A Brief Note On Speaking French

I took French when I was in high school and somehow managed to test into a high level class in college. That 5-6 year education has been the crutch I've been leaning on the last few weeks.

While I'm no longer conversational, I can certainly get us around, have brief exchanges with people and generally haven't managed to embarrass myself too much. 

Learning a new language is hard. Trying to remember a language you learned 15 years ago is pretty tricky too, and I'm constantly frustrated with myself. Fortunately, with a few exceptions, all the French people I've met have been lovely and helped me communicate accordingly. (There have been a few people that are, in general, pretty annoyed with my English and obviously American accent. Oddly, it usually happens between the glass at the bus or train stations, where one might anticipate that someone would have encountered many travelers from all over the world.)

Prior to leaving, my wonderful boss and friend, Julie told me to just dive right in with it. I also downloaded Duolingo, a pretty good app that helps you with your language lessons, so that has allowed me to reacquaint myself with the language. So here I am. We are in our sixth French city and I'm trudging along just fine. 

We did just schedule part of our trip to Portugal, which neither one of us speaks, so here's to hoping we can muddle through that in a few weeks. Any Portuguese-speaking friends with pointers?

Limoux (featuring insights from Preston Walker)

For the second day in a row, we woke up and packed a bag to visit the castles at Lastours.  And, for the second day in a row, the bus there did not come.  So we decided to just hop on the next bus we saw, taking it wherever it went.  Buses in Carcassone are 1 EURO each way, covering a roughly 50 mile radius around the city.  Based on the title of the blog post, you may have guessed that we caught a bus to Limoux.

Limoux is a small town that is somewhat famous for its sparkling white wine, Cremant de Limoux.  The bus ride there wound through vineyards and hills with the snow-capped Pyrenees in the background.  We had lunch at a little place called La Carabena and had the plat du jour, which was a giant pork chop, salad, side, dessert, and wine for 14 EURO.  

We then set out to tour the little town.  It was a laid back place, we came across about 150 men playing Patenque in a small park.  It's a game similar to Bocce and it drew a pretty large crowd for it being 3 pm on a work day.   The city has several great bridges over the River Aude, several small cathedrals, and a picturesque square ringed by restaurants and cafes.

At around 5 we headed back to catch our 545 bus to Carcassonne, only to find out that that bus doesn't run on Wednesday (it was a Wednesday).  Of course it didn't.  You go to Limoux on a Wednesday, you stay in Limoux.  Remembering that there was a train station, we angrily walked that way, hoping trains ran on Wednesdays.  They do.  So we rode that thing back to our temporary home and celebrated with some wine.

I wish I could say my visit to Lastours took place but it never did.  That devil train never arrived on any of the days we were in Carcassonne.  Though we've left that city, we have one more day there in a week and I have a car.  Take that French public transportation.

Musée des Beaux Arts

Preston worked in the afternoon yesterday, so I decided to head to the local art museum. I love to visit art museums, particularly when I'm in a new town. I'm always surprised when they charge entry, but I know we are spoiled in St. Louis with all the free museums. This museum was free of charge and while the permanent collection was fairly boring, I did come across one painting I particularly liked. Doesn't she look like she enjoys a good time? 

Portrait de Femme, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard

After a quick stroll through the permanent collection, I learned they had a temporary collection on view, Tenues de Soirée, 1826-1914, which I immediately checked out. 

Once, after a meeting in New York, I had just enough time before my flight to meet up with a dear friend, Jeana. Rather than grab a quick coffee and catch up, she whisked me over to see the Daphne Guinness collection At the Fahion Institute of Technology. I wandered, open-mouthed among the costumes, gowns and decadent garments she's worn over the years. The Alexandar McQueen pieces were particularly beautiful, of course. 

Stepping into the room that featured the Tenues de Soirée, was similar to how I felt looking at Guinness' collection. Gowns were displayed all over the room, from bridal gowns, to mourning shrouds and several party dresses. The collection was stunning. I marveled at the make up mirrors, tiny leather gloves and evening bags. The detail that went into making these gowns was remarkable. Beautiful collection, I'm so lucky to have stumbled upon it.

