The Most Fabulous of Weekends: Weekend 8

Sunday: We had a normal morning and were out of the house around 10a. The ride into Spain was as relaxing and gorgeous as ever. I'll tell you ahead of time that this day was very simple and can mostly be told through photos, but it was also very wonderful. :)

Driving to Spain

Just in the car

Up we go!

Hmmm, where are the mountains???

Aha! I knew they were around here somewhere. :)

Wow.

Wow.

You have got to be kidding me.

Is this real?

I don't think it is....

A hiker's lodge in the snow

Family picture <3

If I haven't given a thorough description of Guilhem's personality by now, this picture pretty much sums it up. XD

We only hiked around here for a few minutes just to see the snow. Then we got back in the car and headed a little further inside the boarder to find a Spanish market where Lionel and Christine could stock up on gallons of cheap olive oil and Muscatel.

I found the piment peppers!!

You know you're not in Kansas anymore when.......

=)

After shopping a little we drove a tiny bit farther to find our lunch spot: a lake that was surreal in its enchanting, fairy-tale-like quality and its distinct beauty. I could not believe where I was at first, and then I allowed a smile to break across my face at this again-consistant reminder that my life is full mostly of blessings and that here on this journey, the unbelievable happens to me on a frequency I can't grasp- and I have become so okay with that.

I would like to live there. If it isn't a mirage....

Oh no, it is DEFINITELY a mirage

We sat right here on logs and rocks for about an hour enjoying a nice lunch: slices of soft, moist wheat bread smeared with rotisserie chicken pâté (which was sinfully buttery and savory), helpings of taboulet (couscous salad with all the good stuff in it), cups of apple sauce, little lemon gel cookies, and cups of coffee. Yes!! (*pronounced with an Opera singing voice*)

After lunch we started walking around to the other side of the lake to visit that charming village. We ate just beneath the tip of the sign on the left

Beauty.

This town was pretty, quaint, enchanted, and was also the smallest place I have ever been. I think it would take me under five minutes to walk up AND back every single street in the town. It didn't quite seem real, but I loved being in it. Oh yeah, and we saw maybe three other people the whole time we were there.

The town's church

The bells were beautiful

Parts of it are very old. Lionel actually referred to these as "ruins"

The colors of a masterpiece.

Heading back to the car

It was time to head home. On the way, Lionel kept insisting that Christine drive faster (he usually drives, and he tailgates other cars like he invented the word) until she was riding one car to the point of parking our car on top of it. We got to a narrow street where that car started to pull over and Christine wasn't quite able to pass. As the car pulled over, the driver put the window down and waved her to stop. A police officer got out and told her that it would do well to not drive so close; it would benefit everyone if she wouldn't drive like that. Christine was calm and thanked him and all that, but she certainly turned that one on Lionel. It was hilarious.

Also on the way home, we got pulled over by two officers who were doing checks for driver's licenses and license plates. Everything checked out fine and we were able to leave without a problem. One of the officers even waved Christine back into the barren flow of traffic. After the officer handed Christine back her license, she started rolling up the window and said, "merci!" And nearly too loudly, Guilhem added under his breath, "pour rien du tout" (for nothing at all). I almost died laughing.

Once at the house, we all settled in and Christine, Lionel, and I shared cups of homemade hot chocolate with slices of Lionel's sweet bread. The hot chocolate was made with 4 tablespoons of dark chocolate cocoa mix, a tablet of dark chocolate, and 4 cups of creamy milk. This was all left to heat (not boil) on the stove. It was some of the lightest, creamiest hot chocolate of my life. For dinner tonight we had another fantastic zucchini soup and then shared slices of fresh chorizo, Spanish cheese, bread, and spinach salad. We topped it off with "crèmes" tonight instead of yogurt: mine was a coconut cream. A fantastic day.

The Most Fabulous of Weekends: Weekend 8

Saturday: On our way to Carcassonne! We got up around 7:30a today and all four of us girls started getting ourselves ready right away. Sarah went down to breakfast before the rest of us but we were already feeling like she wasn't really in our little pea pod. Oh well. When we were presentable enough, Aleca, Jenna, and I headed down to have our coffee, croissants, orange juice, jam, Nutella, cheese, fruit, and whatever else we could find. Around 8:45a, everyone was herded to the bus (in the lovely sunshine and heat of course), we climbed aboard, and then we were on the road to Carcassonne- whoopi! Carcassonne is probably the most well-preserved Medieval walled city in Europe; why? Because it is nearly completely intact. We were all so excited to see this ancient wonder, but our spirits slowly damped the closer we got to the Medieval city... the clouds seemed to thicken and darken with each closing mile and the air dropped in temperature. What happened to our summer in April?!
When we pulled into our bus-sized parking spot, everyone hopped out to get their bags and dig out whatever extra clothes they could find to guard from the cold. It was incredibly chilly, but we managed to push through and recognize the history we were seeing and experiencing today. Today, we were in a city that used to house 3-4,000 people, now has exactly 120 residents (a number that comes from the amount of businesses and restaurants that have mailing addresses within the walls), only ever has 60 residents living in the city at any given time, and houses hardly a single car. It was a weird, abnormal, fantastic experience to walk around inside this small but ancient town. We had a tour guide for most of it and she took us around the château, its courtyard, and along the ramparts.

