2008 Evening Marches

The schedule is out for the 2008 Thursday evening marchés in the region. These are a wonderful opportunity to browse and buy local meats, cheeses, vegetables, wines and crafts in the relaxed atmosphere of a nearby village square in the evening. Prepared foods are available to eat on site as well. We'll be at most of them. See you there!

The schedule is:

Thursday, July 3 Laurabuc (20 min. by car)
Thursday, July 10, Montferrand (5 min. by car)
Thursday, July 17, Castelnaudary (10 min. by car)
Thursday, July 24, Ricaud (5 min. by car)
Thursday, July 31, Airoux (5-10 min. walk)
Thursday, August 7, Fendeille (25 min. by car)
Thursday, August 14, Castelnaudary, alongside the canal (10 min. by car)
Thursday, August 21, Villeneuve la Comptal (20 min. by car)
Thursday, September 20, Souilhanels (10 min. by car) (a European Heritage Days event)
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Not to be missed: La Fete de la Cocagne

The myth of the "Pays de Cocagne," a land of perpetual indulgence, can be traced as far back in literature as the early 1200s. The Carmina Burana, an eclectic collection of poems written by itinerant students and monks, includes among its texts references to a land of abundance where the more one slept the richer one became (a fascinating historical backdrop to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's oft-mocked proposal that French labor laws be modified so that French employees can "work more to earn more.")

More recently -- which is to say during 1500s and 1600s -- "cocagne" was the word used to refer to compacted balls of blue dye derived from the (yellow flowered) pastel, or woad plant. Until indigo dyes from the far east became readily available as a result of the development of trade and shipping routes, woad was in high demand throughout Europe as a dye and ink. The pastel plant was cultivated widely in the Lauragais, and the region flourished economically on exports of cocagne. Thus, the Lauragais region itself is sometimes referred to as the Pays de Cocagne, perhaps loosely translated as "Woad country."

Whether as the land of plenty or as the land where woad once was cultivated, since 1972 the small town of St. Felix de Lauragais has celebrated the cocagne heritage of the region with its annal Fete de la Cocagne festival on Easter weekend. This year the festival will be on Easter Sunday, March 23 and the following Monday, March 24.

The festival offers a fabulous array of medieval style arts, crafts, and entertainers. The setting and atmosphere is so ideal you can easily imagine you have suddenly been transported 800 years back in time. For anyone who ever attended a "Renaissance Fair" in California, it is somewhat the same idea but with fewer hippies and in a real village of stone buildings dating back several hundred years. (Hmm, wonder if maybe some hippie picked up the idea here?) There is something of interest for all ages, including free old-time games and toys for children (these are quite popular, and your kids may actually forget for a few minutes about television, computers and gaming consoles), equestrian displays, renaissance choirs, wandering troubadors, traditional arts and crafts, and a display of antiques housed in a chateau dating to the 1200s. All this in a hilltop setting offering panoramic views from the ramparts across the Lauragais countryside. Of course, no French village fete would be complete without plenty of food and drink available.

St. Felix is about 20 minutes' drive from our gite on country roads. Somehow, every time we've gone the weather has been fabulous. If you can break free on Easter weekend you won't be disappointed. Catch one of the budget airlines to Carcassonne on Saturday or Sunday, visit the fair Sunday or Monday, and be back home Monday evening. The festival is Sunday, March 23 and Monday, March 24 (the Monday after Easter is widely taken as a holiday in France), from 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. each day.
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We've got a decent kitchen, now what?

Gites, being self-catering lodgings, have something passing for a kitchen. Many (too many) are pretty basic, maybe a couple of burners, a microwave and a coffee maker. Perhaps the owners figure you'll be eating out most of the time anyway. The kitchen in our gite, however, is pretty good, and not by accident.

When we were renovating we had in mind that one day when the kids were off to university we might just dodder on over to the gite, install ourselves there and let the house instead. So, rather than go for the cheapest thing we could slap in, we built a kitchen we wouldn't mind using ourselves. And we have used it, last November turning out a full American Thanksgiving feast for ten. It's not perfect, but quite useable. We've even received compliments from some guests (and one or two of them seemed to know their way around kitchens).

