We arrived in France on May Day and, within 24 hours, I had already found my first patchwork store. I wasn’t even looking for it - honestly! After dropping our house exchange hosts off at the train station in Carcassonne, David and I made an expedition to to a large supermarket in a quest for David’s breakfast staple - bananas & Pepsi (the secret apparently to his youthful complexion). And there, immediately opposite the checkout counters was a small craft and needlework store. I didn’t venture inside but I know where to find it for next time!

While in Carcassonne, we took the opportunity to explore La Cite - an imposing, slightly Disneyfied, fortification punctuated by 52 stone towers:

Within the ramparts, there is a 12th century castle that we bypassed for the Basilique St-Nazaire which featured these wonderful Munchenesque (the Scream) gargoyles:

Back “home” (the yellow house next to the Aude River below) in the village of Axat, and we have already made two visits to the boulangerie/patisserie and are looking forward to our first market day in a nearby village tomorrow.

For our pre-dinner stroll, we went and inspected this railway bridge:

and enjoyed a little spring colour (and perfume!) of lilacs in bloom:

We have access to a computer and broadband here so I should be able to make more blog posts of our sojourn in the Pyrenees.