tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

We found our B&B which was in the Latin Quarter, on a quiet street. We met our host, Jacqueline Pons, and she showed us around her room. We had a private bedroom and bathroom, and could get into her part of the apartment for breakfast or just to chat. She is a fascinating, wonderful woman…but I’ll get into that later. We refreshed a little bit and then headed out into Paris. Our B&B was only about ten minutes from Notre Dame, so we headed there first.

It was somewhere around 5pm, and there was a service going on. We quietly went inside to have a look around. I lit some candles for my dad and Aaron’s grandfather.

We hung out a bit, people watching and enjoying the view of the Seine.

We hopped on the metro…well, the RER C to be precise…and headed over to the Eiffel Tower.

Aaron wanted to take a bunch of pictures so we crossed the street to get a better view.

We wandered around a bit, and then headed back to the Latin Quarter for dinner. I had a delicious fondue. Other than that, the meal wasn’t much to talk about, but then we found….Gelato.

And it was really good Italian gelato. Oh, the amaretto. The dark chocolate. The hazelnut! It was incredible.

Anyway, by then we were exhausted so we hit the sack.

Wednesday was our last day in Paris, and last real day in France.

We took the train up to L’Arc de Triomphe.

Aaron could have spent all day watching the traffic go around the roundabout. It was fascinating. At one point they stopped the traffic so a woman in a wheelchair could cross from our street over to the center, where the Arch is. Finally we decided to see the rest of Paris. Well, more of it.

We wandered down the Champs Elysee, found some sandwhiches and coffee, and did a little shopping. By that I mean we stopped in Nike and Adidas so Aaron could look at their shoes.

We saw the Obelisk, and stopped for a rest at le Jardin des Tuileries.

Finally we landed at the Louvre.

We people watched for a bit, but we didn’t go in. Twice now I’ve been to Paris and not gone in the Louvre. I’m just not a museum person.

We headed back over to Notre Dame and found the Puma shop for Aaron to browse in. Then we crossed the Seine and hit the Latin Quarter for a drink at a cafe.

We finally had enough people watching and went back to the B&B so I could check in for our flight. Jacqueline invited us over for some wine and cheeses, and she let me use her computer to check in.  Those cheeses were beyond amazing. The wine wasn’t bad either. We listened to a lot of her stories – she has led a fascinating life, but I think I’ll save her for another post. Finally we headed out for our last night.

First stop: a cafe, for un pichet du vin rouge pour moi, and un cidre for Aaron.

We were still full from all the cheese, so we skipped dinner and went straight out to the boat tour of the Seine, for which Jacqueline had given us tickets.

The boat tour was great – we got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up, and saw the smallest house in Paris, and the oldest.

On the boat:

Afterwards we were a bit peckish, so we grabbed a gyro from a vendor in the Latin Quarter. According to Aaron it was The Best Gyro Ever.

And of course, we had more gelato! Oh, strawberry, you were delicious!

We sat and ate it outside the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, which is an English bookstore we had stopped in earlier.

And then back to the B&B. Jacqueline had asked us to pop in when we came home for a nightcap.

She told us more stories and showed us a television program that had been made about her husband (and her) in Argentina about 25 years ago. Then she broke out the Papas Fritas, which is apparently some sort of moonshine. She made it with I think potatoes. It was delicious, but I am not a straight liquor drinker and it was strong.

Then she said she had something stronger. I passed, but took a sip before handing it over to Aaron. Good Lord that stuff was strong. It was homemade cherry hooch – I’m pretty sure it would make a good accelerant. Smelling it got me a little drunk.

Finally we convinced her we actually needed to get some sleep before getting up early the next morning, so we said our good nights.

She takes a picture of everyone who stays with her, for her guestbook. Here’s ours:

We passed out, heads swimming from the booze. I knew we wouldn’t be able to miss our alarm, since every morning at 8am the church next door rings its bells. All of its bells. For ten minutes, non stop. No one in the Latin Quarter can sleep past 8, I’m pretty sure.

So we had a quick breakfast with Jacqueline and headed out. We picked up the RER B at Luxembourg and headed for CDG. We got there without incident, although I was a little motion sick from the train, and I’m sure, the moonshine.

