Carlipa in the Snow...Boxing Day 2008

Early frost on the car when we woke up. The white flecks are snow falling.

Samuel trying to catch the snow in his mouth.

What a beauty of a snowman!

Irene and the kids enjoying the snow

Montsegur Photos

Collioure Photos

Climbing in the park near the beach



Collioure town

Auntie Irene in front of these crazy shaped trees in Collioure

The beach at Collioure

Beaucoup de neige...26 December 2008

Well what an exciting start to our day….snow falling outside softly, quietly….divine!

When we woke up at 7.30am it looked like frost on the top of the car but then looking up into the sky through the light you could see the little white flakes falling to the ground. Beautiful! It’s the first time I’ve seen snow actually falling and it turns everything white and gorgeous.

So it’s 9 am now and it’s been snowing for a couple of hours. Our car is completely covered in snow. It looks like a snow mobile. People outside are going about their business as usual carrying umbrellas to keep the snow off their heads.

On Christmas afternoon, about 5 pm we went for a walk to get out of the house and it was freezing, freezing, freezing. We thought there would be a big chance of snow today. In fact, on the Meteo the whole of the south of France has snow flakes pictured on it.

Christmas Eve Fireworks...24 December 2008

We had some fun setting off fireworks tonight. Fireworks are legal in France so we bought a couple of packets from the Le.Clerc supermarket at Carcassonne. They were pretty noisy going off and some of them didn’t light properly but it was still fun. Andrew has fond memories of fireworks when he lived in Papua New Guinea as a boy.

Snow...23 December 2008

We went for an afternoon drive to Montsegur in search of snow for the kids to test out their snow outfits. When we last visited Montsegur the whole area was covered in snow. Today there was only a bit of snow and when we looked up the mountain we couldn’t believe how steep it was and that we had managed to climb to the top. It didn’t seem quite that steep when it was covered in snow, an optical illusion I think. It just looked a lot shorter all covered in snow.

The snow wasn’t fresh where the kids were sliding down the slope and it was packed down quite hard and icy. Andrew skidded down the side of the hill (gritting his teeth all the way) on the toboggan, first with Samuel and then with Ella. The toboggan got up quite a bit of speed and as I watched I wondered if he was going to be able to stop in time before going over the edge down this grassy bit of the hill. Quite frightening really!

Auntie Irene for Christmas...22 December 2008

Today we drove to Perpignan to pick up Auntie Irene on her return from her 2 week trip to Morocco. The trip went smoothly apart from us waiting ¾ of an hour at the wrong bus station but we managed to find the right bus station in time.

Then we drove to Collioure which is this gorgeous little coastal resort which apparently is a boom town in summer. Today everything was closed except for a few cafes and the town was virtually desserted but we spent a most enjoyable afternoon playing on the rocky beach and climbing up to the viewing platform and to the end of the harbour and old lighthouse.

To my amazement some people felt it was warm enough for swimming. Even though the sun was shining it was still quite cold.

Carlipa L'ecole...19 December 2008

It was the kids’ last day of school in Carlipa for 2008. In Carlipa they only have a 2 week break for Christmas and school starts back on 5 January. Then there is a very short term and winter holidays from 6 February until 23 February. It’s a bit different from what we're used to.

The kid’s teacher said that Samuel and Ella's classmates were happy when they found out that they were going to be staying longer in Carlipa which makes me feel good that they’re happy at school and popular with their classmates.

Anyway we weren’t really sure what we were doing after December because we had only planned to rent here for 4 months and then move somewhere else in France but we have decided that there’s more good than bad here and we’ve decided to stay here in Carlipa (we’ve become quite happily settled…and it’s nice and warm in the house) till the end of April and continue to do our trips from here as we’ve been doing for the last 4 months. We're only an hour from ski fields here and the kids love the snow so we can easily plan weekend trips to the snow without too much hassle.

19 December 2008

We have recreated the feeling of camping at Chez Speedies these days. We’ve had a half load of firewood delivered. We all liked the idea of a crackling fire and the house all toasty and warm and cuddling up in front of the fireplace. However the reality is quite different. Isn’t it always?!
The wood came all chopped up into good size pieces for putting on the fire but the logs are green and very wet because it’s never stops raining. So the smoke that the wet wood produces is just like camping at the East Leichhardt . The first couple of days the lounge room was so full of smoke we had to open a window to help it escape because it didn’t seem to want to go up the chimney. How do those chimneys work anyway? Aren’t they meant to suck up the smoke? We’ve got central heating which is fantastic but it chews up the fuel like mad and is a very expensive way to heat the house. We bought 400€ of diesel about 5 minutes ago and we’ve already used it all up.

