Field of Heather

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Last Pictures from Southern France

Kitty!

The horse meat.

Enjoying our horse steaks.

1966 bottle of muscat.

Mmm...delicious chocolates!

Ordinary bookshelf?

Wrong!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Hello Again, California

June 19^th –

Longest day ever!! I’ll spare you the details, but I am happy to report that we made it safe and sound to good old California.

I can’t believe the trip has come and gone. I had been looking forward to the France trip for such a long time, and now I just have the memories and pictures. I’m not about to complain though. I had an amazing time over there, and experienced so many wonderful adventures and tastes! I am so grateful that I had this opportunity, and I really need to thank Will’s dad a lot for bringing me along on this trip (not to mention the numerous amount of meals he paid for me).

I definitely would not have had the same experience if I was traveling by myself. Don’t go thinking this is how I typically travel. I admit that I was pretty spoiled on this trip (flying business class, staying in fancy hotels, eating very nice meals…), but hey – it’s not every day Will graduates from college! I don’t know about me, but Will certainly deserved this amazing trip.

Final Day in France

July 18^th –

It was our last day in Paris, and I still had one activity on my “to-do-in-Paris” list – go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. So that was pretty much our only plan for the day. We got to sleep in a lot later than we had been, and we ventured out of the hotel room around 11:30. One quick subway ride and a short walk later, we were at the Eiffel Tower. The line for taking the elevator up was extremely long, so we made the decision to take the stairs. Now, I first thought this meant taking the stairs all the way to the top, luckily they let you take an elevator once you make it to the second level.

Up and up we climbed, and I took the liberty of counting how many stairs we climbed. The total came to 704 steps before it was time for the elevator. That sure was a good work out! On the first floor, we got some lunch at a little cafeteria. Once our stomachs were happy again, we climbed some more, and then took the elevator to the very top. The view up there was of course incredible, and it was fun pointing out the places we’ve visited. The weather wasn’t as bad as it had been the past couple of days, so we were lucky with that. It was still a bit cloudy, but not too bad and no rain. The weather has been so weird on this trip! It wasn’t sunny and warm like I was told it would be. Too bad I didn’t really pack warm clothes. Oh well, I seemed to manage ok with what I did bring.

After climbing back down the Eiffel Tower, Will and I separated from Scott for a while to do our own shopping. I needed to get some souvenirs and gifts to bring home, still. I know… it’s so like me to put off the shopping. Once I was satisfied with my purchases, Will and I took the subway back to the hotel. It’s really convenient having a subway entrance right outside the hotel. We were able to spend some time in the hotel room, and we relaxed with a few episodes of “Friends”.

For dinner, we went the restaurant that we ate at on our second night in Paris. It’s the restaurant where they had little pig marshmallow desserts, but we didn’t get those this time. I just decided to have French onion soup because I was feeling kind of tired of meat. I think I’ll have to temporarily go vegetarian when I get home because I’ve had my fair share of meat on this trip. Well, maybe I’ll make an exception when I go to Erik’s Deli. ;)

We got back to the hotel room and before going to bed we packed up our suitcases. It was finally time to face reality and get ready for the long journey home.

Back to Paris

June 17^th –

Our trip was finally coming to an end, and it was time to leave Southern France and head back to Paris. We took another train ride, and this time we made sure to leave extra early to be sure we didn’t miss the train. Thankfully, we didn’t. The ride went well, but I started feeling sick towards the end of the trip. I had been looking down a lot at books and a laptop, so I think I got a little motion sickness. Combined with that, these two men would go outside the cabin to smoke and then when they came back in the smell coming from them made my stomach feel ten times worse. At one point I was certain I was going to be sick, but thankfully didn’t. I was happy when we finally got off the train.

We checked back into the hotel we stayed at for the beginning of the trip. I didn’t think it was possible to get nicer rooms than the one we had before, but Will and I managed to get the nicest looking hotel room I have ever stayed in. I couldn’t believe how large it was for just the two of us! There were huge curtains that separated the sitting area and the bedroom. Behind that there was a ridiculously large walk-in closet. It didn’t get much use though, since we were only staying in that room for two nights.

We had some time to relax in the room, and then it was time for dinner. We decided to go out for some fondue, and the hotel recommended a restaurant for us. The restaurant was pretty nice, and we all enjoyed some cheese fondue and a baked potato. Walking back to the hotel afterwards, we saw a lot of police just standing around. There were even some outside of our hotel room. We asked the hotel what was going on, and it turns out that the Orthodox Pope was in town…and apparently staying in our hotel? Kind of weird. Too bad we didn’t run into him, although we did see a priest walking around.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Au Revoir, Southern France

June 16^th –

This was our last day visiting with Hervé, Katia, and the two daughters. Before leaving though, we took a short tour of part of the castle which surrounds the city. It was pretty neat to walk along the outer wall of the castle. If you happen to ever visit France, I would recommend Carcassonne. It really is a unique city.

We arrived in Montredon around 12:30, and soon it was time for lunch. A lot of people reading this will cringe at the thought of eating this meal, but to the French, there is nothing weird about eating horse. This isn’t my first time eating it either, and at least this time it was cooked as a steak. However, I seemed to get a really difficult piece to chew, so I ended up not eating a lot of it. Will helped me finish my steak, thankfully. The taste was fine; I just have trouble eating really chewy food.