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful.

And that was France!

Monday morning we checked out of La Lanterne after having some coffee. We picked up some sandwiches and pastries at the boulangerie before hitting the road. We took the autoroute since we wanted to stop by La Rochelle, along the coast, before continuing on to our Chateau.

The toll roads are certainly not cheap in France, but they do get you where you want to go.

We arrived at La Rochelle and figured we had about an hour to wander around.

We found a parking spot and headed down to the water to check out the town, which I had heard was beautiful. I suppose it is more attractive when the water level is higher. It was incredibly low, showing off all the muck instead of the pretty sea.

The old port:

We wandered around the shops and picked up some more sandwiches and pastries. I think I prefer the countryside to the seaside.

We found some decent gelato:

And that was it for our visit to La Rochelle!

We were very excited to head to our next destination: Chateau de Tennessus.

Chateau Tennessus is a 14th century chateau that was purchased by an English couple who have spent 15 years renovating it and turning it into a B&B. It was phenomenal, in every sense.

It was incredibly surreal to have just been traipsing around ruined castles, trying to imagine what it would have been like to live in them way back when…walking up tiny winding staircases and wondering, ‘How on earth were they able to go up and down these narrow steps all the time?!‘ and then actually having to do it to get up the three stories to our room!

Speaking of which, our room, The Sentinel. This is a view from the door:

And a view from the bathroom door. There is a little kitchenette behind the table in the back corner which stored our breakfast supplies and coffee pot (they brought up fresh bread and croissants in the morning) so we could enjoy breakfast in bed.

Since the next morning would be Aaron’s birthday, Philippa, the owner, comped us a petite bottle of champagne, which was very sweet. (The gesture, not the champagne…)

Our room was on the top floor of the keep (which is the oldest part of the chateau) and we could also get up to the roof.

Which is where we had a picnic with the wine and food we bought at the Hypermarche in Parthenay before reaching the chateau.

The chateau is surrounded by a working farm, and it was so serene and peaceful. All you could hear were the occasional cow’s mooing. I loved all the sheep (but didn’t see any border collies!)

We didn’t do too much but explore the grounds and the chateau and go to sleep.

The next morning was Aaron’s birthday. It was so amazing to wake up in the morning and remember we were in a castle. We took our coffee on the roof as well.

We spent more time relaxing on the grounds and playing with their two labs. They have a younger lab who loved to chase the frisbee (and chase the ducks in the moat…) and an older lab who liked to retrieve huge giant stones from the moat and drag them around, expecting us to…toss them for him? It was a bit bizarre. Anywhere, here are more pictures of the chateau.

The King in his bed.

The great room – which is where the other rooms get served their breakfasts in the morning.

View from the courtyard.

I loved all the roses.

In the courtyard.

We never pulled the drawbridge up, but I think they let you if you want.

The King in his throne.

I just kept walking around our room saying, “I can’t believe we are sleeping in a castle tonight!”

The weather was perfect, as well.

The birthday boy.

I still can’t get over how wild it was to have been wandering through ruined castles, and the next night sleeping in a restored castle. It was such an amazing experience (if you like castles) and I’m so glad we were able to do it. I wouldn’t mind going back and renting it out with a bunch of family and friends and just relaxing for a week. Maybe when it’s warm enough to swim in the pool….

There are many more pictures of the rest of the grounds, the pool, and the garden (as well as the rest of our trip) in our Flickr set.

Around 11 we needed to push off and head to Paris. We planned to drop Pepe le Peugot at the Sixt office at Orly airport and then take the train into Paris to finish off the last two nights of our trip. We took the autoroute again (and at great expense again) and stopped at the Autogrille for some lunch. I love that they serve mini bottles of wine, plates of cheese and plates of prosciutto in their buffet. I could eat that every day and be happy.

We found Orly without incident and dropped the keys in the return box. It was a bit of a hike to get to the Orlyval train which connected us with the RER B to get us into Paris, but we managed to get seats on the RER. We got off at Luxembourg and walked to our B&B…

On Sunday we headed out, hoping the rain would stay away to visit some more castles. Sorry, chateaus. The first one we went to was Chateau Beynac. I almost think it was better to see the castles on a grey, overcast day. Sort of made it feel more realistic for some reason. Anyway, Chateau Beynac is built on a cliff, and it’s pretty impressive.

