Le Cazal - April 25

 We're staying at Le Cazal - a gite set amid over 100 acres of farmland. These farm buildings date back to the 1800s, so Le Cazal had been a working farm for a long time. Our host David shared that about 100 years ago There was a count who lived in Manses who was a reckless driver. He killed a child of Manses with his carriage and the town was angry with him which got the count angry and he left the town and moved to Le Cazal. This was the count's farm, with fine stables for his prized horses, but the count himself lived over the hill. 

Le Cazal from the road below the farm - Dale Hanson photo

The current owners, an English couple, now French citizens, bought the farm in 2005 and they have been fixing it up ever since. Our "gite" was a barn, perhaps the stables once owned by the count de Portes. We live in the 4 bedroom apartment leaving just enough barn to have a two-bedroom apartment with its own entrance at one end of our building. Other farm buildings are in various states of repair and renovation, one of which houses hosts and owners Lorna and David and their dog Rosie. From the house there are walking trails leading to Manses and Mirepoix.

the farm - our house on the left by the car

Our apartment on the right from the door to the end of the lower windowed section (Dale Hanson photo)

Our apartment is on 2 floors - 3 bedrooms, 2 baths upstairs; one bedroom, 1.5 baths downstairs. A well laid out kitchen with a large dining table and a living room with 3 comfy leather sofas completes the downstairs. High ceilings and massive wood beams remind one of this building's former use. 

We have a patio facing the mountains that is partially covered with a large table and chairs. At the end of our building we may use the swimming pool - still covered at the moment and suitable only for a polar bear plunge. 

As we settle in, we are learning the do's and don'ts of French household life. There is a composting pile behind the building for table scraps, paper towels and the like. Glass is recycled separately by taking it to a large recycling container in Manses or Mirepoix. Much of French packaging is now plastic free and recyclable, leaving very little for household garbage which is collected by the road just below us. I had started noticing the recycling on our flight to Amsterdam. The silverware was made of bamboo, the food containers were compostable paper and the meal trays were reusable. There is clearly a focus on minimizing waste by finding alternate materials for packaging. Plastics are not seen much - at least in the grocery stores we've been in here. 

We're also learning how to keep a fire going in our living room stove (the only heat in the building we believe). Having walls that are a foot thick mean that the coolness in the house will be welcome in the summer and air conditioning will not be necessary. The south facing windows across our kitchen and living room not only let in lots of sun (when it's out) but provide radiant heat to warm the house. The beds are still dressed with warm comforters against the chill of the early spring. But we have been cold since arriving and we aren't well prepared for this long a stretch of cool weather. But, they have stores here if we really need something. So far, we're fine.

A bit chilly but the aperos were so good

Our day here got a slow start as Dave and I slept in. Dave and Dale made the croissant/bread run to Mirepoix this morning and they were so satisfying. Finally underway, we went first to the market in Pamier, 18 km from here and the largest town in the Ariege region. The Saturday market is apparently enormous judging by the pedestrian zone that is opened on Saturdays, but today's market had only a few vendors and only one food vendor. But one good vendor is all that is needed. We bought more lettuce, a bunch of carrots and one of radishes, potatoes, garlic, more garrigue strawberries, a melon for tomorrow's dinner, and two beautiful heirloom tomatoes. 

Place de la République, Pamier

We stopped in at the tourist office where two kind gentlemen helped us with maps of the town of Pamier and surrounding area. We walked up to the cathedral (locked, so couldn't see the inside), passing a medieval Treasury tower, a college (middle school) and a lycée (high school) where students were milling around after morning classes. 

On our way back to the car we passed through a former gate and part of the old city walls, then on to another church with a very spare looking exterior. 

La Porte de Nirviau

Back at the car, we packed food and scooter in the trunk and headed back towards home. 

Packing the car

(You should have seen us at the "distributeur de tickets" (ticket machine) where one enters their license number, chooses the amount of time desired, and then pays in cash or with credit card. The machine prints out a slip of paper with the parking validity on it which one then puts on the dash of the car. I felt bad for the gentleman who had to wait for us to figure out how to work the thing.)

However, we saw a sign for the HyperMarché - kind of a super Walmart selling all kinds of stuff in addition to food. We had to stop. We needed meat for dinner and a few other items and of course we found lots of other things we "needed" - to the tune of over 100 Euros. sigh. Food shopping is so fun in France. Finally we headed home and had lunch as described in my last post. 

Dale, Kim, and Dave hiked to Manses (just over a mile away) and back on a trail that started at the back of Le Cazal's property. Dale's only complaint was that they had to climb 140 meters (about 450 feet) of altitude at the beginning of the hike. He recovered over a glass of Picpoul de Pinet, one of our favorite French white wines. 

Manses

Manses

While I worked on this blog post, Kim prepared dinner of chicken thighs, roasted potatoes and asparagus and salad, washed down with a bottle of Tavel (rosé). All in all, a good day given we're still recovering and settling in.

Tomorrow promises rain and cold, so we're doing a driving tour that will take us to Montsegur (last bastion of the Cathars). Hopefully we can dash between the raindrops. Off to bed.