Campanile - Carcassonne

... to perhaps take a small amount of pleasure from the mis-fortunes of others. (I'm not sure where this comes from, but if it is genetic, its from my dads side of the family. I'm working on it. Really I am.) Bearing in mind that Tabitha has experienced more than her fair share of misfortune, I think I would be exaggerating if I said that Tabitha and I 'clicked' right away. But we grew to know each-other better by the end, and I think it would be fair to say that we ...

I can't complain about my tasks here at Tabithas. When I first arrived we spent a couple days working on the driveway, patching holes in the gravel, and pouring cement gutters to prevent too much water running down and forming grooves. The driveway is long, and seriously rutted in sections, a lot of work remains. Something ...

Animals. This place is filled with animals. The goats roam free, grazing where they please. Sweetie the dog, constantly close by, a sucker for attention. The cats spend their days eating, napping and cleaning themselves; but I guess that's what cats do. I've never understood the appeal myself. A rooster and four hens; egg layers that have all but ceased to lay eggs, destined for the oven soon, I suppose.

But no animal deserves more ...

... Barcelona, due to the lack of hot water here. I don't really care to count how many days that has been. I changed into my least smelly clothes, and contained my greasy hair under my toque. Believe it or not, in these parts I can walk around town like this, and actually feel pretty comfortable.

The three of us piled into Tabby's new car, and made the short drive to the wine store. OK, so maybe in town I feel comfortable, but in the impeccably clean wine store ...

... the door. A homeless looking man with a big beard walks in to use the shower. He emerges some time later, still looking homeless, but without the beard. A mohawk sporting dude, and his pierced up girlfriend, a toothless man and his guitar, lots of dogs. Everyone is greeted with a handshake and a "Salut!" Its hard to feel sorry for yourself here. I would receive no sympathy for my story of sleeping in the leaves. After a game of chess with the toothless man, who was ...

... it wasn't open. So we just kept on walking. Everything was still closed seeing as how it was only 7:30 or so....so we finally decided we'd try to figure out how to take a bus to our hotel. We figured out that we needed the number 12 bus...but couldn't find a stop that the 12 stopped at. So we just kept walking. We had bought a map of Carcassonne at the shop in the train station so we knew roughly where we had to go. After walking for about half ...

... Paul de Vence, Vence and Tourrettes sur Loup. Sheena's grandmother used to live there, so she showed us two houses (more like villas with million dollar views) that her grandparents built and we went out to dinner. Seeing them really made me excited to visit Scotland where we will stay in their house, babysit the kids and go to all their favorite restaurants. We also planned to visit some other family who live in Pitlochry. We're going to drive up in Tom's Porsche with the top down! On ...

... its amazing looking back into the medieval part of the city, peering over the rooftops and alleyways, it is very much a living, breathing, working museum. There is protection for the area but it's not smothered by to many rules and regulations, it really does work and I feel very privileged to have been able to stay within these walls and be part of this living heritage site. It continues to rain, I was quite damp when I came down from the ...

... who were a Christian sect that the Catholic Church did not approve of and aimed to eradicate. In 1210, Simon de Montfort, the military chief of this Crusade, laid siege to the town and cut off all supplies including water so that they were forced to surrender. When they did he ordered 140 Cathars to be burned at the stake as heretics because they refused to convert to Catholicism. Hmmmmm nice guy!!!! Another in the same vein as Ric ...

... We enjoyed it al fresco with friends, as well as in delightful digs like revamped convents and antiquated abbeys. We enjoyed homemade bouillabaisse in true Mediterranean style with just the right fish, just the right wine, and with friends and family. It was on this tour of decadent lunches that we discovered another jewel of France: Monsiuer Alain Ducasse. A chef of provencal cuisine who has for years run the show at le Louis XV in ...