Talairan

 6 June

We were relieved to get to the Bordeaux station and find the train was still running to Carcasssone!  I quickly texted both Thomas and Jude to let them know.  It was a very comfortable train and in three hours we were in Carcassone, and Thomas and Marianne (our friends from Denmark) collected us.  Jude had mentioned that there was some lovely old buildings in Carcassone - but I was quite blown away when I saw the magnificent castle and buildings, all surrounded by the castle wall.  The entire place had been renovated over 100 years ago - it would have cost a fortune then and even more now, but it is quite magnificent and I just loved exploring our way around.  We had lunch first, in a restaurant in the old city with a lovely shady garden.  The formula was 29 euro a head for three courses.  I had the asparagus, skate, and fried pineapple, with a glass of wine. Then onto the castle itself.  It was superb.  I would go back again anyday.  Unfortunately Marianne had injured her ankle - one of those injuries that just appears, without explanation - and she was in a lot of pain.  And we'd done a lot of walking, poor thing.  So we headed off to Talairan, the village where they have their summer house.

Thomas and Marianne bought this house nearly 20 years ago with Thomas's parents, but bought them out a few years ago.  They still stay here regularly, as do the kids and Thomas's siblings, but they own it outright now.  It's a very big house for such a small village!  Thomas and Marianne have made many improvements since they bought it - it's lucky that they are both so handy.  The kitchen cupboards Thomas took off and put up on the wall.  That way he could raise the height of the bench - it was built for very small French people!  They've put in a toilet downstairs and a terrace upstairs.  The plan is to extend the terrace and create a garage in the building next door, which is also part of the house!  We are in the bedroom downstairs.  On the first floor are another three bedrooms, a toilet, bathroom and an atelier, used as an artists retreat by Kirsten, Thomas's mum.  The second floor has anther three bedrooms and the terrace! The house has been dated back to 800 AD.  The arch in the atelier was part of the original city wall!

7 June

Today we headed off to the Lezignan Market, about thirty minutes away. The first item on the agenda was to fill up the electric car, but the only option in town was not working.  How lucky that they bought a hybrid!  The next was tape for Marianne's poor ankle.  Then: the market, for Greg to do some shopping as he is cooking dinner tonight.  He is in his element when he is shopping at markets and had a wonderful time zipping from stall to stall.  Then we went to the supermarket to pick up a few ingredients not available at the market!

After lunch Thomas took us for a walk to their garden plot, which is just outside of the city, to collect some herbs for dinner. We went via the tennis courts, and a wander up hill so I could get some pictures of Talairon.  Onto the garden.  Obviously as they don't live there full time the garden is a bit over grown but the herbs were still living!  We passed the local winery which Thomas said had quite good wines, and popped in for a tasting. It was very nice wine indeed and we bought a few bottles to enjoy with Greg's meal tonight.

8 June

Today Thomas took us for the 8km round trip from the village - part of the 40km postman's walk in the old days.  We walked through the village, past lots of vineyards and saw quite a bit of forest too.  Greg found pig poo and areas where the pigs had been rooting in the ground, but we didn't see any wild life!  The birds sang the whole way.  It was overcast, with sun shining through in spots, so it looked lovely and was quite comfortable walking.  The ground was very rocky though.  

When we got to the gorge, Thomas said he had never seen the level so low.  And the water so green.  There are water restrictions now in the village as it has been so dry, very little rain and not much snow on the mountains.

12,000 steps  and 9.11km in total!

We drove in Nabonne later that afternoon. The low lying marsh area on the mediterranean coast has been producing salt since Roman times.  Although, apparently the Roman's actually preferred to use the fermented fish sauce they made in preference to salt - it sounds like a cross between soy sauce and blachan!  In Gruissan, they have been harvesting salt for over 100 years.  Thomas also said there were flamingos there.  As you can see from the photos there was not a flamingo to be seen. I googled it to see what time of year they are around... apparently in Spring and Summer there are 50,000 to 60,000 flamingoes.  So goodness knows where they went!  I did spot a pair flying in the sky and Greg identified them as flamingoes.  As they got closer to the water we could see their pink bodies.  But they were too far away for a photo!  Also it was as windy as hell so after a quick photo op, a visit to the salt museum and the purchase of some salt (hard to resist, it is great salt!) we moved on.

