Cherries, cathedrals, and celebrations

Day 10 France 2012

Leon and I had to go shopping this morning to refill our larder since Caroline and Dave were coming in tonight.  We had not been to the tiny market in the village, so went there to buy bread for breakfast and to check it out.  We bought a few things there and decided we needed to go to the next town which has a little larger market and to buy gas.  This village has no gas station.  On the way back, we passed a cherry orchard with a roadside stand that had been closed until today, so we stopped and bought two different kinds of cherries.

We came back and unloaded our stash, and drove down to Narbonne.  There is a train station there and Caroline and Dave were coming in on the train from Girona.  They had been to Barcelona for a couple of days, then went to Girona, and were joining us for a few days before going back to Barcelona.  We found the train station and decided we had plenty of time to go into the center of town to see the cathedral before the train arrived.

The Cathedral in Narbonne is part of a large complex of buildings that for the most part have been de-consecrated and now form a museum and municipal buildings.  The building sits on the site of a church from the fourth  century.  In 1272, the Pope (who had been archbishop in Narbonne) decided to build a cathedral there.  As it turns out, the whole cathedral was not built, just the choir.  The building is huge.  I can’t imagine how large it would have been if it had been finished.  You can tell from looking at it that the building is unfinished because there is a bricked up wall and there are beautiful stone window frames in unfinished walls.  It would have meant demolishing part of the city walls to complete the cathedral, so they just stopped.

There is a city square with sidewalk cafes outside the municipal building, so we sat out there to enjoy a cold drink and watch the people go by.  You can’t tell it, but I am sitting at a table in this crowd of people.

We went back to the train station and waited for Caroline and Dave to arrive.  We were so excited to see them…bisous (air kisses) all around, and then Caroline pulled her hand out of her pocked to show off the beautiful engagement ring that Dave had given her when they were in Barcelona.  We were so excited for them.  The ring is a beautiful yellow diamond surrounded by smaller white diamonds with additional diamonds across the top of the band.  The sides and back of the ring are beautifully hand engraved, and it makes the ring look like an antique.  Dave did a great job of choosing the perfect ring for Caroline.  We are proud that he will be part of our family.

There was much conversation on the drive back as they told us about Barcelona and Girona, and we told them of our adventures in France. 

We could hardly wait to show our little French house to them.  

 We gave them a quick tour, then sat down on our little patio to a wonderful dinner of roasted chicken, leftover boeuf bourguignon and potatoes, delicious French cheeses and breads, tiny radishes, foie gras, and, of course, the celebratory wine.  For dessert, we ate a ton of the juicy cherries that Leon and I had bought earlier in the day and the macaroons from St. Emilion that I had been saving..   I don’t think I got a single photo of the table.

We came inside and washed the dishes and sat in our little living room with a glass of calvados (apple brandy).  Powerful stuff!  It was a late night for us since we had so many things to talk about.