Country Roads

Even though we traveled with a GPS, affectionately called Mimi Two, we still traveled many country roads in the south of France and sometimes got lost. Just a note, I am Mimi One and my husband said he had two bossy ladies on the trip telling him what to do.
The country roads were glorious with the beginning of autumn, leaves were just starting to turn golden. The roads were narrow and windy, but oh so beautiful. I just loved the pink nose of that sweet cow. Fire wood and fence posts would be neatly stacked between the trees.
It was walnut harvest time and everywhere we drove there were walnut trees and most often a few people collecting the walnuts under the trees. The orchards were so neat and tidy, I was totally impressed and loved every moment of traveling the country roads.

Double click on the collage for a closer look.

Tomorrow is a winter tea in Aspen and the beginning of the Christmas season here at Delights of the Heart. I will still be sharing travel days interspersed with the holiday season.

Gardens in France

Having a Master Gardener for a husband, he wanted to visit gardens.
Since I love gardens too, it was fun to seek them out as we traveled in France.
The first garden we visited was the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, which I have shared already.
In the Dordogne River region there were some beautiful gardens.
The first garden we visited was a water garden with many beautiful water lilies and frogs.
Next we venture out to Les Jardins Du Manoir D'Eyrignac.
It was a beautiful sculptured garden originally developed in the 17th and 18th centuries. Being an apple lover I noticed many apple trees along our travel. The one at this garden intrigued me because it was trimmed into a round shape and even had structured plants around it's base.
Many of the apple orchards we saw were also kept small and covered with netting to protect the fruit from the birds.
Then our last garden was a vegetable garden found at the Castlenaud, which I will show another day. We were fascinated by the symmetry of the garden, pictured in the collage at the left center.
Double click on the collage to see the picture in more detail.

Take Delight in the Day

Take delight in the celebration of Thanksgiving!
I hope each one of you today is sharing with family
or friends in the delights of the day, whether you eat turkey
and pumpkin pie or you live somewhere other
than the US.
Have a wonderful day!
I am thankful for you.

Laundry and a Windmill

This is sort of a funny thing to write about on my travel, but I was so struck by laundry on our travels in Europe. The picture above is the laundry room at the apartment in Provence.

Sheets were hung to dry in the same garden we had tea in Carcassonne.

If the laundry isn't entertaining enough, wind will help our laundry dry quicker.

I was so amazed that for sure out of the 6 places we stayed at least 4 of them hung their sheets to dry. Beside saving on electricity, sheets smell divine when hung to dry.
I am not sure if they were doing it for the green effect, saving money, or that is just the way it is done. Since I have been trying to hang my sheets this year to save one load on the dryer, this really caught my heart to see sheets blowing in the breeze or in a basement laundry room.
Even the 45 room hotel in Barcelona had a laundry room with the sheets hanging to dry. Now if that isn't dedication? I sat one day watching the bedding be sent through a window into a cart and then wheeled to the basement. When I peeked there were sheets hanging everywhere.

Traveling even in the cities there was often a few pieces of laundry hanging outside a small balcony or just out the window.

I think we have come to expect to use our home dryers too often, we feel entitled. This is my little band wagon for helping to conserve and help with the green effect. If we hung just one load of laundry a week either outside, a small line set up in our basement or garage, or a laundry rack, we could do a little to contribute and have the reward of divine smelling sheets.

Food in France

Several of you were curious about the food in France when I mentioned the good food in the Dordogne River region. It was interesting to us that each region in France had it's specialty.
In Provence there was a lot of egg plant and olive oil.
In Carcassonne it was Cassoulet.
In the Dordogne River region it was duck and goose pate.
And everywhere for breakfast was croissants and baguettes.
Then when we traveled on to Barcelona it was tapas and paella.
No wonder my cholesterol sky rocketed right after returning home.

In the collage you will see sliced baked potato on a lovely beef steak, lamb over a spinach casserole, cheese souffle with mushrooms, paella, and oysters with pate.
The food was amazing as we traveled through France.
Double click on the collage to get a closer look, but beware you might get hungry.

Dordogne River

Leaving Carcassonne, we drive to the Dordogne River.

A peek from our window at the Dordogne River.
I actually could sit by the window and see fish jump in the river,
boats float by, bird's walking along the shore, and people strolling by.

As we drove to the Dordogne River and turned to view the small village we would be staying in, it took our breathe away. Simply beautiful! Our hotel is the one with the brownish red shutters.
There were once cave dwellings in the hill side just above the village.

The village of La Roque-Gageac. Don't ask me to pronounce it, I never did get it right.

This region of France had many castles, chateaux, and caves, plus beautiful gardens.
We crammed as many sights as possible into our itinerary, then returned to our hotel at night for the most wonderful meals of the trip. We felt like we were in heaven.
Such beauty and just outside our window.

Tea in Carcassonne

The' a' la Cite'.
Always keeping my eye out for tea shops, we found this sweet little teashop in Carcassonne.
The owner is standing in the doorway. He loved sharing his tea with me and gave me several tastings. He sold Dammann teas exclusively, which is a very old French tea company.
I find their teas very smooth and flavorful. They are known for flavored teas, but did have a few unflavored teas also.

There were only two tables in the back of the shop just for sitting and sipping tea.

I thought for the tea lovers that visit me, you might like to see a peek at the shelves.
I ended up bringing home three teas from this shop, which I am very much enjoying.
Right now I have been sipping Oolong Hazelnut tea. I have also been enjoying Luxembourg Oolong tea, which has roses in it. I am saving the Christmas White tea for December; so I will share in December how that one tastes.

Now just a little "eye candy".
We walked by this shop many times and the colors always jumped out at me until I had to take a picture. There was all varieties of candies and cookies stacked in beautiful, neat piles. They were so beautiful you couldn't help but want to buy something here. I brought home pretty little pink, strawberry lollypops to give at the birthday tea party I did after returning home.

We will leave Carcassonne next week and continue traveling as we finish the travel tour to Dordogne River and then onto Barcelona. I hope you are enjoying the travels along with me. It definitely was a dream come true trip for me and one I enjoyed planning for a very long time.