Where are Ron and Ellen?
France: 7 September - 20 October 2005
Part 3: Carcassonne - St. André-de-Sangonis, 26 September - 5 October 2005
Our friend Nancy's 8-year-old daughter Sixtine took this picture while we were visiting in St André-de-Sangonis
St. André-de-Sangonis, France, 5 October 2005
Links in the text below are to individual photos or to a small group of photos. To see all the photos from the 5 October report combined on one page, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Dear Family and Friends,
Much has happened since we last wrote: we have changed our mode of transportation, the weather has changed, and the terrain we are now in is very different from what we have seen before.
We took the train from Toulouse to Carcassonne, a train trip of about an hour (it probably would have taken us 2-3 days by bicycle!). Taking the train with the fully loaded bikes and carts is not easy in France. You reach the train platforms by going down a set of stairs, through the underground passageway, and then up another set of stairs to the correct platform for your train. This means we have to carry the bikes and the packs and the suitcase/carts down and up stairs to get on the train, and again when we arrive at our destination and get off the train and leave the platform and station. We think it must be very difficult for people with physical disabilities to take trains in France because of all the stairs. The train from Toulouse to Carcassone was supposed to have a baggage car for bikes, but didn’t, and there were many other people with bikes taking the same train, so each entryway of each car ended up having bicycles loaded in it.
Carcassone has an old medieval city perched on the top of a hill, with the "new" city (started in about 1400) spread out down below. From the camp site you could look up at the walls and towers of the old city, perched above us on the hill, and lit up at night. We spent a day exploring the narrow and winding streets of the old city, walking along the city walls and in the dry moats, and wandering through the beautiful cathedral. One night we had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in the new town, and had an interesting "conversation" with the owner about our travels in Vietnam, his life in Vietnam, when he came to France, and so on. He spoke French and Vietnamese, Ellen speaks a little French, and neither of us speaks Vietnamese, so there was a lot of writing of numbers and drawing and pantomime, but we all thought we understood each other, and all enjoyed the conversation.
From Carcassonne we took the train (again, lots of hauling of bikes and bags) to Sète, but this time there was a baggage car, with hooks to hang up the bikes, so it was quite a different experience. We were looking forward to spending several days at a wonderful campground on the Mediterranean recommended by a friend at home, but when we went to the tourist office in Sète for a map and information, we discovered that the campground had closed for the season. However, there were several campgrounds open in the small town of Balaruc-les-Bains, across a large bay from Sète, 6 km away around the edge of the bay, so we went there. We stayed at a large municipal campground near the water, and we could see the water from our campsite; although it was not our favorite campground we liked the area and the location, and enjoyed the 5 days we spent there. The managers of the campground loaned us two chairs and a small table, which were a great luxury for us!
We took some short rides along the water, exploring along the edge of the bay, and Ron took a longer ride one day around the perimeter of Sète; he saw lots of para-sailers and wind surfers. Several places we watched people playing petanque, a game where you try to roll your ball close to a tiny ball at the other end of the court and knock other people’s ball away. They farm mussels and oysters in the bay, so all the restaurants have them on the menu. We loved the "moules marinières et frites" we had for dinner one night: 700 gr of mussels cooked in white wine (we estimated about 5 dozen mussels!) with fried potatoes, for 7.90 Euros. With every bite, we thought of Ellen’s brother, who loves mussels. The waiter was amazed when we told him mussels were very very expensive in restaurants in the US.
On Sunday, our friend Thierry and his girlfriend Sylvie came in Thierry’s car to Balaruc-les-Bains to spend the afternoon with us. They took us to lunch and then to a nearby Dinosaur Park. Dinosaur eggs had been found in the area, and there was a large and interesting outdoor exhibit about different kinds of dinosaurs, dinosaur eggs, fossilized dinosaur footprints, and about excavating for dinosaur remains. At the end of the afternoon, Thierry took our two suitcase/carts in his car to St André-de-Sangonis, so we would not have to pull them when we rode the 45 km to his house the next day.
When we got up on Monday morning, the weather had changed, and it was quite cool and there was a very strong wind from the north. Unfortunately, our route from Balaruc-les-Bains to St André-de-Sangonis was pretty much straight north, so we ended up fighting the strong head wind the entire way. Since we had to climb two high ridges and several other major hills, we were VERY glad we were not pulling the carts. We think it would have taken us 3 days to get there with the carts instead of just one!
Yesterday our friend Nancy took us in her car for a day trip onto the Larzac Plateau, a rough, jagged, windswept, limestone area at about 2400 feet, 735 metres, elevation. It was certainly much easier to go up and down the steep mountains in a car than on the bikes! We saw the Cirque de Navacelles, a huge canyon with a deep bowl-like center where there is a small village at the very bottom surrounded by green fields. The fields are on what used to be the river bed before the river changed its course. Nancy also took us to a small 15th century village, and to a wonderful lunch at a small restaurant in another village.
The temperature yesterday had dropped considerably everywhere in France, and it was windy and damp. We were very thankful to be able to use Thierry’s washing machine to wash all our dirty clothes in the morning, but unfortunately for Ron, the only clean clothes he had left to wear were shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. So up on the plateau, although he had his jacket, he was wandering around in shorts even though the temperature was in the 40s F (perhaps 8-9 C) and with the wind chill it felt even colder. He is very happy today that his long pants and long-sleeved shirt are clean and dry.
And now we are off for another day’s adventures.
Love to all,
Ellen and Ron
Forward to the 5-20 October 2005 report, St. André-de-Sangonis - Paris
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Last updated: 27 November 2005