Apparently Luc Besson’s Jean d’Arc was filmed there too.

It was in pretty decent shape, and they had some rooms recreated to look like they might have, back in the day.

It didn’t rain while we were there, luckily.

I like this antique edit.

This room was pretty dark so I had to brighten it up a bit to see it. We didn’t get a tour book so I’m not quite sure what this room was.

Here’s the river and valley.

Kitchen:

These were worn by Baron Adhemar de Beynac in the third crusade.

Another view of the river.

After hitting all the rooms in Beynac, we had a very expensive cafe au lait before pushing on to Chateau de Castelnaud. It did start to rain a bit while we were here.

Castelnaud was in ok shape, but part of the main living quarters no longer had a roof:

The displays focused a lot on weaponry. We saw videos on how the catapult worked, how armor was made, how the crossbow worked, etc.

We took some pictures as knights:

Heh. Afterwards we had a drink and a sandwich  in the town. If you’ve read Michael Crichton’s Timeline, it’s based right in this area. It’s one of our favorite books, so it was pretty cool to be right there.

On the way home we drove through Domme, which is also one of the most beautiful villages in France, and it really is amazing. We didn’t stop for a drink or anything, but we drove through a few times, taking it all in. I would definitely go back to spend more time there. We contemplated going to Rocamadour which is a city on a cliff and also supposed to be gorgeous, but it was an hour away so we decided to skip it and just go back to Sarlat. We ate dinner at Le Glacier and hit the sack.

We headed out to Narbonne on Friday morning. We parked and walked to the centre ville. Having learned our lesson at Queribus, we bought a few sandwiches and drinks for the road. We didn’t stay too long, just enough to get a taste of the town.

Then we headed out on some small roads to Sarlat.

Aaron loved all the tree lined streets (although this was taken closer to Carcassonne):

We passed through so many cute, tiny French villages.

From Narbonne we took the D 607 to the D 907, through St Pons de Thomieres, and La Salvetata sur Agout, and Lacaune. This drive was one of the highlights of the trip. It went through this beautiful, amazing forest. At one point out of nowhere this beautiful church appeared, with the sun shining softly through the trees, lighting it up. I still wish we had stopped to take a picture of it. It was just so peaceful and serene. The roads were twisty an empty. Aaron had a blast driving through them. I ended up taking a xanax, but he had fun All the towns we passed through were so beautiful. Unfortunately all the pictures I have are taken through the window of the car and didn’t really capture the essence of the villages. This route is one of the reasons we adored the south of France so much. I know that if we do make it back, we will take this drive again. It was just so incredible.

It was also very long. We were going to continue up to Rodez and then head west to the A 20, but we were running so late that we ended up going west to Albi. Some of the ‘roads’ we took to get over to the A 20 were two tire tracks going through farmers’ fields. It was an interesting trip. We finally hit the highway and made it to Sarlat without incident, although a little late.

We found some street parking and headed to our B&B, La Lanterne. It’s run by a British couple who are very nice. Our room, the Tapestry room, was nice and comfy. We dropped our bags and headed out to explore Sarlat, one of the most beautiful villages in France (so they say) and very medieval.

It really is a beautiful place.

We ate most of our meals at Le Glacier, which is under one of the awnings here:

We found the most luscious pastry shop:

We never passed up an opportunity for nutella crepes. Aaron also loved the nutella gaufres (waffles). We tried a nutella, banana, and rum crepe which was heavy on the rum. I think it’s Aaron’s new favorite.

Saturday is market day in Sarlat, so we headed out to browse. It was a little drizzly but not too bad. The market was amazing. So much sausage, cheese, foie gras, meat, fish….everything! It was overwhelming. Everything looked so delicious.

We found a huge pot of paella, which we forgot to try:

The Saturday market also has non-food vendors. I found some amazing hand made soaps that smell so good.