Taking A Break

While traveling, Preston will continue to do some of his consulting work and I'll try to drum up a bit of freelance to keep the creative juices flowing. We decided to take a little break after the farm in a town called Carcassonne, France.

Rather than book a hotel, we decided to reserve a VRBO listing for 7 days. Upon our arrival, the very sweet and patient-with-my-French Daniele, showed us around our new home, which is absolutely perfect. Desperately in need of doing some post-farm laundry, I was thrilled to see a washer. Plus, we have a full kitchen, gorgeous bath and the best part of the apartment is the gorgeous garden just outside the bedroom.

There are 3 farmers markets in town throughout the week, the biggest of which is on Saturday. We LOVE farmers markets and now that we had a full kitchen, we were so excited to gather some supplies to cook some of our own meals. The market was incredible, there was asparagus as far as the eye could see, ranging from 1€ all the way up to 8'50€ per kg, depending on where and how it was grown. Preston got to try oysters and we spent a lot of time sampling several local cured meats. We landed on one that was made with morels, and it is delicious. We purchased tomatoes, strawberries, clementines, leeks, garlic, asparagus and preserved lemons. We were also so happy to purchase some great spices, Ras el Hanout and salt with mushrooms, which Preston used to cook some amazing steaks last night.

Oysters at the market

Fresh veggies at the market

So many olives, also preserved lemons. 

After the market, we shared a lovely bottle of rose with the aforementioned morel salami and some incredibly stinky and delicious Camembert.  Then we headed up to the original city of Carcassonne, a walled medieval city that was built in the 1200's. 

Approaching the rear of the city of Carcassonne

It's about a 15 minute walk from our place to the city, crossing over a gorgeous river that runs between the old and new cities. It is definitely touristy, boasting a very corny-seeming Museum of Torture  (not a recommended stop, according to Trip Advisor) and several shops filled with souvenirs, candy and "medieval wear". There were some great little bars and restaurants and we stopped for a glass of wine before heading back to make dinner.

The walled city is stunning, with breathtaking views from almost every point. I am always amazed when we visit these medieval places, curious about what life was like hundreds of years ago. We wanted to get some shots of the city as the sun set, but clouds started to come in and both our bladders and stomachs were requesting attention, so we headed back to our place for dinner. We are here for a week, so we'll definitely be back to spend more time.

A row of ramparts in the city's surrounding walls

A view from the bridge at dusk

Workaway

Many months ago, before this trip had been planned, Preston came across a website called www.workaway.com. The website serves as a hub for people looking for volunteer work on their farms, in their schools, shops, etc.  We found a fantastic little farm in the south of France that we decided to spend some time working and learning how their farm ran. We fed the pigs, chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits each morning. One day I was tasked with fixing and rebuilding an electric fence. Preston fertilized their large garden. I also spent a lot of time working with their daughter to write English and she helped me work on my French. 

The farm was gorgeous and the work was very fun and educational. We had a wonderful time with the family and enjoyed our time at the farm. We are now in a small town further south in France but for now, I'll leave you with a few photos of the gorgeous farmland nestled just near the Pyrenees. 

Farm raised eggs, Mirande, France. 

Off To France

We're spending the next 2 months in France and I'll explain that part of our journey in the next post. Sunday was entirely spent traveling from Dublin to Toulouse, France: 2 trains, a plane and 2 cabs. On no sleep, it was pretty brutal, but we were delighted with the final train from Toulouse to Auch. The views into the French countryside were picturesque to say the very least. 

We are now aboard a bus to Mirande where the real adventure will begin.

Wheat and canola fields in Gers, France

The Dublin Experience, Part Two

Our first day in Dublin was spent mostly recovering from some serious jet lag. We didn't want to sleep, we wanted to make it through e entire day, but as soon as we arrived at our AirBnB, we crashed. 

