Candy, Beth and CoCo Do Paris - And Other Places!

     My company is all gone now.  First it was Andy for a week in January, then Jay and Barb came for two full days and three nights.  Beth arrived on the 16th and I saw her off this morning in Toulouse after twelve wonderful days filled with so many places to see and things to do!  Such a great four weeks that I've been able to spend with lovely people from "home".  It makes me very happy when I can share all the things I love about my little corner of France.
     The first couple of days that Beth was here we visited Carcassonne and small villages around me.  Then we were off on our road trip to Paris - "Beth, Candy and CoCo Do Paris in Style!"  We spent a night on the road coming and going and then three nights in Paris.  We got back last Friday and spent another couple of days in this area.  There are so many wonderful sights all around me!
     I will let the photos speak for themselves 😉

Looking out onto the ramparts of Carcassonne

Between the walls

Beth in the church in Carcassonne

The outside of the church

Inside the cathedral in Condom

I never tire of seeing the cathedral in Condom.  Magnificent!

The cloister at the Flaran Abbey - just down the road from me

The chapter house at the abbey

A view of the abbey and her church

Inside the tiny chapel at Chenonceau chateau

     Our first stop on our road trip to Paris was at Chenonceau chateau.  My favorite.  Built in the 16th century and the dwelling place of Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France, and then the home of six queens of France including Catherine de Medici, her two daughters and three daughter-in-laws, one of those being Mary Queen of Scots.

Diane de Poitier's bedroom at Chenonceau (with a portrait of the queen, Catherine de Medici!)

Looking out onto Diane's gardens

The kitchen at the chateau

The bedroom of the five queens

Lovely leaded glass windows look out on the river Cher and the gardens

Chenonceau is my favorite of all the chateaux of the Loire valley

Beth found a gathering of wildflowers already blooming in the forest

Our first morning in Paris we walked down the Champs-Elysées starting at the Arc de Triomphe

The Place de la Concorde

The 800 year old Notre Dame de Paris

The impressive architecture as seen from the back of the cathedral

Walking along the Seine

Me with CoCo at the Louvre

Paris loves her vintage carousels!

The Paris city hall (Hotel de Ville) and carousel

     Let me pause here in the photos to tell you about driving into and parking in Paris.  In checking out a map of Paris, I chose a hotel that was on the Péripherique (ring road) so that I wouldn't have to drive into the city.  The hotel was just around the corner from an end stop of one of the metro lines and they had parking onsite.  Well, actually they had parking under sight!  They directed me to drive into a car-sized elevator and push the button for -1.  The entire elevator with us inside the car descended into the depths of the city!  That was a first for me.  A little creepy considering that if something had gone wrong there was no way to open the doors of the car and get out.  So we just held hands and prayed!  Ha!  And then we repeated the process to get out - with no incidents I'm happy to report.

The evening finished with a view of the Eiffel Tower and dinner on the Seine

Such a beautiful sight!

     Our second day in Paris began at the Palais Garnier - the famous opera house.  Since I couldn't take CoCo inside (I have been inside twice before), we met Beth in the bookshop after her visit. 

The Palais Garnier - built in the 1800s

The beautiful ceiling of the Galaries Lafayettes department store!  We had lunch in the terrace cafe

A view of Paris from the terrace cafe

Then I took Beth to the Orangerie museum to see Monet's waterlily panels.  This is the view just outside

We spent the evening on Montmartre.  This is Sacré Coeur Basilica

A beautiful sight from the hill of Montmartre

     The morning we left Paris I drove to a northern suburb called St Denis.  The town itself is certainly no reason to ever visit!  But the church of St Denis is magnificent and is the final resting place of almost every king and queen of France dating back to the first Merovingian king, Clovis, who ruled the Franks in the 5th century!