I made good use of the Market Bag I knitted for the trip:

The market crowd:

It really felt like we were back in time.

Eventually we stopped for some cafe au lait and a snack.

I picked up a bottle of wine and we brought it back to enjoy in the courtyard of La Lanterne.

We found out that Saturday night is La Nuit de Patrimoine – one night out of the year, they light the town up with candles. (And apparently all the government buildings are open to the public or something like that, but that wasn’t as interesting as the candles!) We went out before it was dark and saw them setting up the candles – they put these little orange votives everywhere – on the street, window ledges, niches in the walls, manhole covers, everywhere. After dinner we walked around and the town was glowing – it was ethereal. Aaron took some awesome night shots, and this one is my favorite:

The next day we hit up some castles which I’ll post about next. We also walked around the public gardens, which were really pretty:

And that was Sarlat!

We flew out of Dulles Tuesday night. The flight wasn’t so great – our video system wasn’t working (United gave us some certificates to make up for it) so we couldn’t watch movies. The food wasn’t so great either. But we finally landed in Munich Wednesday morning. The first thing Aaron said was, ‘Why aren’t we going to Germany??’, so I think I know where our next trip will be. The connection to Toulouse was predictably efficient and we made it with no issues. It took a bit to find our rental car after checking in at Sixt, but we finally found it:

It was a Peugot 206 – I named him Pepe Le Peugot.

And now a side note of advice for MaD: Get the GPS when you rent your car. It’s more fun to veer off on all the smaller roads, and unless you have very detailed maps of all the areas you will be in, you could get turned around pretty easily. You will need to know how to drive stick, and have nerves of steel for those narrow, windy mountain roads. The French tend to drive in the middle of the road (which is usually about the width of one lane of our roads) and tear around blind corners assuming no one is coming the other way. Then at the last second you both have to veer ever so slightly to avoid a head on collision. Fun times!

We ended up taking the main road from Toulouse to Carcassonne, and it took just over an hour. We stopped at a gas station on the way and picked up some sausage and brie. Delicious!

We finally made it to the bed and breakfast, thanks to the GPS coordinates they listed on their website. (Their directions alone probably wouldn’t have gotten us there). We stayed at Ecuries St Croix. It was so perfect – quiet and beautiful. They have dogs, cats, a horse and a vineyard – I’ve never seen so many grapes in my life as driving through southern France!

Madame was wonderful as well. So sweet and nice to talk to. She even said my french was very good! At first Aaron liked listening to me chatter in French, but then he started getting bored instead. We took a little nap and then headed into Carcassonne, which is a walled city.

Carcassonne was amazing – like stepping back in time. Well except for all the tourist shops. And the creperies. We had the first of many nutella crepes and it was sooooo good.

We walked around for a bit, taking everything in.

We decided to hit the grocery store to pick up a picnic dinner of meat and cheese and wine. Aaron found his heaven in the meat aisle. Prosciutto and salami galore! And the cheese – so much cheese!

We had dinner at the little table outside our room and called it a night.

Madame serves a wonderful breakfast – incredible french bread, jams, coffee, tea, cereals, ham, cheese….and to top it off, she made Aaron omelets and gluten free crepes since he’s sensitive to gluten. She was so wonderful.

The next day we headed out to visit Chateau Peyrepertuse and Chateau Queribus. They are both ruined Cathar castles. We took some tiny, winding roads through tiny French villages to get to them. We stopped for pain au chocolate on the way, which was also delicious.

On the road up to Chateau Peyrepertuse:

We finally reached the ‘top’ which meant we still had a long hike up to the chateau. Here’s the beginning of the hike. It was pretty steep and rocky.

Halfway up:

We finally made it!

We wandered around a bit, listening to the audio tour. The audio tour was incredibly cheesy but I suppose educational enough. Mine died halfway through, but by that point I was too tired to care anymore.

It felt like the top of the world.

It was pretty windy so I was glad to have worn long sleeves.

I would tell you more about the history, but it would probably be better just to Google it.

Some of the inner rooms were still intact.

There are two parts to the castle, and these stairs led up to the second keep.

By this point we were pretty exhausted.

There’s the main castle in the background.

