After leaving Rachel and Sean at the airport THEY decided it was time to DO Carcassonne. We drove to the town centre and followed signs to the Cité . Not knowing that by driving a long way round they could have found a way up the hill, and parking for caravans and motorhomes, THEY left me at the bottom near the river and set off up the hill on foot.
Hmm …. The dodgy leg didn’t like that very much, but it was worth it.
Carcassonne’s Citadel (‘Cité’ is often mistranslated as ‘City’) is a vast site and a magnificent sight (sorry!). It really needs a day to itself to take it all in and walk all the way round outside as well as inside.
Once within the first curtain wall there are narrow streets crammed with souvenir and craft shops as well as cafés and restaurants; then you reach the second curtain wall – I think this bit is called the Barbican – and decide whether to do the paid visit; however, and we don’t know why, we were not charged as we went in in spite of notices appearing to suggest that we would be. And it’s not that we avoided paying – we went to the kiosk and were given tickets.
There’s a lot of it! Information panels at all key points are in French, English and Spanish so a guided tour is not really needed except perhaps for the really serious student.
After a couple of hours or so we made our way back to Harry, but walked on a bit to take pictures from the river bridge.
For more information just Google ‘Carcassonne’ and go wherever you like, but as usual the pictures are well worth a look.
THEY’ve been told that the amount of rain which has fallen so far this year has been exceptional. That’s just as well, because the whole plot around Sunejo is like a marsh. The grass needs cutting, but there’s no way that little ‘tracteur’ (ride-on mower) can be driven onto it! Sometimes the rain falls as snow overnight, but it usually disappears during the day; however, there was one three-day period at the end of February when snow fell continually and settled:
So weather- watching has been quite a prominent activity since our return from the UK, and with that there’s also been bird-watching. We have resident sparrows under the eaves, at least three, who regularly take the crumbs from the barbecue shelf, as does the robin:
The feeders we hung at the front finally caught the eye of one or two great tits who are now regular visitors, but they dont stay long enough to be photographed. However, the feeding station I put up at the back of the house in the hope of having some activity while doing food preparation and clearing up stands forlorn and ignored!
The period of snow brought some less frequent callers, though; a whole family of thrushes – at least five – were seen foraging at the far end of the garden and a pair of wagtails made bold appearences to collect crumbs from just outside the French Window:
Then there’s sky-watching; the stars are wonderful and sunrise is always a delight – when it happens – because of the way the shadow moves down the hills and the mist burns off, but because of the lie of the land, with the higher ground to the west, we don’t get many colourful sunsets (not like Garth View!). An exception occurred just yesterday:
and it did indeed herald a fine, warm day to follow.
Snow was still lying around Sunejo – particularly at the back – when we drove away on Thursday morning to meet Rachel and Sean at Carcassonne Airport. THEY took me so as to have plenty of room for luggage and to have lunch ‘out’ if that was what the travellers chose. The plane was on the ground before we got there, and first stop after getting on the road was to buy pastries for elevensies, which were then enjoyed in the next lay-by:
During that brew-break, and having warned us to be comfortably seated and to put our mugs down for the moment, Rachel and Sean shared some exciting news with us – I could spin this out and make readers (who don’t already know) get to the bottom of the piece before finding out, but anyway: Rachel is a Mum-to-be, and congratulations are in order. THAT set the van rocking, but the drinks survived.
Wunderschön! … R & S chose to take the ‘scenic’ option to get to Sunejo, so we went via Limoux and Quillan, seeing a lot of the River Aude, but it was decided to head for home for lunch; by the time we got there, the snow had vanished!Homemade Pea & Ham Soup was well received – I carried it to Carcassonne and back! – but the visitors had left home for Liverpool airport at about 3am so a good siesta followed. Later on, I understand they blew a bottle of bubbles and had a sort of party for Sean’s birthday – and the other event – which included ‘Lapin au Van’. Hmm! Seeing the dish was neither prepared in my kitchen nor consumed at my table I think THEY should have called it something else.
Tu exagères, toi! It is a joke, un jeu de mots; you shouldn’t be so sensitive … Quand même, c’est à moi, maintenant – it’s my turn now. Next day, Friday 1st March, I took all four people to see Galamus Gorge, where big Harry isn’t allowed. They had an ‘English’ breakfast before setting off, so food wasn’t needed during the day, except for café-croissants at the foot of the Gorge:
On Saturday we headed for Andorra. The snow line was lower than on previous visits and the quantity greater. Ax-Les-Thermes was a real embouteillage (bottleneck / traffic jam) ‘Confiture de circulation’?? What are you talking about, M’sieur? … So the journey took about three hours, but we got to Pas De La Case in time for them to have lunch at the usual restaurant (Thanks, R & S!).
The roads were clear of snow, apart from the huge drifts at the sides,
but THEY bought some ‘chaussettes’ – an alternative to snow chains – for me in case of need on a future occasion.
The ski slopes were very busy and the scenery was magnifique!:
As usual, they filled up what space there was with bottles of stuff before we came back to France –
And we got you a full tank of less expensive petrol!
Ah, oui – mais c’était nécessaire, voyons!
Next day it was Harry’s turn again…
But before then, there’s another event to narrate; the weather had improved steadily and Sunday was warm and sunny. Rachel and I went into Chalabre with Sally, leaving Carol and Sean to get the new patio table ready:
“What sort of holiday is this, when you get set to work assembling flatpack furniture?”
Job done! And Sunejo hosted its first outdoor breakfast:
After which it was time to pack up and for me to take them back to Carcassonne, where they had lunch together at the airport restaurant, before the visitors took off back to Liverpool:
THEY’ve been told that the amount of rain which has fallen so far this year has been exceptional. That’s just as well, because the whole plot around Sunejo is like a marsh. The grass needs cutting, but there’s no way that little ‘tracteur’ (ride-on mower) can be driven onto it! Sometimes the rain falls as snow overnight, but it usually disappears during the day; however, there was one three-day period at the end of February when snow fell continually and settled:
Stephen's space 