Note: AirBnB is a great resource for travelers. We decided to opt for an inexpensive flat in a great neighborhood - Rathemines - and that ended up being both good and bad. While close to many shops, pubs and restaurants, it was very small and sparse. That would haven been perfectly fine with us, however we discovered that the building had a persistent noise that we were unable to both identify and stop. We both averaged about 2 hours asleep per night. You win some, you lose some, I suppose. 

Day Two consisted of a good walk into the city center and a wonderful brunch at a little place called SeaGrass. We wandered into the city center and took the Irish Whiskey Museum tour, checked out the Castle of Dublin and took a snack break at CrackBIRD (an Anthony Bourdain recommendation from The Layover). 

We wrapped up the day, hoping to get some sleep before our journey to the South of France the next day (we did not, that mystery noise was a beast), and did some emailing, Skyping and relaxing.

The Dublin Experience, Part One

We arrived in Dublin yesterday, exhausted but happy to be here. We did our best to sleep on the plane but it's always difficult for us to sleep much on the plane (though Lufthansa has fantastic movie and television options, with a screen at every seat, so we got to watch several movies in the absence of sleep). We are staying in a little AirBnB in Rathemines, which is a great location for us. We crashed immediately and only woke up for a quick Lebanese dinner down the road, then back to sleep. Jet lag is no joke.

Dublin has a fantastic amount of street art, some of which I've posted on our Instagram (walksaboutus). We came across this great piece on the side of the building, which we both agree is a bit prophetic to us.

Rathemines, Dublin, Ireland

Traveling for so long is a bit scary, and I've been a bit nervous about not working, but as my sweet friend and fellow world traveler Lee told me, trust what you ask of the universe and life will help you find your way - don't be afraid.

First Stop Chicago.

Due to Preston's incredibly shrewd travel planning, flew out of O'Hare, meaning we got to spend 24 hours in Chicago! It was my birthday and he had gotten me some chocolate cake and surprised me with tickets to see the Cardinals play the Cubs at Wrigley. Capped off with some vino and several hours of laughter with some dear friends, our trip was off to the perfect start.

Cardinals @ Cubs, Wrigley Field, April 8, 2015

Destination: Everywhere

We are about two weeks out before we leave and we are furiously trying to finish packing, wrap things up with our respective jobs, see friends and family and finalize the last few details, including where we are headed. So without further ado, here is a quick glimpse of where we plan to visit over the next 6 months or so.  

Deciding where to go was something we have discussed and analyzed at length. We spoke with many friends that have done a long term trip and done an enormous amount of research to determine where we want to go. We have a the first part of our trip pretty well locked down. We will be in Europe and North Africa for several months and after that, we are planning a SE Asian adventure, which we are still finalizing. It's all coming together! 

Why Not?

For years, we've discussed quitting our jobs, selling our cars, renting out the loft and taking some time to explore the world. Mostly it seemed like a fantasy - who doesn't want to dream about exploring Vietnam, hiking through South America or eating everything in Italy?

Several trips abroad did nothing to quell our desire for long-term travel either. We were completely exhilarated driving through Basque country in Spain, delighted with plucking mangoes from roadside trees on Corn Island, Nicaragua and mesmerized by piles of cured meats and creamy cheeses in Espelette, France. 

Shortly before our wedding, Preston discovered a flight deal that was just too good to be true - less than $500 round trip to Dublin (insight to finding travel deals will come soon!) - and we figured, why not? 

Why not just do it? Why not leave our jobs, our home, the material things we clung to like lovely bottles of wine and delicious dinners every week? I truly didn't need a new pair of yoga pants every month and Preston could probably live without a new kitchen gadget from time to time. 

Once the tickets were purchased, we started to plan. What will follow in this blog will - of course - be our journey, however, we also want to use this opportunity for another purpose.

We want to learn about cultures and people around the world. We are eager to learn what their passions and fears are, what inspires them, the celebrations they enjoy and customs that inform their lives. We are approaching this trip with open minds, open eyes and particularly open hearts. 

Please join us, chat with us and let us know if there are any questions or recommendations you have. We'd love to hear them. You can connect with us through the blog, follow us on Instagram @WalksAboutUS or email us at WalksAboutUS@gmail.com