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That evening we ate at one of the restaurants in the Rue De L'ancien Courriere in Narbonne. The meal was good although not up to the standard of the Restaurant Alsace. It seemed that Charlotte was determined to be miserable, since she complained about everything that was served to her. I was already wondering what Dan saw in her and was regretting that I had agreed to allowing her to join us. Luckily Bert introduced an interesting topic into our conversation as we ate, which helped take my mind off the contrariness of Charlotte. He was fascinated by the history of the Cathars. I mentioned that a number of them had been burned not too far away to the north west, in the village of Minerve. Bert asked if we could visit it and also asked if on Monday we could go further afield to Montsegur. We finished off the evening with a nightcap in the nearby piano bar before returning to Frasquenet. Were all arose simultaneously the following morning on account of the church bells of Frasquenet calling the villagers to their Sunday service. To my surprise the skies were blue, the sun was shining and is was reasonably warm outside. Well before lunch time we had finished our chores. We drove west to Carcassonne. The sun had bought out more visitors than I had seen before at this time of year. By now we were all hungry and I proposed that we try a cassoulet at one of the restaurants inside the cite itself. It did not take long to be served. It was pleasant and filling, but not quite as interesting as I had expected, given how much it is talked about in the region. I later discovered that there are a great many versions of cassoulet. While all cassoulets contain beans, the meat content can vary considerably. There is often some pork, lamb, chicken and Toulouse sausage, but versions including anything from duck to snails can also be found.
After Carcassone we drove North and East across country on mainly narrow roads to Minerve. We crossed the bridge on foot and walked around the village. We came to the stone that commemorated the 140 Cathars who had perished at the hands of Simon de Montfort there in the year 1210. The stone had a flying bird shaped hole carved right through it. Dan took several photos of the scenery and of us, through the bird shaped hole. Bert in turn then took a similar picture of Dan. That evening we barbequed some chicken, sausages, aubegines and peppers in the courtyard back in Frasquenet. These were consumed along with a salad of tomatoes, lettuce and shallots. A couple of bottles of red Saint Chinian, which we had picked up during our travels that day, completed the menu. It was pleasant sitting out in the courtyard, but it was still too early in the year to spend the evenings sitting out in tee shirts and shorts, so we were all dressed in denim jeans and an assortment of woollen jumpers. For a change Charlotte seemed quite cheerful and even helped wash the dishes. I don't know if Dan had spoken to her or if she had just come out of a menstruation, but from this point on she actually seemed to enjoy herself. page 121 Copyright Frasquenet.com |
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