Back to France! Day One: New Carcassonne

I am almost a full year behind in these blog posts, but I'll keep slogging through them and eventually catch up - I promise! 

Statue in 'New" Carcassonne

Last October, along with three other couples, we rented a big old house in France and spent a long, fun week exploring the surroundings. On the first day we went to the 'new' section of Carcassonne and picked up loads of food in a local marketplace (like a farmer's market) to stock our cupboards.  

Another statue

While fumbling our way through buying produce in French, we saw many beautiful statues. It's always shocking when you get off a plane and all of the sudden people ask you things - 'Lalalalala?' and you have no freaking idea what they're saying. My friend Julie taught me to reply, in French, 

And yet another

My friend, Julie, taught me to reply, 'Je suis un pamplemousse,' which means 'I am a grapefruit.' I never did it, but I was oh, so tempted! 

The group decides how best to conquer the market.

Cindy and Reg wait for the rest of us to finish

Bill and I were in charge of buying the salad fixings, and I dare say we did an all right job! We may not have paid the best prices, since we didn't even attempt to haggle, but we were proud of our finished purchases!

'Old' Carcassonne as seen from afar

I spent a week last summer in and around Carcassonne with the wine trip. Unfortunately, the one day we actually had in the walled city, we arrived just as all of the shops were closing for the day. Thankfully, we got to spend lots of time exploring the walled city on this trip. 

Another view of the walled Carcassonne

In a future post I will share all of the details inside the walled city, but we had just as much fun walking to the city as inside the city. 

Bill chilling on the bridge

Julie jumping from the wall of the bridge

If you've ever played the game Carcassonne, you will know the game has 'meeples.' We wanted to take lots of meeple photos, but we never really got the chance. I think the photo of Julie above is the best 'Knight Meeple'.  

Dan & Julie taking a selfie

Our selfie with the city as backdrop

The first day of the week-long trip was a blast and an indicator of how much fun we were going to have!