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Published: September 19th 2009
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12-17 September
We are in Montlaur, in the Aude River area, the occitane region. Known for its charcuterie (saucisson etc), fromage de mouton (sheep’s cheese) and naturally some ‘fromage de chevre’ (goat’s cheese) too. Moreover it is known for its cassoulet … in particular in Castelnaudry. We are in a typical medieval stone village. Our gite is a renovated cottage which overlooks the local river (although it has been cemented in and is now a mere trickle). The locals are very friendly and assess in the first 5 minutes of meeting - oh those ‘sympathique’ Australiens! We speak with all we meet. Joss with a friendly “bonjour”, Mary with a little more, finding out a few more details …
The gite overlooks the local church where the bells toll twice on the hour (in case you missed the first gongs), with a short interval at half past. Interestingly although we face the the church, we only hear the bells when we are awake … and cannot rely on them to wake us up … There are some expats in this town who have mounted a campaign to have the bell tolling suppressed … And yet, we find it
a lovely part of the identity of the place …
While based here we have gotten to know our landlord Helen and her friend from Melbourne (Ingrid). We have enjoyed the neighbours, the boulanger, the epicier, and the surrounding streets for training. Yes … Mary had PT homework which she is diligently following ... Mel - perhaps there is an untapped market here for you? Euan are you reading this? If so there is potential for you too … although I may have to give you a couple of French lessons … !?!?!?!?!?
Helen (B) we think that you would love this place. The cheminee alone would send you into raptures. The Terrazzo floor would be secondary, the french butter, baguettes (even Joss has subsribed to them) ... and now we are trying to find a way of smuggling the unsalted bread spread back into the country! Joss even suggests that the wine’s not bad either …ma-iiite! Organic! Bio! Green wine without suphites of course! There is a bottle of wine waiting for us and a bunch of roses as a centrepiece on the dining table. We eat our first breakfast outside in our leafy courtyard.
We wake to the sounds of farm workers heading off for the day and the distant hum of tractors towing their collected crops.
The gite is quite delightful. It is beautifully furnished with the mod cons of bathroom and kitchen requirements. The décor is tasteful in whites and beiges with lots of local artwork adorning the walls. The renovations have been done in detail. Helen is a great source of information about the locals and where to go, to park, what to see etc … We go to a ‘grenier vide’ (equivalent of a car boot sale) on the week-end and enjoy sorting through other people’s junk. We buy bits and pieces and enjoy the conversations with the locals.
It is within a “village perdu” that we find ourselves … there are lots of people working the vines during the vendange (harvest) and driving minute tractors for hauling bins of grapes to the local cooperative or Domaine for processing. So far our grape crushing skills have not been called upon. Instead we have applied ourselves to drinking in the local produce … This includes the blanquette from Limoux. Markets are full of olives cheeses and fantastic
sausages …
We are between Carcassonne and Narbonnne near LaGrasse. We are in the region of the Cathars … castles, abbeys and fortifications … and it is quite amazing to consider how they achieved their objectives in building the strongholds of the time bearing in mind what it would have taken to climb the hill to reach the desired location to erect the fortified building, and the kinds of armour they would have worn in getting there to fight the enemy, or to bring up supplies or merely to be in place with their armour and weapons … have you ever tried to pick up one of their swords???
We are here for a few days and plan to relax, to eat well, to drink well and to see the local sites. The village is small and folk friendly making this a very enjoyable base for our explorations into the region. What’s next? Wait and see - we travel from the coast to villages, to farmer’s markets and restaurants … we walk, we talk, we cycle …
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Ev and Estelle
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The luxury of ironed bed sheets
Doesn't it make you feel proud to hear the words "sympathique Australiens"? Re the idiots wanting the church bells muted I think the same sort of thing has happened in the country villages of England. I have one question - are the items on sale at the grenier vide similar in any way to our car boot sales and markets? Again we send our love and thanks for the photo of Joss.