write posts leading up to the start of Paris in July to give you some ideas about what you might like to include and to share the books, films, music etc... that we are planning to experience ourselves during the month.

Looking forward to travelling to Paris with you in July!