After lunch, Hervé and Katia wanted to take us to the “mystery spot”. They told us it was about 30 km away, but the drive seemed a lot longer than that. It also went from a sunny day to cloudy and it was raining by the time we reached the “spot”. It’s one of those places that are like an optical illusion. It looks like the road is uphill (although it really didn’t look like much of an incline to me), but when you put the car in neutral, it will start to roll “up” the street. When coming back, you have to accelerate the car in order to get back “down” the slight hill. It was weird being in the car for this strange phenomena. I know it’s just an optical illusion, but it was still pretty neat to see. We stopped at the nearest town, Minèrve, and we walked around for a little bit. There’s not a whole lot to see there, but it was a cute little town.

We went back to their house for just a little bit after that, and then said our goodbyes before heading back to Carcassonne. We had dinner at a restaurant in town, and Will and I had some cassoulet since it will be a long time before we will have that dish again. The couple next to us was a French man and a Romanian woman, and they had a bet about whether other people knew anything about Romania besides the cars that come from there. Luckily for the woman, they were sitting next to two world travelers, Will and his dad, who have actually been to Romania. It’s a good thing she wasn’t just asking me because sadly, I don’t know anything about Romania.

Since it was our last night in Carcassonne, we needed to spend the credit that was given to us for the bar in the hotel. Will’s dad decided to order a white wine that was 43 years old (Will’s age + my age in a couple months). So it was a bottle from 1966... what madness! There was nobody in the bar, and the bartender said we could come with him to get the wine in the cellar. Of course we took him up on the opportunity! The door that lead downstairs was one of those hidden doors that look like a bookshelf. It was really neat getting to go down and see the wine cellars. There was so much wine down there, and we also passed a room with a huge cake in the shape of the castle. We asked the bartender about it on the way out and he said it was a wedding cake. Then he asked if we wanted some chocolate to go with the wine, and he showed us a room that had trays and trays of chocolates. I was in heaven! So he gathered a tray of chocolates for us, and we headed back up to the bar.

Then it was time to enjoy the wine and chocolate. I couldn’t believe I was drinking such old wine. I also discovered something since this was the first time having a glass of white wine. It is a lot easier to drink than red wine. It was a lot sweeter than red, although Will told me that wine is a lot sweeter than most of the white wines I will drink back home. Can you believe I drank two glasses of it (once again, I’m a wild woman)? We had a good time that night, and it was a real treat that we were able to explore the wine cellars.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Visit to Perpignan

June 15^th –

Since this was our second morning at the hotel in Carcassonne, we were able to get a free breakfast at a restaurant right across from us. I was pretty happy about that because it had been a while since we’ve been able to actually eat breakfast. It was buffet style, so I filled up with a waffle, ham, croissant, fruit, and a little bit of scrambled eggs. We then left the hotel to head to Perpignan, where Katia’s mom, Michelle, and her husband, Patrick, live.

It was an hour and a half drive over there. We had met Patrick at the airport near their house, and we followed him home from there. They have a dog, which was some kind of poodle mix I think, and a cat, which of course I was very happy to see and pet. It was actually a friendly cat for the most part. It made me miss my three kitties at home. No, seeing the dog did not make me miss the ones at my house… What can I say? I’m a cat person.

We had some snacks and drinks before lunch was served, and I just stuck with Coca-Cola. Once again, this meal amazed me with how much food was brought out. I was told that they usually don’t eat this much food at every meal, but are serving all of it because we are guests. Almost every meal starts off with a platter of meats, and this was no different. After that came the main course and side dishes. We ate duck (I’ve had my fair share of duck on this trip, and am ready to take a break from it once I’m back home), potatoes, and tomatoes. I was so full by the end of that (I couldn’t even finish the duck), but they brought out even more food for us. Next came the salad, but Will and I had to pass on it, as well as the cheese that followed. We did manage to eat some of the little cakes that were brought out later, though. Finally, the meal was over and I could barely move from how much food was inside of me.

Patrick wanted to take us to see his boat. We went in his car, and he took us down to the docks. I was pretty tired by this time, and I was glad that we weren’t going out for a ride on the boat. I guess the water was too choppy to take it out, anyways. We did climb aboard the little boat, though, and he let the engine run for a little while. We also walked to the shore to look out on the Mediterranean Sea. From the shore, Patrick pointed out that the mountains we could see down the coast was actually part of Spain. If only we had time to explore a new country (well, new for me anyways)…

We went back to the house where we had another drink out in their garden, and then we headed back to Carcassonne. Will and I went out to dinner alone, and we shared a vegetarian pizza at the restaurant we ate at the first night in town. Before our food arrived, the man and woman next to us decided to strike up a conversation, noticing that we were speaking English. “Oh, you guys are speaking English. Where are you from?” We told her we were from California, to which she responded, “Are you guys on your honeymoon?” HAHAHA! It was tempting to make up some elaborate story about our “honeymoon”, but decided it was best to just tell her no. It did make us chuckle, though. Hey, the hotel did have an envelope in our room with “Mr. and Mrs. Maynard” written on the front. Maybe there’s something we’re not telling anybody? ;)