Patinoire...15 December 2008

Outdoor ice skating rink in Carcassonne market place

Today at Carcassonne, while doing some Christmas shopping we spotted a skating rink set up in the market square just out in the open air. There was lots of little market stalls around the square selling unusual arty/crafty Christmas gifts. The villages and the shops go all out with the decorating. They use these huge rolls of cotton wool for snow, it looks great. The villages are decorated with street lights, there’s Père Noël’s climbing up the sides of houses everywhere and real trees draped up the sides of lampposts with lights and bows in them. It’s really pretty.

Rain, rain and more rain..... and cold!

Our jaunts around the countryside have slowed down mainly due to the cold and rainy weather. It’s not a lot of fun sightseeing in the rain. We all just want to be inside our cosy, warm house eating hot soups and casseroles and munching on chocolate.

The temperature never seems to go above 5° all day long. It’s something very new for us coming from Mount Isa where our average winter’s daytime temp is between 20-25°. The day starts off very cold (and wet) and stays very cold (and wet) all day long, there’s no variation in temperature. So we are all hoping for snow to play with at Christmas even though it’s not common for it to snow here, it has snowed in the past. Tomorrow “flurries” are predicted for Bram (a village close by). I wasn't sure what a flurry was so I googled it...

What is a Snow Flurry?
Snow flurries are the lightest form of snow precipitation. Another way to think of it would be the wintertime equivalent of drizzle, but in frozen form. Snow flurries are often brief in duration, and very light. Rarely will snow flurries cause any type of accumulation.
It is also sometimes referred to as a light snow shower, and is classified as snow that meets the visibility requirements for light intensity snowfall.

Culture Shock...9 December 2008

I found this article about culture shock and it pretty much describes what we’ve been going through since we’ve moved to France. Americans in Toulouse - AIT Guidebook: Culture Shock It’s interesting reading.

Dominique's Surprise Visit...7 December 2008

Today we had the unexpected pleasure of a visit from Dominique, our French teacher and her husband Luc and 2 children, Cyril and Fabien. We hadn’t met Dominique’s family yet. Well, Andrew and I were in a tiz let me say. We only just got back from Spain and put a load of washing on and unpacked our suitcase and speaking French was the last thing on our minds. It takes us a bit to get mentally tuned up with the parlez vous-ing française after an absence of a few days (especially since we'd been hearing espagnol for the last couple of days). Dominique and her husband both speak very good English (thank goodness) because conversation gets a tad ragged without abit of regular translation.

Meeting Irene...and Barcelona 5 December 2008

The kids and Aunty were telling knock-knock jokes at dinner

We had tapas for dinner which is lots of dishes of small nibbly type food

Tweety and Pickachu balloons at the Christmas markets

paella

Aunty Irene

Samuel in the Park Ciutadella

Samuel on the mammoth in the Park

Ella relaxing in this massive tree in the Park

Meeting up with Irene

We’ve just been in Barcelona for the last 3 days. We drove down to meet Irene who is en route to Morocco on an Intrepid tour. It was wonderful to see sissie and great to be in Barcelona again. Barcelona is chaotic and exciting and interesting. There is so much going on. It was busier than when we were there in October. I guess it’s all the hustle and bustle of Christmas. It was very crowded everywhere we went.

Irene stayed in a hostel the first night before we got there and then she bunked in with us the next 2 nights. It was already a small room with 2 double beds and a single and they put in an extra bed so it was a tight squeeze.

We walked around this huge park on the first afternoon where we saw the mammoth. The next morning Andrew took the kids to the Aquarium while Irene and I wandered around the Boqueria markets and the Ramblas. Barcelona is a great city for walking, all the little alleyways and side streets. There’s always something unexpected around the next corner.

Fauna, fauna, where are you fauna...

Stormy sky on the way back to Carlipa (sorry, bit blurry out the window of the car)

Where are all the wild animals that you see normally in the countryside? We are living in a rural area in the deep countryside with vineyards and farms everywhere and you’d be flat out seeing or hearing any animals anywhere. Of course, there’s cows, sheep etc. Where are the rest of the animals? Do the hunters kill them all? We regular see the hunters with their rifles and wonder what they are shooting at. Actually I think it’s the noise of animals that I’m missing. At home in Mount Isa we could always hear animal noises, birds chirping, dogs barking, our cats whining, roosters crowing. Don’t those sorts of animals make noises in France? Hmmm…

Montsegur...30 November 2008

Today we scaled the great heights of Montsegur, a Cathar castle from the 13th century. It had been snowing in the last couple of days and the climb up and down was steep and very slippery with snow and ice everywhere and no guard rails or anything to stop you sliding off the edges of the cliffs. So I did my usual panic mode with the kids because I’m terrified that they will fall and hurt themselves. They don’t seem to have a lot of protection or safety barriers for people at a lot of these places.

The town of Montsegur (30km east of Foix) is 1200 m above sea level. The castle was used as a refuge for the lords who had been dispossessed of their lands by the Crusaders. About 600 people lived on the site. Along the path leading to the castle there is a monument commemorating the 220 Cathars burned at the stake for refusing to renounce their Cathar faith.