A Field of Poppies and a 14th Century Town

My friend Lenore arrived, and she has a CAR!!  So today we drove to Lagrasse, a 14th century abbey and walled city about 25 miles south and west of Carcassonne.  It was a lovely drive, full of vineyards and fields replete with vegetables--and POPPIES!!  Today we passed a field which was straight out of a Monet painting--or else the painting came from the field.  Bright green grass, and everywhere across the field a riot of poppies, from orange-red to deep red, almost magenta.  It was breath-taking.  Of course we stopped for a "photo-op".  Then we progressed into Lagrasse, which is indeed a small walled town with a historic church and abbey;  at noon the bell of the church tolls and everything STOPS--shops close, the post office closes, the pharmacy closes, the tourist information booth closes.  Of course, we arrived at 11:55 am; so we wandered around looking in windows until things actually opened again after lunch--meanwhile, we ourselves had a lovely outdoor luncheon--tossed salad with fettucini noodles, cream sauce with bits of ham in it, and an apple tart for dessert.  Gazing at the foothills of the Pyrenees while you eat lunch is a great thing to do!

We wended our way back to town after hitting a few shops in the Lagrasse town--they were lovely things.  Lenore figured out that the French postal system sells a box which one can fill with 7 kilos of "stuff" to send home--prepaid postage.  So she had this box she wanted to send home, and we had tried the Carcassonne post office--only open 9-10:30 am and 3:30 to 4:30 pm--with no luck, so we had the box with us.  Well, lo and behold, there's a post office in Lagrasse, inside the walled town.  And we found this at 2:50 pm, and it was open until 3 pm--so I RAN back to the car in the public parking lot, drove the car down the VERY narrow streets (think Honda Fit with a very tight squeeze between walls of the buildings), and parked the car at the intersection when I couldn't drive any further.  Raced the box back into the post office with 2 minutes to spare!  She sent her box--for some reason the post office people thought she was very humorous--after filling out the appropriate forms IN TRIPLICATE.  I was able to translate for her a little, which helped.  (Her French is, as she says, "long gone", though it was one of her two languages for her PhD program--she keeps saying "y" for and and "si" for yes--can you tell she's Californian?)

We then went to the grocery store, as she's helping me "stock up" while the car is here (she leaves on May 10)--since there doesn't seem to be a grocery store within walking distance. So I went to the carts in the parking lot to get a cart--and they are all chained together!  Turns out you pay a euro to "rent" the cart, which you get back at the end of your shopping adventure; the euro fits into a locking mechanism which then "releases" the cart from the whole bunch of them.  And the store we went to is called Le Geant (anybody could figure that one out!) and sells TVs as well as household items, food, wine, licquor and acres of CHEESES.  We had quite a good time at the cheese counter.  And being able to get GREAT Bordeaux wines for 3 euros isn't bad, either!  All in all a "geant" experience.