Montpellier/ Carcassonne

Before the holidays, I was lucky enough to meet the family of Juliane (niece of Sylviane who lives in Apt). Juliane is my age, and studies English at the University of Aix-en-Provence. They (Juliane, her mother, father, brother and two sisters) live over near Aix, and having been once before the holidays to eat with them, Juliane asked me if I would like to come and spend the weekend with them after the holidays- and they would show me a little around the area.

So- having only just arrived in Apt late Wednesday night, worked a full day on Thursday and just managed to unpack and pack again, I was waiting last Friday morning by the school gates for Juliane to pick me up. It was a hot day, well in the 20s, and we drove back to Juliane's, dropped off our bags, and then went into Aix for the afternoon and evening. In Aix we wandered a little, shopped a little, stopped for coffee, and then met up with Juliane's friends- all who study English- and I was a matter of intense interest for them all. Some of them had spent time in the UK- one in Nottingham, one in Liverpool, and one in Sunderland- and they all had slightly different accent twangs. They wanted to ask me lots of questions, and we talked in a happy mixture of franglais over tapas, sangria and pastis.

Back at Juliane's we went to bed and were woken up early to get ready, washed, dressed and breakfasted before setting off en route to Montpellier- Emmanuel, Emmanuelle, Juliane, Gaelle and I. It takes an hour and a half to drive to Montpellier from Aix, and we arrived at lunchtime, with the immediate aim of finding somewhere to sit and eat. We sat out in the main square, had salads and crepes, wine and coffee, without much hiccup except from Gaelle who is 14 and has eyes bigger than her stomach. She ordered a huge crepe with chocolate sauce, chantilly cream, and caramel, and then proceeded to push it around her plate before pronouncing dramatically she felt sick and rushing off to the toilet.

We wandered round Montpellier, which is a very pretty town- quite grand with very elegant french architecture, and lots of young trendy cafes and bars- a far cry from Apt! Around 5 we piled back in the car, and headed in the direction of Carcassonne. With everyone tired, Juliane slept, and Gaelle read her play-mobile magazine (acquired in Montpelier) which was quite nice so I could concentrate less on speaking french and more on the view as we drove West. Carcassonne is two hours from Montpellier, on the road to Barcelona (!) and we arrived near dusk, and checked into our hotel for the night before walking up to the city. Carcassonne is famous for the 'city of carcassonne', a medieval fortress which was restored by an architect in 1853, and is surrounded by walls and a draw bridge. It is also famous for the Cassoulet dish- a slow cooked casserole of sausage, duck and beans, which is what we had for dinner, along with red wine and plenty of pudding.

On Sunday we visited les Chateaux de Lastours, close to Carcassonne, four castles that overlook a beautiful valley and medieval village, before heading back to Carcassonne for lunch and driving back to Aix.

Arriving back in Aix at 7, Gaelle was delighted, because her two turtles, that have been hibernating all winter, had just started to burrow out, and she was in and out of the kitchen finding different bits of veg for them. Totally exhausted I asked Emanuelle if she was cooking much for the big family sunday dinner (where Jean-Philippe and Sylviane would collect me and take me back to Apt). Oh no, she said, we'll just pick up a few pizzas from the van in Rognes. Reassured, and imagining I'd be in bed soon, I should have known better- on Jean-Philippe and Sylviane's arrival we had aperitifs, salad, pizza, cheese course, dessert course, coffee and chocolate, and by the end of the meal I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone follow their conversation. The one bit I did pick up was when Gaelle was asked which place she preferred out of Montpellier and Carcassonne. 'Well...,' she said, thinking hard, 'in Montpellier I got my playmobile magazine but in Carcassone I got my liquorice'. Everyone laughed. I slept very well on Sunday night and woke up ready for my first week back at school.