We were in Narbonne to go to Les Grands Buffet. Thomas had to book back in December to get  a table - this place is so popular!  And 8pm was the earliest spot he could get!  It was an interesting location - in a very modern building about 10 minutes from the centre of Narbonne, it shares the space with the local swimming pool and ten pin bowling alley!  As a bonus though the car park had a e-charger and it actually worked, so at least Thomas and Marianne could charge their hybrid! As soon as we joined the queue outside (in our time slot line, they let people in  on 15 minute increments to make it more accessible in the buffet) we could see it looked quite swish and nothing like a Sizzler of our teens and 20s! Inside, the tables are separated by etched glass dividers, so even though they are close together you have some privacy.  Greg and I went off to have a look and take some photos first.  It was quite mind blowing.  Piles of lobster, caviar, cheese, cheese and more cheese, hams, steaks, duck, vegetables, desserts and more desserts.  Where to start?  Well, lobster obviously!  Greg and I managed to eat 1.5 lobsters each, along with a selection of other seafood for me and plenty of meat for him.  Then I had some cheese.  It was hard to chose, and as much as I would have liked too, I couldn't find room to try them all!  Each cheese has a little paper identification next to it, so you can  remember which cheese it actually is and, I assume, buy it at a later date if you want too!  All the ones I had were delicious, the warm Roquefort being the best.  And then - dessert.  I had a selection of about six things that appealed to me, taking tiny slices where possible, and only eating half if not (unless it was amazing, which the Paris Brest certainly was). Oh, and a few peices of nougat!  I left just enough room for a flambé Crepe Suzette, which is prepared in front of you.  It goes without saying that we rolled out, so full!  But it had been a great experience and so delicious! The only downside of the evening was the service. Either they were very short staffed or our waitress was busy chatting rather than working (as she was only serving drinks and clearing plates).  It took ages to get water and our bottle of champagne only appeared when we were on our second round of main courses (remember the lobster shells take up a lot of room on the plate, it sounds worse than it was!).  We didn't even order coffee as we weren't prepared to wait another 30 minutes!  It was very cold when we left - or at least Marianne and I were cold, although it was actually 22 degrees, but Thomas says being tired makes you cold.  And I was tired.  And sooo full!

9 June

Just 20 minutes up the road from Talairan, on the way to Narbonne, is the Fontfroidie Abbey.  Founded in 1093, it was originally a Benedictine Abbey, but it joined the Cistercian order in 1145.  The monks left in 1901 and in 1910, Gustave Fayet and his wife Madeline dÁndoque bought the abbey to save it from ruin.  They spent 10 years restoring it, and contrary to the times, were quite faithful to the old buildings when it came to restoration.  They did however add old and contemporary works of art, including the stained glass windows.  The Cistercians were not allowed to have any decorations so it was originally much more austere.  The stained glass windows in the lay brother's dormitory were created using fragments, mostly from the Basilica of Saint-Remi in Reims, bombed in 1918.  Apparently in the 15th century monks became less numerous (in part due to events like the Black Death and Holy Wars) and the abbey was placed under the ïn commedam"system; the Abbott was no longer a monk elected by his peers, but a nobelman to whom the King offered a lucrative post! One of the Abbots was 4 years old when appointed!  The beautiful gardens were created during the Renaissance by Constance de Fregose, the mother of the Commendatory Abbot of Fontfroide, and the landscaping continued under the Fayet family.  It is a lot of work for the gardeners and they do a great job.   It has been classified as a "Jardin Remarkable"and is a sanctuary for birds and bees.   I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this abbey.  Unfortunately Marianne's ankle continues to give her grief and she had to sit in the coffee shop with a good book.  We joined her after the tour and had lunch in the cafe, as the restaurant was fully booked.  Greg bought a six pack of the monk beers to try!

10 June

Well that was unexpected!  Thomas said we were calling into see his friend Alain, a retired heart surgeon, who lives in Talairan.  His daugher Charlotte is an architect and lives with her husband and two children in Narbonne, but was coming to visit and Alain was keen for Thomas and Marianne to meet her.  We thought we were just popping in... but it turned out we were having lunch!! Alain is a grower of truffles and for entree we had grated truffle mixed with olive oil (it has to be a special oil that will not over take the taste of truffle) served with shaved truffle... it was delicious.  Followed by roast boar (yes, Greg was right, they do kill the wild pigs here - apparently there are 30 hunters in the village!!).  Then cheese, then a tarte citron... a very delicious and totally unexpected lunch.  With wine, of course, so we had to have a post lunch nap!

Marianne and Thomas had seen a sign advertising salsa dancing in the next little town, Lagrasse, so booked a restaurant near the covered old market place where they assumed the action would be happening.  The restaurant had a lovely setting but the food was terrible, the worst we have had in France - not one to be re-visited!  And there was no dancing in the covered market.  We went for a wander through the beautiful old town (and saw about 10 other places with room that we could have eaten at - basically we were of the mind that anything would have been better! - and found the dancing, near the football oval where the car was parked.  However, only two couples were dancing, and it didn't have the atmosphere we had all envisaged!  It was a fantastic warm night, 28 degrees, and the sun was still up at 9am!  Thomas drove us around the other side of the valley so we could have a lovely view of Talairan - and it was spectacular.  Back home, we had icecream on the terrace to take the taste of our disappointing meal away (it was very good icecream so it did the job!!)

11 June

We got up early this morning (I've been enjoying some lie ins this week!) and went to the Talairon Flea Market.  I was astounded at the amount of stuff... ie junk...that was out for sale.  Lots and lots of clothes and shoes too!  I was impressed that the French seem to keep the original boxes for their games and appliances, something I never do! - no matter how old those items were!  Greg was entranced with the huge range of very old tools, but I said Liam was quite capable of buying his own second hand tools and didn't need us to lug anymore back to Australia!!  

We went onto the Narbonne Market, which fills both sides of the canal in the centre of the city.  Again, there was an enormous profusion of stuff, I'm glad I no longer feel the pull to add to the stuff we already have (which needs to be culled when we get home!).  I did however enjoy playing at being a French homemaker by shopping at the market and buying food for the meal I am preparing tonight - including  agonising over the perfect gateaux to end the meal!  I couldn't go past the raspberry gateaux which hopefully has creme de patisserie inside!