Thar she be!! (Too pirate-y??)

Carcassonne

Impressive, non?

Thank you birds for making this picture even better as I walk across the DRAWBRIDGE 

Inside the walls! Can't you almost hear the silence from the picture?

Yes!

In the royal courtyard that used to be part of the château. Here you can see the original roofline (the shingles on the left wall), the original floor (the nubs towards the bottom of the picture), and the doorway leading into the next room (the small rounded hole on the right wall).

This is kind of cool: if you look closely, you can see where a tower used to stand on this wall. Above the window in the middle of the picture there's the faint outline of a triangle that marks the top of the tower. Beneath that you have the shadow of the column of the tower.

The two small windows there used to be the windows of a bakery

The original horse stables

The city below... also old and apparently beautiful- just look at that cathedral! 

Imagine getting one of those dropped on your head. Ouch. And for that reason, these made pretty useful weapons back in the day.

On the other side of the courtyard. To get here we went along the wall way over there and in a door on the right to walk around inside the château.

The view of the countryside

I may be cold, but I am happy. :)

And some things are just so honest in their tremendous beauty

The cathedral from afar

I admire you mister 

Ahhhhhhh....... peace.

Ryan: "Okay, that's enough of standing by the edge! You guys are going to give me a heart-attack." XD

Back down we go

Lunch time! 

We were treated first to a lettuce and tomato salad that came with a spectacular slice of chèvre (goat cheese), and then were given a meal of casserole- the recipe for which probably came with the city. Amazing!

Carcassone's Casserole: beans, sauce, chicken wings, sausages. 

For dessert, we had little cakes that were filled with soft pear, and finished the entire meal off with little espressos. All of this while sitting in a Medieval city. It was bliss.

After lunch we were given free time to explore a little bit more of the city. I went with Aleca and Jenna and the three of us did a little shopping. Naturally, I had to get postcards and a Carcassonne memento just like with every city I visit. While waiting for Aleca to pay for a gift for her mom at a glass shop, Jenna walked up ahead to look for jewelry and I stepped outside to be the middle point to keep us together. While out there, my ears nearly burst from the sound of a man sawing a design into a metal plank almost right next to me. Once I got over the screech, though, I was happy to watch him carefully free-hand and image into this metal board. Sadly, though, on his last cut the board shattered into little pieces. He was annoyed, but had other boards laying nearby so must have expected this to happen at least once. While the saw was turned off, a shopkeeper from across the way came out to take advantage of the silence- aka: to yell at this man for all of his racket. She asked, rudely, if he was going to be done anytime soon because it was awfully impossible for her to conduct any business when her customers where uncomfortable in her shop. No one wanted to come near that noise. He was explaining to her that there was no where else for him to do this because it had to be done outside and that he expected to be done soon, but she already started turning away. She did leave him with the little courtesy spat of, "I sure hope so" before she went back into her shop. Just before turning the saw back on, I heard the guy say to his two assistants, "these people don't understand anything." This was all done in French. I adored ever second of this exchange.

We finished up our shopping after that and started the short walk back to the bus. But we ended up making a couple of wrong turns and couldn't find the exit of the city. Being a Medieval walled city there was only one exit: the way we came in at the drawbridge. So we just turned around and went back the way we came. We passed the guy with the saw; it was turned back on and he was shouting over it in a high-pitched, mocking voice to his two friends, "it's too loud! It's such an annoyance!" I chuckled at that. Finally we found the drawbridge and we hustled our booties over to the bus. On the way, we passed a couple small groups of USACers who were lugging suitcases in the opposite direction. They were going to stay the rest of the weekend in Carcassonne or Toulouse. We made it to the bus without any problems and were soon on our way back to school. It was a relaxing ride.

Once at the school, I gathered all of my belongings and walked to the bus. I made it to the house while the sun was still out (yeah, the sun was out in Pau but was completely dormant in Carcassonne) and soon sat down to dinner. Christine and Lionel were invited to a friends' for dinner tonight, and since they knew I would probably be tired this evening, figured I would want to eat at the house instead of coming with them. Vittorio joined them, so it was just Guilhem and I for dinner. Before leaving, I was asked the usual run-down of questions about my trip, but Christine was particularly interested in Carcassonne- she has never seen it!

Guilhem was kind enough to make the raviolis that Christine had pulled out for us while I prepared our dinner platter on the coffee table. The two of us ate a dinner of meat raviolis dressed in olive oil, pesto spread, parmesan, and seasonings; piment peppers marinated in oil and served with cubes of feta; Pringles and cherry tomatoes for a little apératif mixed into the meal; and finished with yogurts. During dinner, we watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in French and talked about the story/the books. It remains one of my favorite moments with the kid. :)  

I topped off the evening with a little family Skype session and then hit the hay. It was a perfect day, and it got even better when Christine told me that we would be driving to the Spanish side of the mountains the next day! =D