Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Narbonne - 22nd May

Narbonne is about an hour east of Carcassonne and has a population of 55,000 some of whom are shown above rescuing a dog from a drain that feeds into the canal. It took a lot of Police, Firemen, SPCA and a whole village to watch, including a couple of Kiwis who had to explain to the late arriving French what was happening. So many questions; funny that they speak good English when they want something.

Narbonne has 2,500 years of history starting as one of the oldest Roman Cities outside of Italy, then Medieval and then Renaissance. It was considered the point of convergence between Italy, Spain, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

We arrived at a free car park in town but noted the locals pay to park in the one next door because it saves them walking 300 metres. The city has preserved a lot of its historic buildings and is a pleasant place to visit, just don’t arrive at lunchtime.

The Halles: the 60 promised vendors don’t do Mondays and those that do close at 1.00pm.

The few people we saw in town were having lunch so we followed suit.

Cheese Experience No.31 - Cheese Pizza for me and a Poulet Croque Monsieur for him: that’s a cheese and chicken toasted sandwich with béchamel sauce and more cheese grilled on top.

Next stop a virtual geocache at the Roman Roads in the middle of the town centre with a visitor from Hawkes Bay.

Now start the issues with arriving at lunchtime; you can’t visit any tourist attractions because they are shut until 2.00pm, including the Tourism Office and even worse, the two Catholic Churches. Heavens above! How are all their people supposed to pop in and light a candle in their lunch break? Rather than sit around we explored the non-controlled parts of the town which included: A geocache at the Canal de la Robine

The Bishops gardens. That's me on the seat; this cheese diet is working out. [Ed: "ma petite..."]

We visited a sundial and worked out why a prior cache based on a sundial didn’t work out, because French sundials have a 24 hour clock face

And then we sat in another park of roses, that’s Roger in the distance updating his social-media profile.

Finally the church bell struck 2.00pm so we went to:
Saint Pauls Basilica

The Cathedral of Saint Just and its Cloisters - most of the Cathedral has never been completed, see the photo below of the outside. There are large tapestries on the inside and a super big organ which they would love some money to renovate because currently it is only the woodworm holding the pipe-structure up.

Essence of France Photo Challenge No.13 Mealtimes - Meal times, particularly lunch, are an important part of the day for the French; one custom they are resisting to change. Lunch is a two hour affair, preferably at home, with all the family and no haste.
If you can’t make it home then you go to a restaurant. I could have taken numerous photos of cafes at lunchtime chocker with diners, or of families gathered around an outdoor table under shade with the table properly laid, however that would be breach of their privacy. Instead I have provided a photo below of normal shop hours.

As written above the French custom of long lunch hours is annoying for anybody who wants to do anything between 12.00 and 2.00pm. But worse it has a flow on effect: because the shop is shut for two hours, they work later and finish at 7.00pm, this means that dinner is later, and so restaurants factor this in and often don’t open or take meal orders until after 7. Because you ate late you stay up later and to compensate you start work later the next day, so sorry tourists you have to wait until 10.00am but be quick because we shut at 12.00pm. If you do the maths they are open for 7 hours on a weekday, what happened to the 8 hour work day?