The church of St Denis

Inside the long nave

The tombs of Francois I and his wife, Claude.  He ruled in the 16th century

The tomb of Louis XIV - the Sun King and builder of Versailles

The ill-fated Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

The reliquary of St Denis

     On the last day of our road trip, heading back to the Gers and "home", I drove us through the Dordogne area.  This was my first love - it was here, twenty years ago, that I decided I wanted to live in France, and I needed to see it again.  We happened to see this church in the little town (if one can call it that) of Chavagnac. Country churches here are amazing to see!

The church in Chavagnac

One of the round stained glass windows

So beautiful!

Every church has its beauty

     Our last stop on the road trip was in the lovely medieval town of Sarlat in the Dordogne region.
 

Like walking through a fairytale

The open square in Sarlat

     Beth and I bought some foie gras, paté and fig jam from a local merchant on this street.  Yum!  And then we arrived back at the Cottage in sunshine, having had a most marvelous time.
     I thank you for taking the time to read (and view) this long blog post.  And I am extremely grateful for those of you who are joining me on this journey!  Stay tuned for next week's post as I have some news to share 😉  Merci!

More Company!

     February is here and that means Beth comes this week!  I feel so blessed that I've been able to share my little corner of France, first with Andy, then with Jay and Barb Matheson and now with Beth.  I love showing them what I find so special about this region known by many names: the Gers, Gascony, Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrenées.
     "Le Gers" takes its name from one of the many tributaries of the Garonne which meanders through this region.  "Gascony" and "Aquitaine" take their names from powerful houses of nobility which arose during the Middle Ages.  You may recall Eleanor of Aquitaine who had more land and riches than the King of France and the King of England put together in the 12th century!  The Gascons are related to the Basques - both cultures originating from the Vascones who had fled the Romans and were living in the Pyrenées.
     "Midi-Pyrenées" describes the area of land in the middle of the range of the Pyrenées mountains which create the geographical boundary between France and Spain.  Another regional name you will hear around these parts is "Catalonia", describing a once very large kingdom which spanned from the Ebro river in Spain north to the Garonne river in France.

     This is an area of layers and layers and thousands and thousands of years of history going back to prehistoric times.  This area of France chronicles the beginning of man's history on this planet.  And I feel so privileged to be a very tiny small part of this marvelous history.
     This is what I shared with Andy, and with Jay and Barb, and will share with Beth.  But Beth and I will also enjoy the beauties of Paris!  The lovely cosmopolitan city of light.  But many people do not realize that Paris is just a collection, if you will, of small villages which were enclosed during the Middle Ages behind a wall for protection.  It is a pleasure to find those off-the-tourist streets which still have the feel of a little town with its baker and butcher and grocer and markets and wonderful parks and green spaces that the Parisians do so well.
     I have lots planned for when Beth is here.  I will take her to Carcassonne, a place that she visited with me on a trip almost 20 years ago!  I will take her all around my little area to see churches and cathedrals and abbeys and ancient towns.  Then we will head out towards Paris and visit Chenonceau (I never tire of seeing that chateau), Fontainebleau chateau, the Basilica of St Denis (those are two places I have always wanted to visit) as well as spending two full days in Paris.  We both have lists of places we want to see and I know we'll run out of time!!

Carcassonne

Chenonceau

Local Roman ruins at Séviac

Statue of the Musketeers at Condom

The church in Eauze

The "Abbé de Flaran" just down the road

Paris' Sacré Coeur

La Tour Eiffel

Notre Dame de Paris

Place de la Concorde

     This week I'll be cleaning and grocery shopping and getting everything ready to go to Toulouse on Thursday to pick her up at the airport.  And then our fun will begin!
     I hope you don't mind that I'm showing you some "old" photos taken from previous excursions, but these are where we will be going on the 12 days that Beth is here.  I often enjoy repeating my journeys and revisiting paths that I have already been on.  I always see something new and it's a pleasure to see things through the eyes of someone who has never seen them before.
     Thank you for sharing all the adventures with me and for joining me on the paths and roads that wind around my little corner of France!  Merci!