Once again time has got away on me and I haven't done an update here for ages. So..here goes, a brief overview of what's been happening in the South of France this summer in pictures!
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| Martin taking part in a Tug-of-War, it was the English against the French, and Dutch. There was much huffing and grunting (not so much from Martin who chose his position carefully!) They ended up coming second, not bad for a bunch of 'older' folk! | |
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| We had a great visit with Bill & Deb Ussher. The weather was not so great but the castles, markets, jousting tournaments and of course wine was pretty good with such neat company! |
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| One of the tourist attractions at Carcassonne Castle during the summer is a jousting tournament which we went to with Bill and Deb. It was fantastic, the horsemanship of the 'knights' was amazing. |
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| Bex was our next visitor on the first leg of her big overseas 'tour'. It was great to show family around our neck of the woods. |
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| One of the first things we did with Bex was go to the James Blunt concert at the Carcassonne Castle. What an amazing venue for a concert, in the heart of an ancient castle! The concert was pretty good too! |
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| A bike ride is a must here in the South of France! |
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| Cousin Tracey came for a visit too which was lots of fun. Back to Carcassone castle! |
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| Our latest neighbours! Donkeys appear to be very popular here especially with our more 'alternative' locals. These two are VERY vocal, especially in the middle of the night! |
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| Martin met some wonderful Spanish/Americans Auri and Pete, while playing tennis. They invited us to a Paella party they were organising. What we didn't realise was that there would be about 3 courses before this amazing dish was served and then another two after that. Needless to say we rolled our way home! |
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| More food! Martin's idea of 7th heaven! |
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| We have been doing quite a bit of exploring in our local area during the month of August as it is what is commonly known as the 'silly' season here. It's when France is on holiday and tourists rule the roads and the holiday places so we thought it best to stay close to home til it's all over. We recently visited another Cathar Castle called Peyrepertuse. It has to be the best castle we have been to, literally carved out of the rock on the top of a mountain around 1070! Hard to get your head around something so old when we are SO young by comparison in NZ. |
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| This is one small part of the castle. it is huge and at one time might have housed over a thousand people. It is the only Cathar castle that was never conquered by invaders. I'm not surprised, one look at the climb up and I'd have given up too! In the 21st century there is a road most of the way up, thank goodness! |
Well, that's a brief look at some of what has been happening here this summer. It is now officially autumn but no-one has told the weather because it has been very hot and sunny for the last two weeks which is a bonus. Our time here is drawing to a close and we will be leaving in 5 weeks with very mixed feelings. But until then there is more to see, do and drink! Til the next time....hopefully a lot sooner than this time!
