Another Reason to Visit Carcassonne

Over the past few years we have visited the Cité in Carcassonne many, many times, and each time we seemed to discover some corner or aspect of the place that we hadn't noticed before. Eventually, however, one too many hot, crowded days took their toll and we stopped going. Now there's a new reason to go back.

As of May 10, visitors can now see frescoes dating from the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries in the "keep," or central stronghold, of the chateau at the heart of the Cité. The frescoes, which have been under restoration for two months, are believed to depict battles between French and Saracen soldiers and perhaps illustrations of scenes from the Song of Roland or events from the crusades.

During the Middle Ages the name "Saracen" was used to refer generally to all Muslims. The Song of Roland, the earliest known major work of French literature, is a poem believed to have been written between 1040 and 1115, about an ill-fated unit of Charlemage's forces attacked by Basques at Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees (roughly one-third of the way from Pamplona to Pau) while retreating from Spain in 778. Originally passed down by oral tradition, the story became widely popular in the mid-1100s when it was transcribed in several different manuscript versions. By this time, the original historical facts had been skewed significantly: among other things, the minor nobleman after whom the poem is named had become identified as Charlemagne's nephew and the Basques had been transformed into Saracens. These frescoes, then, may represent the artist's representations of a "popular song" of its time.

One can (and people do) debate the accuracy of aspects of the 19th century renovations to the Cité at Carcassonne, or complain about the summer crowds and the souvenir shops that line the main street. There is, however, no gainsaying the historical pull of the place. With these frescoes now on display, even those who have already been several times have a compelling reason to return.
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How Not To Be Disappointed

This week our guests are a delightful couple who wound up with us after finding themselves highly disappointed with a rural gite they had rented. "The pictures of the other place looked so nice," they commented. Well, of course! Everyone tries to put on their best face. So how do you avoid what the French call les lezards (literally, "the lizards"), those unpleasant little surprises you find at what looked like such a perfect place in the advertisement?

This is no idle question. Disappointed expectations can cast a pall over a long-planned vacation and gite owners may not be willing to refund payments for a gite they consider perfectly acceptable by their own (or even local) standards. Our guests were fortunate, both that they were able to unwind the deal they had made and that they were able to find suitable alternate accommodations. It helped, of course, that they were travelling well off-season; in July or August they would have had to "grin and bear it."

There are more than 10,000 gites in France, so with an Internet connection, a little patience, and some skill reading between the lines you should be able to find a place just right for you in the area you want to visit. The basics -- number of bedrooms, smoking/non-smoking, whether pets are allowed, kitchen appliances -- are all well covered in any rental listing. Here are some less obvious considerations.

First and foremost, how much are you willing to spend? You can have it all, but usually at a price. Within your price range, what do you truly require, what do you really want, and what would just be nice to have? It's your holiday, so prioritize your wish list. The less you pay, though, the more flexible you need to be about everything else.

Among the things that may require flexibility (literally and figuratively): WCs, shower (or bath) facilities, small or low-ceilinged bedrooms, low doorways, "white glove" cleanliness, and groundskeeping. Many gites are portions of very old buildings that have been inhabited far longer than they have had indoor plumbing and when plumbing was added it was retrofitted as simply as possible. Other gites were built out at minimum cost in old barns or outbuildings. Sometimes, a bit of funk is part of the charm, but that may not be the kind of charm you are looking for.

Photographs can be a good guide if you consider both what is and what is not shown. If some aspect of the gite is not shown, perhaps there is a reason. The vantage point from which a photo is taken can be revealing -- for example, is a picture of the front of the gite taken from across a road that passes just in front of the entry (or bedroom window), or does it show a commercial building next door? Pictures of the kitchen can be particularly instructive, as the type and quality of the kitchen fittings are likely to be representative of the accommodations in the gite as a whole. No picture of the kitchen at all? A gite is self-catering, so unless you are planning to eat out every single meal you might want to inquire. There is nothing to be lost by asking the owner for more details, including perhaps another picture or two.

Which is more important to you, peace and quiet or a boulangerie and the village bar just down the street (and not necessarily in that order)? Sometimes you can have both, but even a "sleepy village" can be be amazingly noisy during the annual village fete or if it is too close to a railway or busy road or highway. On the other hand, a gite deep in the countryside may be unacceptably far from basic ameneties. A sixty minute roundtrip drive to the supermarket may mean you will be going shopping once and only once, or spending far too much of your holiday time on errands.

Is there more than one gite on the property? If you are traveling with others, or if chance meetings with other travelers by the pool or in the garden are part of what you enjoy about holidays, then a multiple gite property may be your cup of tea. If privacy is a priority, you probably want a single-gite property. Very few gites provide a pool for the exclusive use of guests; if you want that degree of privacy look for a villa or village house with a pool.

Are you tolerant of extreme temperatures? Many parts of France can be quite hot in the summer (and quite cold in the winter). Recently constructed villas are likely to be air-conditioned (and centrally heated), but many rural gites in renovated old stone buildings still rely on the traditional combination of shade trees, shutters and the thermal mass of thick stone walls (assisted perhaps by electric fans) to keep inside quarters cool by day. Likewise, being intended principally for summer lets, many vacation rentals are not heated and even central heating is turned off as early as possible in the spring and not restarted until as late in the fall as tolerable. At higher elevations this can mean cold nights, even in summer. If you must have a heated pool, make sure to ask. Due to the expense involved, many (if not most) pools are heated only by the sun. In high season that is more than adequate but mid-season water temperatures may be invigorating, depending upon the weather.