"Alright," you say, "we've rented a gite with a decent kitchen, now what? France is supposed to have all this wonderful food, how do we get off the beaten track to the supermarket to find it? What is it? How do we prepare/cook/serve it?"

You actually can buy all of your fresh food at your local bakery and butcher and one or more of the weekly outdoor markets in the nearby towns. Many French people still do. For example, convenient to us are an excellent boulangerie and boucherie in the nearby village. The boulangerie, of course, has fresh bread, croissants and pastries every morning; the boucherie has very fresh meats from animals raised locally in the Lauragais region (not to mention some outstanding cured meats). There are outdoor markets Monday mornings in Castelnaudary; Friday mornings in Villefranche de Lauragais; and, Saturday mornings in Revel. Shop for fresh foods -- and excellent olives! -- these places and there's not much you'll still need from the supermarket.

As for new things to try, if just browsing the outdoor markets is not enough, you can find some interesting suggestions about regional French foods and recipes at Chez Loulou.

The local French newspaper also publishes recipes. From time to time when She Who Must Be Obeyed (apologies her and to John Mortimer) is busy with a work project she decrees that He Who Must Wash The Dishes must also cook the supper. Realizing he is not a natural born chef (among other things) she sometimes puts one of those recipes from the newspaper under his nose with instructions to translate it, shop for it, and follow it. He has managed some surprisingly edible results!

If he can do it, so can you. If you want to make use of more than just the microwave and coffee maker, let us know and we'll share with you the recipes he's had success with.
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Early Spring

Spring has come early to the Lauragais. Despite a brief cold snap, some fundamental threshold in temperature, in the earth's tilt toward the sun, has passed during the last storm. The clouds part and suddenly the morning sun feels warm on your face, the stone walls seem not cold but cool, their freshness something to be preserved against the coming heat of summer. Here and there a cafe or restaurant sets tables outdoors.

Soon the roadsides will be splashed with blood red poppies and the grass in the garden will be speckled with tiny "boutons d'or" so richly yellow as to induce guilt at the very thought of mowing. The lavender will wake, begin to send up shoot, then flower. The plane trees in our garden are suddenly covered with buds that soon will shoot skyward in new wood. The wheat, already rising rapidly these past few weeks will climb and sprout and the breezes will play patterns across the fields like herds of gazelles sprinting and zig-zagging across a plain. Only the brown oaks seem insensitive to the early season; as usual, they will stay brown with last year's leaves until one day we realize they are suddenly fully green again.

Much as we look forward to summer -- cool mornings, hot days, and long, warm evenings dining on the terrace with the sound of conversation drifting across the garden from the table punctuated by the occasional clink of fork on plate -- spring shows the Lauragais at finest. The colors are so much sharper: wheat fields deep green, colza fields full yellow, the sky deep blue with fluffy white clouds rolling by. The hand reaches for the camera at every turn. The wildflowers are easy to shoot, but the pheasants and hares dodging across the roads are much harder, not only moving targets but generally right in front of the car. You get the sense that every growing thing is saying "go, go, go," or "grow, grow grow!" knowing that it's now or never for the year.

Even French workers seem to develop a renewed sense of enthusiasm in spring, suddenly facing the looming deadline of summer holidays. Whatever they did not accomplish over the winter must be done now or not at all and be consigned instead to the work list for fall. Spring is a productive time here for nature and man.

Curiously, the inhabitants of the Lauragais have all this mostly to themselves. Tourist season does not start to pick up until June, and does not begin in earnest until July. The major sites are still uncrowded, restaurant tables still easy to find, and Saturday "changeover" day traffic still non-existent. Hardly a word of English is to be heard at the medieval fair in St. Felix! The Lauragais at its finest, warm afternoons and nights still cool enough to want the comforter, is enjoyed by the residents and only the few, more adventurous travelers. ... read more ...

Driving in France, Part 1

Are you going to rent a car? Here are some useful things to know about driving in France as a tourist. This is the very basics, simplified and condensed.

License: As a tourist, your U.K., Canadian or American driving license is valid in France.

Transmission: Most rental cars are manual transmission. If you need an automatic, be sure to specify that and reserve well in advance, as there are not many available.

