Quillan market

Today, Quillan had the market in the town center, there was food and clothes, and jewelry, you name it they had it.I got a really rad ring and bracelet, for super cheap:). After that, we went to this ladies creperie/pottery shoppe and she taught us how to make pots on the wheel, mine turned ut pretty good, and so did kaleys, but nikki's well, the one she made looked nice.But it took her awhile to get the hang of it, but hey, practice makes perfect.

LAc de Montbel

Yesterday we went to Lac du Montbel, check this place out. The water looks like an ocean.

Sunday, June 27th

Sunday, was very interesting.We woke up early sunday to go to a Vide Grenier, like a yard sale in a small village, but everyone had stuff to sell.I didn't get anything,but we browsed awhile which was nice.After that we went to the nearby village of Esperaza- for the market.They had all sorts of different things, clothes,purses,cakes,fruit,meat-you name it.It was an interesting crowd there i must say, and it was fairly large-and busy.It was interesting to go to, and i think i would like to go again-they had some neat stuff.After that we got ready for meeting and headed to Carcassonne, the whole meeting was in english that Carcassonne day, and we had a visiting speaker form Toulouse, about an hour away.After meeting, we walked around in the square of,and eventually found a place to eat.It was hard to decide what to eat, since everything sounded absolutely disgusting, and there wasn't many choices.Vegetarian Lasagna,Ratatouille, and a Bone Sandwich- yep you read that right, a bone sandwich, some bones and bread- i suppose that sounds REALLY appetizing if you wanna suck on some bone marrow, YUM.So, i eventually choose the ratatouille- a french classic, it cant be that bad right?wrong. Isn't that stuff supposed to be hot, well i guess not, cause it was chilled.Anyways, i suppose i had an okay experience at our first time eating out.The bread and water were good.I suppose that was an interesting day.

Yesterday,we went in service. It was warmer, but at least are clothing was appropriate unlike when it was cold.We didnt meet anyone, but a sister brought along a sister who was 2 years older than me, and she speaks english.She was really nice, she speaks english,french, and spanish fluently.We had a good time, working in the small villages, and we did some walking so that was good.

Carcassonne, shopping and La cite

Today we went shopping with our friend Gathiya from the hall. We went to the center area and shopped for awhile and then went and ate yummy sandwiches and coffee at a cafe. A brother from the hall ran into us at the cafe, during his lunch break and sat with us awhile. It was nice, we sat and chatted, and soaked up the sun. The weather today was finally nice, a perfect day for strolling around and walking through shops, although it was windy but thats Carcassonne all the time, a windy city.After strolling around a bit more after, we went to La Cite, the big castle in Carcassonne. Gathiya works at the castle so she was able to get us into the Inside part for free, it was really neat, and its so incredible the size of that castle. We also got a peek of the stage where they are having the Festival de Carcassonne, a series of concerts and shows in La Cite they have throughout the summer, also where we will be attending the Phoenix concert on July 29th! It was a really nice day, and i am so happy that the weather is finally getting warmer.

Answer to a question:

What is the territory like?

Well, im not quite sure because yesterday was the first day i actually went out in service.We went last monday as well but it poured, so we didnt get a chance to do anything.But i think that the english territory is pretty good, mainly brits of course because their pounds go really far here, and its close to home.I know that there are several really good studies, and our friend Jonathan visiting the english service group yesterday (even though he should be in the group, cause his english is perfect) started a study with a man, using a very simple presentation. Overall, i think its pretty good though.

Service in Esperaza

Today we went out in service with the english group, which was quite a good time.I worked with Jean-Claude, which of course was full of laughs and french/english conversation.After the first hour, we had tea and cake for break, and we all met for that before continuing service.We met a dutch woman in a small village nearby who spoke both english, and french, along with dutch of course.She was very nice and pulled a chair for us to sit down, and we placed an Awake! with her.

Above is a picture of the group out in service.

Lagrasse

Yesterday, Jean Claude and Claudia had us to there house for a very yummy lunch, they even gave me a bit of wine, :p.After Jean-Claude wanted to take us to a very old 11th century village called Lagrasse about 30 minutes away from Carcasonne. It was really old there and we had quite a nice stroll through the village, and it was finally a sunny day, but the wind was horrible, as you can see in the picture of my dad.The drive home was quite a scenery, even though it took a lonngg 2 hours to get back to Quillan, our poor baby Peugeot (thats our car, brand spankin new when we got it last week), we have put over 1000 kilometers on it in in a little over a week.On the way home though, we came across, yep, another Cathare Castle named Chateau D'arque (5th picture from bottom) they are all over the area i suppose, and i heard that there are over 30 of them, its pretty incredible.

More Quillan

Where the wild things are..

Today we went to an Englishman's house (thats him on the far upper left)near yet another Cathare castle named Chateau Puis Lauren.He is friends of the people who gave us the place to stay.He has 6 birds in total and trained them back in england years ago, and when he moved to France, brought them along and built them large cages in his backyard.My favorite was Snowy,a common barn owl. It was so neat to be able to get so close to the birds and be able to pet them,beats going to Deanna Rose anyday.

More Pictures

Our view of Quillan.

Carcasonne

Yesterday we spent the day in Carcasonne.The first picture is the view of La Cite from Jean-Claudes house.The other two are pictures of Kaley and I at a stop along the highway. Behind us is a magnificent view of Carcasonne and if you look closely you will see the famous La Cite castle.

Carcasonne has some really interesting history behind that castle,for interesting info visit:

http://www.carcassonne.culture.fr/

Quillan

Our Village

I guess they do it a little differently in france? Cats on a leash..