Nous sommes arrivées.
We have arrived. In Carcassonne, Languedoc, Southern France.
What happened?
End of last year I announced that we are moving – mainly in order to explain the discontinuity of new posts. After all we planned & prepared 2 moves.
We lived in a rented house for about 20 years – and decided to leave. Can you imagine … how much stuff accumulates during more than 2 decades? Quite a lot. We made many decisions how to deal w/ our stuff – what to keep, what to sell, what to give away … what to dump.
Finally one morning in December the moving company arrived w/ a big yellow container & all our remaining stuff – furniture & lots of moving boxes – vanished in the container to be stored in a storage center & waiting for us to call for – upcoming .. whenever.
It was stressful & exhausting during the weeks before, however, it was also refreshing. (You may get rid of all the stuff that lounge around since years & you are not happy with – if simply old, or parts of equipment removed long ago, or somehow broken, or no longer in use, or just … whatever.)
Having finished this part the next move started subsequently. We had decided to go to Southern France for some months.
We rented a small house in Carcassonne for January to April. So end of December we packed everything – what we thought we would need or might need, all our IT & media stuff, any odds and ends (aka leftovers) after the container action – in our car which was crammed afterwards – I’ve never before travelled like this! So we started our journey.
During the 1st day we covered about 500 km & arrived in Dijon, famous for its mustard & its Burgundy wines. After a quiet night we did some sightseeing in Dijon during our 2nd day. It wasn’t cold, but wet – although there wasn’t any continuous rain (fortunately).
The Église Saint-Michel was finalized about 1500; the sanctuary dates back to 900 … 1000. All over the city center there are historical relics & beautiful houses. We really enjoyed these hours of strolling.
Next day another 500 km had to be done transferring us to Montpellier where we also stayed for another day.
Montpellier is quite a busy place compared to Dijon. People mill about – especially young people. (I read about Montpellier that there is a big university w/ lots of students …).
Nevertheless I managed to take some photos of almost deserted areas.
New Year’s Eve was cloudy & rainy (see above) while on New Year’s Day a brilliant blue sky rewarded us (see below).
We left Montpellier after having some coffee on the Place de la Comédie, sitting outdoors.
Finally we arrived in Carcassonne where we are renting a small house for the next months. We may admire the Cité de Carcassone, the medieval part of town, the fortification, from our bedroom.
What to do for the next months?
We’ve planned … holidays, sightseeing, relaxing, hibernating, experiencing the savor vivre feeling … in general: how to live in the Mediterranean area.