Fuel: Diesel fuel (called "gazole" at the pump) is about 20 euro cents cheaper per liter, and diesel cars usually get better mileage.

Speed limits: In general, and unless otherwise posted, 50 km/h in town, 90 km/h outside town, and 130 km/h on the autoroute. If it's raining, 90 drops to 80, and 130 drops to 110. (Just for reference, 50 km/h is about 30 mph, 90 is about 55, and 130 is about 80 (whee!).)

Driving, generally: This will be the subject of another entire post, tentatively titled "Crazy Frog." For now, think "defense" at all times.

Road signs: Not really a problem for the British. Americans and Canadians: it's good to know all the ones with the red circles, because those deal with all the things you either can't do or must do. Here is a good short list of essential signs.

Mobile phones: It is illegal to use a mobile phone while driving.

Autoroute toll plazas: You can pay with cash or credit card in any lane with a green arrow. ... read more ...

Art and history, a la carte - Tours with Elyse

When we first moved to the Lauragais region, it was for a one-year sabbatical. We thought we'd see as many of the sights, soak up as much of the culture, and learn as much of the language as possible in the allotted time before we had to head back to reality. We were perfectly happy to talk to other anglophones -- in point of fact, for the first year or so other anglophones were about the only people we could talk to -- but we didn't search them out. There were plenty of English speakers where we'd come from, and there would be plenty there when we got back.

So, it was a while before we joined Americans in Toulouse. When we did, one of the first organized activities we participated in was a "Tour with Elyse," a walking tour of parts of Toulouse led by an American art professor and tour guide who has been living and teaching in Toulouse for several years.

In a word, it was fascinating. Elyse, who has extensive experience as a tour guide not to mention masters degrees in painting and art history, had selected a theme, meticulously researched it, and then boiled it all down into a three-hour intensive course. On this occasion it was the ancient history of Toulouse, but on other tours she has covered a wide variety of historical, architectural, and artistic topics.

We asked her if she'd be interested in providing custom tours for our gite guests (see lescarries.com), and she would be delighted. If you've booked with us, contact us and we'll put you directly in touch with Elyse. Her rates are very reasonable and she is a very engaging and knowledgeable guide. Her range is not limited to Toulouse: Albi (including its Toulouse-Lautrec museum and old city center), the medieval old city at Carcassonne, and regional wines and foods are also on the menu! Even if you are here for only a week, it will be a half day very well spent. ... read more ...

Raison d'être

In the go-go parlance of the web, raison d'être perhaps best translates to that odious phrase, "mission statement." The French is so much nicer, but the essence of the question remains: why is this blog here?

There is no shortage of English language prose and tourist information about the south of France. Some of it is good, some is tolerably amusing, and some is just plain bad. Does anyone need more? No.

And yes. Frankly, not very much of the available literature is good. (More on this in a future post.) There are scores of blogs just by anglophones living in the south of France, and nearly all are the sort of detailed diaries of interest to family and friends but, while often amusing to the rest of us, are ultimately as compelling as rifling through someone else's closet. ("Hey, look at THAT. Huh. Well, what do you say we go get a beer?") As for actual tourist information, searching the web is rather like dumpster diving -- if you root around long enough in the great catch-all that is the Internet you just may come up with the very thing you're looking for. Or at least something else interesting. Or you may not.

This last point is a problem because we run a gite. For those unfamiliar with the term, that's a rural, self-catering holiday lodging available for let. (In American English, "a country vacation place where you do your own cooking and there's no maid.") If you didn't get here from there, you can read all about it at our website, lescarries.com. Our gite is one of thousands available in all of France. So, one of our primary goals here is to provide our prospective guests with some means of differentiating our gite from all the other choices available, to do it in a way that's a bit more flexible and informal than a relatively static website, and to encourage feedback.

Another goal is to provide our guests with a better flavor of our specific area, which is the region between Toulouse and Carcassone known as the Lauragais, to differentiate it from other popular destinations in France, and to describe some of the cultural and recreational opportunities available, not just in the summer months but year 'round.

We hope you find it enjoyable, and most of all useful. If you have any questions, or suggestions about information you'd like to see, email us or leave a comment. ... read more ...