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.

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