Some french tourists asked me to take their picture, and then they took ours.

My handsome husband:

We finally got back to the car and headed out to Chateau Queribus. This was not quite as ruined, and smaller. Which was good because we didn’t stop for lunch after Peyrepertuse (which we should have, either at the base of the Peyrepertuse, or in Cucugnan, on the way to Queribus.)

On the way home we were looking for a place to eat but instead we found yet another castle, Villerouge-Termenes. We took a tour inside which had a lot of videos and reconstructed rooms. I was so exhausted at this point that we kind of sped through it.

We finally got home and took a short nap. Then we headed into Carcassonne for dinner. It was so beautiful, all lit up.

We went to Au Jardin de la Tour for dinner which was good – it is a cute little place. We both had the Cassoulet, which is the regional specialty. Aaron loved it but I wasn’t as impressed. The mussels, however, were excellent!

The next morning we met a German couple at breakfast who had stayed the night at Ecurie St Croix. They were really interesting to talk to – and again made Aaron want to visit Germany next time. They gave us some advice on what else to see in France, and actually were the only people to bring up how ‘our Mr Bush didn’t make a very good impression on Europe.’

We finally said our goodbyes and headed out. The plan was to stop in Narbonne and then head up to Sarlat. This ended up taking much longer than expected…

We are home from our trip to France. Aaron remarked several times that it was ‘our best trip yet’. I think renting a car and staying in B&B’s contributed mostly to that. We had an amazing time – details and pictures to follow soon! I’m so excited that MaD are going in a few months – you guys will have a blast!

Now back to the unpacking…

There was a time when I remembered everything. Every stupid little thing. I remembered what campus apartment I partied in that night before I found out, his last night. But now…I remember it was Ben’s apartment, and it started with a 4, but I don’t remember the exact number anymore. But I guess what you remember is more important than what you forget, right?

I remember getting an Egg McMuffin and an orange drink (not juice) on the way to Virginia Beach the next morning.

I remember opening the door to the beach house to the sound of a phone ringing, and ringing, and ringing. Who doesn’t have an answering machine? But this house didn’t. And the caller wouldn’t hang up. As it turns out, she couldn’t hang up. That damn phone was ringing when we pulled in the driveway, ringing when we opened the front door, and kept ringing and ringing while we discussed whether or not we should answer it, until Elaine finally did. It wasn’t our house, you see, and no one was supposed to know we were there.

Sometimes I still can’t stand the sound of a phone ringing.

And then.

I remember being told to sit down. I was.

I remember crying. And hugging. But mostly crying. The numbness, and the crying.

I remember missing my flight the next morning. But getting on the next one.

I remember my mom hugging me when she picked me up at O’Hare.

I remember the funeral parlor. Arguing over cremation or burial. Which cemetery.

I remember my mom’s friend owned the funeral parlor, getting a deal on the cheapest coffin, and buying the neighboring plot as well.

I remember laying my hand on his clasped hands. They were so cold. Mottled with liver spots, skin so thin. And so, so cold.

I remember slipping a letter into the coffin. Snipping a lock of hair when no one was looking. Kissing his forehead.

I remember standing with my arms around my brother and sister, all of us quietly sniffling, not much more to say.

I remember giving a eulogy. I didn’t cry. I talked about tomatoes and crossing guard duty and tennis. More people than I expected filled the church.

I remember Sadaf coming up to give me hug during the service.

I remember walking back down the aisle of the church and seeing Mr. Bulak in the crowd. How did he know to come?

I remember an empty house. An achingly empty house. So quiet. It would never be the same.

I remember writing a song, the only one I’ve ever written.

I remember crying myself to sleep every night for a year.

I remember trying to do anything that would make me feel something stronger than the unbearable sadness of a broken heart.

But most of all, I remember my dad. His voice, his gestures, his terrible jokes, his funny sayings, the way he was ambidextrous at tennis and served better left handed…of course that was because after he broke his right wrist while on crossing guard duty, it never healed right. The way he would come inside out of the Chicago winter cold and say, “You wanna know how cold it is outside?” and present his cheek so I could kiss it and see just how cold it was.

All of this, I remember.