Train no pain…

This is our last day in Blois and it’s time to leave our wonderful studio and return our little Sonic. It’s sad to say goodbye to James. He’s been a good companion and we’ve had a few laughs together and shared a few curse words but he’s only human… well figuratively speaking (okay not at all). First we made a trip across the street to the small boulangerie.

The owner casts a small shadow height-wise not so much from the horizontal aspect. When we first met her she appeared quite dour. She had an expression like she had just licked the doorknob of a public restroom. In hindsight I can see why. In our first meeting I stepped through the door with a hearty ‘Bone Joor’ proceeded to shuffle around the shop asking ‘What is this? and what is that? What is the cost of this? My brow furrowed and my chin in my hand. After 7 or 8 minutes my peripheral vision caught her reaching for a cast iron pan and I decided it was time for a decision. True to form I chose the cheapest item (0.8€) and handed her a 50€ note as payment. WELL talk about ungrateful! So this time word had probably got around that we were leaving for good and she was of a more pleasant disposition. ‘Oar river ‘ I happily chirped as we left the premises; her face all aglow.
Little Sonic was back to his owner and we boarded the train (3 in all) for the 7+ hour journey to Carcassonne through Bordeaux country. Train travel is very relaxing here, more akin to traveling by luxury vehicle back home. It has been decades since I traveled by train in Canada and back then trains were still of the clickety-clack variety. Surprisingly it was uneventful and we managed to doze and read our books in peaceful bliss.
We arrived in Carcassonne in late afternoon and taxied to our next stop. If the last stop was grand then this was grander still. We have a second floor suite with fridge and an included breakfast in the mornings on a peaceful residential street not far from the 13th century fortress that the city is renowned for. The bathroom is fantastic with very modern European fixtures that we had never even seen pictures of. I realize that we have had a sheltered existence in our rural area back home but for me it was very exciting to see the variety of day to day items that differ from what we have access to. Also the outside space was just as artfully designed as the inside;and all for $68 per day!
After we cleaned up we took the 1 km walk to the medieval city, enjoyed what it had to offer and settled in for a well-deserved supper. It is a peculiarity here to have diners seated close together and I quite like it. We had a young (30ish) Parisienne couple beside us and you could tell they knew rudimentary English as I caught them glancing over any time I said something particularly outlandish (or dumb). I was seated beside the male who looked quite nondescript, out of shape, no sense of clothing sense with a nerd-style haircut. She looked plain with curly, unkempt hair and a 3 piece outfit consisting of blouse, shorts, and possibly gardening slippers. Definitely braless as her chest was all askew and caused me to avert my gaze. So much so that after they left Carol mentioned that her legs were so hairy that she thought they were done in cornrows, or French braids at the least. She was true to her culture anyways.
With full stomachs and only semi-gooned we headed home with a storm threatening. Carol retired to her book and I settled in to 3 hours of blogging so to keep up with my new responsibilities.