0.1% of Rachel's Photos

As I browsed through the hundreds of photos that Rachel has already taken, I had a hard time narrowing it down to a few. They are all so good. She has a superb eye. So, we'll have to include her travelogue in installments.


Turquoise blue shutters in the mountain village of Montsegur, probably some of the most vivid shutters I've ever seen. Not sure if they had to get Planning Permission or not. The row of village houses perched above the rock ledge and beneath the rock face is also Montsegur. It is a charming village that sits below the massive Montsegur Cathar castle, where 210 "bonhommes" were burned to death by the Crusade on March 16, 1244.







Exploring French groceries are a true tourist experience, especially the toilet paper aisle.

Friday was the final Marche Nocture Leran, so we couldn't attend without Gary and Rachel. We were entertained by a solar-powered band that cruised up and down Cours St. Jacques.

Part of Rachel's visit at 14 Rue du Four has been participating in Fergus's outings, which means discovering every unturned stone in Leran.

Photos by Rachel

Here are a few photos that Rachel has taken since she's been here in Leran. Sunflowers in a field near Chalabre, Nancy shopping for salad fixins at the Super U, paella in an extremely large pan at Marche Nocturne last night, Gary and Fergus playing in the Touyre River in Leran, and Fergus going somewhere at a pretty good clip.

Rachel and Gary Do France....Part I

Rachel and Gary arrived from Phoenix USA last night for 10 fun-packed days in France. After a jet-lagged sleep, a breakfast of fresh pastries from La Boulangerie, and plenty of coffee, we headed out to begin exploration of the Ariege.





A quick view from au Castella in Laroque d'Olmes, then the scenic drive to Chalabre, Camon, Lagarde and lunch in Mirepoix.

We have to head out to the the bar, so we'll check back later.

This One's For You, Billy!

While we were dining last evening, Billy commented that his photo hadn't been in the blog lately.


Well, ask and ye shall receive.

Stories in the Stuff

Sundays in La Place de la Republique in Pamiers is notably focused on the marche de puces, or, flea market. As far as I can figure, the only difference between the puces and a vide greniers (town-wide clearing-the-attic sale) is that the puces is held weekly. My guess is that a lot of the same stuff is there week after week after week.

The individual booths, or stalls meander. There is no precision or rigidity to their location. Some people display their goods on the ground, others on makeshift tables, others use architectural elements existing in La Place. There are the usual stacks of DVDs, baby clothes, plastic containers, gardening magazines, and hair curlers---the very same items that could easily be at a garage sale in Moab (except the DVDs wouldn't presumably be in French).

But look further, and the odd, unusual, and bizarre items jump out. Items that make me want to piece together a history of the person they belonged to, and how they ended up here. Was this plate collection prominently displayed in someone's cupboard? What color "miracle" was the user hoping to attain with the liquid dye? Was the wood frame bedwarmer used in some drafty old stone village house (maybe mine before double pane windows)?

People's lives, past and present, inhabit a marche de puces. There are stories there, most of which will go untold. The scissors, by the way, were 2 Euro a pair.

Room With A View....Of Sorts

When Doug and I lived in Yellowstone, we occasionally awoke to an elk or bison peeping-tom outside our bedroom window. It was rather amusing except during the autumn rut, when the novelty wore off the incessant bull elk bugling during pre-dawn hours after a few vocalizations. A bison using the side of the employee housing complex as a scratching post could make someone in a sleepy stupor imagine that finally the "really big" volcanic eruption was about to happen.
The dormer windows from our bedroom window at our cabin up in the Bangtails in Montana offered us a sweeping view of the Absaroka mountains and the Yellowstone River valley to the south. It was a view we will never forget. We hope that Linda and Tom, the cabin's new owners, share our sentiment. During a snowstorm, the mountains were enveloped in clouds and everything was blanketed in white. On those days, I would like to just lie in bed and wait for the rush of snow to swoop down the steep metal roof ending in a "thud" on the ground.

The view from our bedroom window at 14 Rue du Four is, I have to admit, unique, maybe best described as "very French". Across the petit cour is a currently unoccupied village house, owner unknown. To the left of the empty house is Neil and Celia's, an unusual feature in itself (not Neil and Celia, but their house). It is what "plugs" up the alley and creates our courtyard. To the right of the empty village house is where Marc (French) lives. Immediately to our right is an unoccupied barn. But my view is only the empty village house, windows broken out, rendering chipping off, columbage exposed, sorely in need of TLC.

I don't see bison or elk, or even a glimpse of the Pyrenees from my bedroom window now. But sometimes I look out this window early in the morning and I chuckle. I couldn't reproduce this view if I tried---it is one of a kind. And that, like the commercial says, is priceless.