Cathar Castles

Our last day as tourists was well spent, we went around the Corbieres mountains which are well known for hosting the ruins of many of the Cathar castles. These castles were often built in such way that you could see the next castle from one's tower. That way they had an easy network of communication and could defend themselves easier. It didn't prevent them succumbing to the crusade that was started by the French King and pushed by the Vatican.

We started with Montsegur, which was the last one standing against the crusade. Once you are there you understand why it resisted so long, it took us about 30 minutes to reach it from the bottom of the hill and it was quite steep.


The view from atop is fantastic:




We then headed for Puivert, another castle that is a lot more accessible. This one is actually privately owned and they get the renovation money by renting it for movies or events. It was in quite a nice shape.




We finished the day by stopping in Mirepoix, another nice local town charged with history.


On our way we probably spotted 4 different Cathar castles dominating the valleys. This is a fantastic area for longer vacations, and hiking around the castles. The rest of the pictures is here.

Albi

I have to say that we were originally just going there because it was kind of on the way and was supposed to have a pretty interesting cathedral. In the end it's probably the place we visited during that trip that we enjoyed the most. Albi is the home of Toulouse-Lautrec museum, which unfortunately was... closed the day we came, but the main sight is this gigantic, massive, actually ginormus is probably the appropriate term cathedral that was built by the Catholic church after the crusade against the Cathars to remind them that they had lost.


It is located on the Tarn river, and we love cities with bridges (with Portland we are actually well served).


The inside of the cathedral was even more impressive. For once I accepted to take an audio-guide and it proved extremely interesting.


We finished the visit by just going around town and doing some shopping. M found nice shoes and shirts at Cop. Copine, and I bought some "local" gear at the 64 shop, including some rugby shirts :).

We visited some more churches before going back home, including a nice cloister:


The rest of the pictures is here.

Cordes sur Ciel

Yet another touristic destination: we drove to Cordes-sur-Ciel, a beautifully renovated old town located on top of a hill, 1 hour north of Toulouse. This is apparently a very touristic destination, has a lot of shops for local crafts and arts, but we were there in march and it's kind of the dead season. The streets of the village were quite deserted and it looked like many of our mountain villages, beautifull, old and desert. However the houses were in such great shape that there was no doubt it was living.

This is the view you get when you arrive:


Nice steep streets:


Beautiful houses:


We just spent the morning there, had lunch in the only open restaurant around which was a rip-off (prices and taste were targeted towards tourists = really poor ratio). We then drove to Albi. The rest of the pictures is here.

Carcassonne

We did a 1 day trip to Carcassonne. The main attraction of the city is its renovated citadel that reminded M all kind of fairy tales: the city actually wasn't like that in the old times but the architect in charge of the renovation decided to build on and improve on the original citadel. The result is a bit too much, but is still gorgeous. Plus I had been there when I was 2 and wanted to see it again and actually remember it this time.

The Citadel, in the middle of the vineyards.


I told you it looked like a fairy tale:


We spent a day going around the castle and stopping to eat a great Cassoulet. This is kind of heavy, but so good that in a week I probably ate at least 3 of them :). I even cooked 2 once back in the US (1 for us and 1 when M's dad visited us).

More pictures here.

Toulouse

Yeah I know, I am blogging about old stuff, but I finally got through the 500 pictures I took while in France. So we went in Toulouse for Fifille's wedding and took advantage of the week to go around like real tourists and enjoy the area.

So let's start by a visit of the Capitole:


Let's continue on the piers:


And finish with a nice dinner in good company:


We really enjoyed the city of Toulouse, it's very welcoming, the bricks light up the city in nice colors and the ambiance is very laid back. More pictures here.

Amsterdam

I started to go through my backlog of pictures, so you'll see a few pictures and stories from march popping randomly. On our way from Israel to the USA, we stopped for Fifille's wedding in Toulouse, but our flight connected through Amsterdam so we decided to spend the day there. We spent our day roaming around the city, crossing canals, visiting museums and enjoying the nice winter weather. The whole set of picture is here.

Bikes on a Bridge


Inside the Cathedral


Statue Glowing


Cafe Tapas

Overall a very nice long and tiring day, but well worth delaying the flight to Toulouse by a few hours.

First Hike

Last Sunday we went for our first hike since my surgery. Ian had organized 2 small hikes in the Columbia gorges so Janel and I, both recovering could restart slowly. It was a very nice sunny morning and we enjoyed the shade of the Oregon forest. I also took advantage of the hike to try out my new 56 years old film camera (a Zeiss Super Ikonta III). I didn't have a meter with me as my stuff still had not arrived from Israel so I had to trust my eyes. The camera is 6x6 so most of the square shots you'll be seeing here come from it, the color ones are made on the new ISO100 Kodak Ektar.

The Wahclella Falls:



After the hike, we took the scenic highway back and stopped to enjoy a view on the Gorges:


We realized we were near the Viewpoint Inn, a very nice Inn that had been used in the vampire movie Twilight for the prom party, it's also a place we had been considering eventually for a future event so we decided to find it and have a brunch there. This place has been opened and serving good food at a fantastic vista point since the 30's.

The Viewpoint Inn:


See how Happy, M is ?


And Yes, I know, it took me a week to put these online, but film doesn't develop as fast as digital :).

First Baseball Game

Last Thursday, M took me to my first baseball game in PGE Park. They have a special on Thursdays called thirsty Thursday where beer is sold for only 2.50$ to try to encourage locals to support the Beavers, the local (apparently craptastic) baseball team.

We met a few friends, it was fun, we drank beer, entertained a group of kids, and I got to learn the rules. Oh and the Beavers lost badly. This was a cultural experience, but honestly I preferred my discovery of cricket to baseball.

Beavers attacking: