Mirepoix - Market & Lunch

It's Monday and market day in Mirepoix, a medieval town to the west and slightly north of us.  The town has just over 3000 permanent residents so it is small but it seems larger with all the visitors.  We heard a lot of British English spoken in the market and some of the vendors seemed to speak a little English when we were stuck.  Who can blame the Brits for coming here with its lovely weather, lower prices and relatively close by?

Half-timbered house on the square where the market takes place.

 Our drive to Mirepoix was easy with beautiful scenery.  As compared to closer to Magrie, there seemed to be fewer vineyards, more hills and grassy valleys.  As we rolled into town we again had to figure out where the market was and where to park. Actually it was easy to find the market (now we know that they always seem to be in the village square) but not easy to park, as usual.  However, the town was not that large and we just drove a few blocks away from the town square and found a spot on a narrow side street.

St. Maurice - built in 1298

The market was quite extensive compared to yesterday's in Esperaza with some of the same vendors as we saw yesterday but lots of others too.  There were again beautiful fruits and vegetables, cheese, sausages, clothing - mostly new - hats, shoes and much more.  We did not actually need much - we were there just to walk, look and take pictures.  We did buy some potatoes, an onion and two palmiers.  The market wound around two squares next to the hundreds of years old church, St. Maurice.

The square was lined with cafes and restaurants so at noon, we wandered around and picked one sort of at random but with a nice sounding Special of the Day. We didn't even find out the name of the restaurant.

The tables outside were pretty well filled with coffee drinkers (and smokers) so we sat inside and ordered the special.  It was a veal stew in a white sauce with mushrooms and carrots with basmatti rice and a very fresh salad.  The sauce was delicious and the veal was beautifully tender and tasty.  At 9 euros each (includes tax and tip) - we thought it was a great value for a nice lunch - which to us was more like comida.  Our supper later at home would be cheese, bread and wine. 

After our leisurely lunch, we left the restaurant and saw that the market was already mostly finished and packing up.  We took a longer route back to the car, stopped on the street and had a chat with a couple of British ladies who were on holiday and headed back toward Magrie via a different scenic route   Along the way we stopped in Camon, a small fortified  village constructed around a Benedectine abbey that was founded by Charlemagne in 778.  (It is sometimes difficult to get a grasp of the age of things we see in Europe).  The remains of the abbey and chateau seem to be privately owned, include a hotel and restaurant but it was a pleasant stroll through the narrow walled streets, around the chateau and abbey and overlooking an old cemetery.  We then went up and down the short main street, stopping to share a Coca Light, finally heading towards home at a leisurely pace while enjoying the verdant landscapes.

HERE'S A LINK TO THE REST OF THE MIREPOIX & CAMON PICTURES.

Camon

Today (Tuesday) it started out cloudy but the sun is now out.  We still haven't visited the local winery so maybe that will be in store for us this afternoon.  We enjoyed our palmiers for breakfast, by the way, and they were delicious.  I'll probably made my leek and potato soup today if I'm not too lazy.

Getting There

The downside of doing home exchanges across the pond is getting there.  Here are the many steps it took before arriving in our first home exchange in Cluny, Aberdeenshire, Scotland:

Sunday 11:15 a.m. - taxi to San Miguel bus station
Sunday 12:00 p.m. - Bus to Mexico City Norte bus station
Sunday 3:30 p.m. - Taxi from bus station to Mexico City airport
Sunday 9:45 p.m. - Flight on KLM non-stop to Amsterdam - 10 hr flight
Monday - Arrive Amsterdam around 3:00 p.m. their time - Hang out in airport
Monday - 9:40 p.m. - 1 1/2 hr flight on Easy Jet to Edinburgh
Monday -  10:10 p.m. - Hilton Hotel shuttle from airport to hotel - 5 min. - Collapse into bed.
Tuesday - late morning shuttle back to airport.
Tuesday - Airlink bus to Edinburgh Waverly Train Station
Tuesday - 12: 45 p.m. First ScotRail train to Aberdeen - 2 hrs
Tuesday - 3:15 p.m. Taxi to home exchange - 30 min.

Not surprisingly, we were very happy to arrive at our "home away from home" and really, we had no problems along the way.  We had a little sleep on the plane but it is very difficult to sleep in those tiny airline seats.  We had the opportunity to upgrade at a hefty price but decided it was not worth it - plenty of time to recover upon arriving at our final destination.

Our home "Broomhead"  is a very old granite "cottage" with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, open kitchen, dining and living room plus a lovely bright solarium overlooking lush gardens with no neighbors within view.  The sound of a babbling brook across the road is soothing.  The house has been completely modernized and we felt quite at home from the first day.  Our hosts had left us enough food to get started and a nice bottle of wine.

WEDNESDAY,  August 22

Unfortunately, John experienced some problems with his dental implants just before we left Mexico and while his Mexican dentist made some temporary adjustments, we knew there could be problems on the trip. Well, the first evening, the dentist's adjustment loosened so we knew he'd have to find a local dentist.  We received a recommendation just a few miles from the house, called and got right in to see him.  144 lbs (that's British Pounds Sterling) later, he went home thinking all would be well for the duration of the trip.  Wrong.  The cement fell out during dinner.  Bummer.  No sightseeing yet, but we did buy a couple  few things at Costco (lamb chops and wine) after visiting the dentist.

THURSDAY, August 23

Another call to the dentist to see if he had a Plan B.  Again he got right in to see a dentist (different one in the same office) who admitted that he did not have the right tool to tighten the implant but he phoned a dental surgeon in Aberdeen that he knew and drove us there.  This time, it is looking good so far.  We took a taxi back to our car at the other dental clinic and then did some shopping at Marks & Spenser - a wonderful store - lots of high quality food - many items partially prepared in servings for two - just pop them in the oven. Wonderful items that don't require a lot of preparation but taste home cooked - perfect for vacation.

By the time we finished all the above, it was too late to do any sightseeing other than a little walk down the road.  However, the roads are very narrow in the country (we are definitely in the country) - so it requires much caution - especially on curves.  There are no shoulders - you just have to step into the abundant greenery.

I prepared a simple dinner from Marks and Spencer ingredients and along with a nice bottle of Australian wine and no more dental disasters, we are optimistic about tomorrow.

Weather:  So far, the weather has been pretty decent for Scotland.  We were prepared for cool, cloudy and rainy so have not been disappointed.  However, we have actually had more sunshine than we expected - a bonus.  The weather seems to change in a matter of minutes.  During the day it is in the 60's - just right for a light jacket.

Taxi Drivers:  We had nice experiences with the taxis.  The driver who brought us here from Aberdeen was very talkative and well versed in many topics:  history, geography, politics, etc. and had lots of questions for us - quite entertaining.  Our other taxi driver was also talkative and had many side trip recommendations.  Both taxis had meters - not cheap but certainly good service and very pleasant.

It is now Friday morning and we have made our first sightseeing plans:  Castle Fraser - I will report in the next blog post.  Unfortunately, no pictures to post yet - my memory card reader isn't working and I'll have to find another before I can download pictures to my computer.  Stay tuned.