If you are traveling with children, are the gite owners welcoming to, and the gite grounds suitable for, your children? We stayed once at an upscale inn where we felt out of place because our young children, while not overtly unwelcome, were at best a curiosity among an otherwise exclusively adult clientele. The following week, by contrast, we stayed in a very simple gite whose owners love kids, whose own kids had a great time playing with ours, and with whom we became good friends. A place where your children can play without disturbing others or risking serious bodily harm from natural or man-made features can make the difference between a thoroughly enjoyable holiday and a one or two week-long endurance contest.

Finally, there is no controlling the weather. Sometimes it is gloomy or rainy, even in high season. If you enjoy curling up with a good book and passing a quiet day relaxing indoors, make sure to choose a gite that looks comfortable for that. In all events (as some very expert travelers who stayed with us last summer clearly did), have a "rainy day" list of things to do -- museums, wineries, caves, bookshops, or other indoor attractions.

The more adaptable you are to new and different situations, the less concern required. However, to the extent you have specific preferences that you need to satisfy for an enjoyable holiday, the more care you need to take in identifying those preferences and evaluating whether a gite meets your criteria. It goes without saying that the earlier you book the more choice you will have.

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Brocante Season

Today we went to our first brocante of the season. We finally hit on the perfect strategy for flea-marketing with kids: leave the teenager at home to get her homework done, and tell the 8 year-old to bring his spending money. When the first table we passed had a display of PlayStation2 games, we knew there would be no complaining.

In this part of France, at least, brocantes tend to be village-wide affairs, with display tables lined end to end not just in the town square, but down entire streets that have been closed to traffic for the day. Most of the stuff, as usual, is utter junk, unless of course you are looking for used children's clothing, obsolete electronic equipment or VHS tapes. Used glassware, tableware, dolls, toys and games of every description, mounted wild boar heads, skis, auto parts, rotary telephones, plumbing odds and ends, it's no wonder these events are also known as vide greniers, or attic clearing -- in other words, a giant yard or garage sale. It's not hard to extrapolate from a vide grenier to conclude that there is an awful lot of junk in the world. Yet, in a way the selection is fascinating, both in its sameness and its incredible curious variety. It seems there is nothing you can't find at a village brocante.

What distinguishes these brocantes from flea markets is that for the most part the sellers are not professional vendors, but simply townsfolk taking advantage of a once or twice yearly opportunity to get rid of some of their stuff and make a few euros in the bargain. They do bargain, too, and a polite approach, even with a foreign accent, usually results in a deal satisfactory to all.

These are not merely commercial events, they are recreational and social events as well. As you stroll slowly down the middle of a street in a village you may be visiting for the first time, it occurs to you that a lot of the people there seem to know each other. It's not just the vendors and other locals either, because you recognize some of your fellow bargain hunters from the football league or from a shop in another town, and then a friend is shaking your hand or kissing you on both cheeks and there you are having a soft drink or beer together under the leafy shade trees in the village park.

We moved on past cartons of paperback bodice rippers in the language of love, vinyl 33s and 45s by musicians we had and had not heard of, turntables that would play them, tube radios, coin collections, odd tools, old linens and the occasional interesting antique. Among the antiques were beautiful hammered copper pots of all shapes and sizes, a remarkably intricate bed head- and footboard, old hand tools, and lo and behold a beautiful example of a hand-made traditional wooden farm implement. This fool and his money were quickly parted, and his wife and child knew there would be no disapproval voiced when time came to select a PlayStation game.

One of the benefits of having an eight year-old with a PlayStation2 in the era of the PlayStation3 is that there seem to be a lot of teenage kids who have either moved up to the PS3 and its more sophisticated games, or grown out of game consoles altogether. Whatever the reason, there are a lot of used PS2 games for sale at brocantes these days. Yet, here was one place where bargaining wasn't going to work. Having scouted out the entire selection of games available at every table throughout the entire brocante, and having kept and sorted a running mental tally of his favorite choices, our son returned to the very first table he'd visited. The teenaged owner of the chosen game seem willing to give a break to a young kid who was coming up a couple euros short, but his mother was shrewder than that. As long as the eager eight year-old's parents were standing right behind him, she knew full well that the last two euros were on the table. She was right. It was still 70% off retail.

Strolling back down the street, across the bridge, and up the grassy path to the car, our son clutched his game to his chest and mentally calculated driving time back to the house and the PlayStation. Dad lugged his handmade wooden farm implement and reflected with satisfaction that his purchase plus the PS2 game cost less than the PS2 game new. He entertained only fleeting guilt that mom (who had looked with some interest at the intricate wooden bed pieces) had bought nothing. The fleeting guilt disappeared when she pulled out the flyer stuck under the windshield wiper and announced happily: next brocante at a village near us, May 11. Mother's Day.

We'll have a stroll in a different village, perhaps see some friends and have a beer in the shade. And even if there is another PlayStation game involved, it seems likely that the price of the game plus whatever mom buys will be less than the price of the PS2 game new. ... read more ...

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 ...