Faces of Carcassonne.

I popped out this morning for my daily fresh baguette.  I say 'popped out' but the simple exercise took me two whole hours.  First of all I meandered through the market picking up a fat purple clove of fresh garlic, the colour, the feel, the taste just too irresistible. The aubergines gleaming and polished, the rich colours of peppers in red, green and yellow clashing violently alongside.  

Place Carnot looked  beautiful in the early morning May sunshine, the statue of Neptune presiding over the square, fine droplets of water cascading over the well rounded figures of the mermaids and fish beneath him.  I stood there and twisted and turned my camera lens whilst people having a leisurely coffee outside sat and studied my attempts as I shielded my eyes from the glare of the sun. I then succumbed to a quick break with friends where we all agreed that we were working jolly hard.

On my way home I discovered even more faces of Carcassonne that I had not seen before, the whole place is a goldmine for quirky photographs.





Meanwhile the stunning 400 year old, give or take a few years, tiles that I have painstakingly renovated in one of the bedrooms are finally ready for their polish.  That's after the glued down carpet has been removed, the cement screed has been broken off with the help of an air compressor with a jackhammer on the end, the entire floor gone over with an electric wire brush, hand scrubbed with water and wire wool, treated with a product to enhance the colour and then vacuumed (again).


Yesterday I had a real sense of déja vu.  How many countless women before me had knelt down on their hands and knees and scrubbed these very tiles ? I pondered the sounds and smells over the ages, the circumstances which had bought them to the very same spot as me.


Daily life can be rich in the simplest of ways.