Days 18-20

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Day 17 and 18
AND NOW WE ARE SIX!

Stood at the arrivals gate at Toulouse airport holding a sign with the legend “ Pensions and Zimmers Tours. Mr and Mrs Else” like the holiday reps etc do……Oh how they laughed!
Cracked a bottle of very special champagne we bought back in Ambonnay and has a leisurely alfresco lunch. I witnessed a big green lizard catch and eat a smaller lizard - nature red in tooth and claw.
That evening we ate a magnificent home cooked cassoulet and chatted ‘til way past cocoa and hot waterbottle time
On our last day at La Celeste four of us went to Carcassonne whilst the remainder walked into the village, picked wild fennel and made a nourishing soup for the evening meal. Packed and prepared for the next leg of our tour and spent the rest of the evening playing guitar, ukulele, spoons and kazoos - no prizes for guessing who played what.

Day 19
Said farewell to Marsailette and drove through the ever changing scenery to Foix, a super town with a magnificent Cathar castle. We are staying in chalets next to a lake at the foothills of the Pyrenees, the mountains ahead of us and acres of majestic dying sunflowers behind us.
Day 20
The Autumnal Equinox.
What a very strange but enchanting place we are staying in. Llivia is in Spain, but only a little bit, surrounded by France and it looks just like Switzerland! Furthermore it is fiercely Catalan.
Thismorning we had hoped to see ancient cave paintings but just missed the last tour into the caves, so we motored on to Aix le Thermes. Had a devine and huge salad in a quirky reggae bar before going even further into the misty mountains….we kept expecting Gandalf to appear!

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