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09/21/2004: "The First Two Days"

What a wonderful start to our trip to France.......Ellie C and John's smiling faces when we finally got off the plane at Toulouse. We'd been late on a few flight segments and they had to stay around awhile. Since we got there a little late, we all sat down, talked and waited for Suzanne's flight due in around 6pm.

John helped us get to the rental car and we discussed following them out from the airport. Pat and I were going to Mirepoix for one night and then on up to Albi for another before going to Couiza/Esperaza.

As we neared the exit for Mirepoix by way of the Foix exit .......AND exited, it suddenly occurred to us that we had NOT discussed where we were going to exit or how we would let them know .....so off to rural southern France we went.

Pat spotted the hotel as we passed by the center of the town down what almost looked like a pedestrian alley way..........the Relais Royal Hotel Mirepoix. This place is remarkable. I went in to check-in with Pat waiting outside. The person checking us in didn't see our reservation but honored the paperwork I had with me.....and offered to help us get our luggage in......turned out he was one of the owners. They only have 5 rooms and 3 suites and we'd gotten a great deal on the room as this is the only 4 Star hotel between Carcassonne and the Spanish border. The two young Dutchmen ( in their 3o's)were so proud of their new establishment....an old home/estate that has been converted with all the modern amenities and yet retained all it's old world charm at the same time. ...and it had only been opened about six weeks.The restaurant was booked up but they served us a splendid meal out in the front courtyard.

We both had the Filets de Rougets Barbets a la Plancha, Vinaigrette aux Aromates, I also had Legumes Grilles, and Pat the Legumes du moment au naturel, craquant de Jambon d'Ariege, Vinaigrette aux Piquillos and we both about fell over in a swoon when we saw dessert....the Le Cremeux Chocolate Bergamote, Glace a la fleur de Thym, Caramel au Beurre Sale
We had been recommended the bottle of Viognier Domanine de Ribonnet made in the region........it occurred to me toward the end of the meal that bottle sure was serving a lot of glasses.......no wonder, they'd brought out the second one. Oh well.......after this long trip and this fantastic place, we deserved it. (It seemed we kept deserving it a lot on this trip.) This place has out of this world service right down to the chef coming out at the end of the evening to see how we liked our meal.
We wandered around the old medieval town the next morning before leaving for Albi north east of Toulouse.........and so many sunflowers in this area.

The drive to Albi the next morning was lovely..........a long, picturesque drive through a wonderful countryside but very different than the one around Esperaza. When we got there after lunchtime we spent a LONG time trying to find the hotel Mercure Albi Bastides 3M......right on the Tarn river but difficult to find any entrance once it was spotted. At one point we turned into a narrow, crowded street only to find another car ahead and as we tried to back out another car appeared with a young man and woman......I got out of the car and we all motioned and gestured a lot with him deciding that we COULD make it around the other car. As we tried to turn the corner a small scratch/dent appeared all on it's own :>/ in the auto side panel.

After finally making it into the hotel parking lot and checking out our room we found that it was not air conditioned and it was much warmer than the last time I was here in France. Our French a/c was the three windows on one side and one on the other with almost what you'd call a window seat in each one........this afforded us the most wonderful view of the river spillway , bridges and buildings around the river...........and thankfully a wonderful breeze.

After we were situated in the room we decided to go out for something to eat and found you can't find any place open at that time of day to eat. That evening we had another good meal at the hotel but nothing compared to the first night at Mirepoix.........we were tired and still recovering somewhat from jet-lag.

As I'd already toured St Cecile Cathedral and the Toulouse Lautrec museum ( both worthwhile attractions), we headed out from Albi for Esperaza .....albeit through a few extra circles of a few streets. We enjoyed taking the smaller roads and seeing the countryside rather than the large highways. We stopped this time at noon for lunch after learning our lesson from the day in Albi. As usual, the French lunch turned into a couple of hours. While in the restaurant, it was interesting to observe how another culture lives. There was a surprise birthday party being planned for a young man by his family and friends., a middle aged woman sitting all alone for the whole two hours, two couples sharing lunch with one of them reminding me of pictures I've seen of Picasso.....and a couple who came in with the little dog who politely stayed under the table. (amazingly we ran into them several times throughout the trip).

We finally got to Couiza and checked into our gite right near the main highway and overlooking the Saltz River ( a tributary of the Aude).....and we met Martin and Allie Woods, our landlords. We have a really nice space here to use as a base for exploration of the area. Then we headed over to Esperaza about 2 ½ miles away to find the rest of the Paint-l crew. We found John painting shutters blue in the courtyard and he told us where to find Suzanne, Kaye and Ellie C.
After visiting awhile at their B & B and looking around the gallery, we headed back to Couiza and planned on a early dinner......no such luck so we went to the grocery and patisserie just round the corned and got what we needed.

We spent a long time on the blog ( of which this is the information entered ...only not as wittily as the first time) and then it went off into the netherworld never to be found again.......and me just now trying to recover some portion of it.

The next morning.........off to the painting hill above Esperaza for our first day of painting ( mine and Pat's)..........and our first vernissage at the gallery that evening.