Mom says:

Another late start, after two. You’d think we were on holidays or something ! We honestly did try to leave earlier ; however, our attempt to depart was delayed by Romain, the twelve year old neighbor Glenn told you about yesterday . He stayed for about two hours, and really only left because his mother yelled for him. We quickly readied ourselves – okay, Andrew and Glenn were quick, me, not so much. Having some trouble in the appliance world ; Glenn had to ask the neighbor Aline if she had a hairdryer I could use. She’s one of those beautiful, au naturel European women, but she dug around and found an old one for me to use. Really, I just wanted to avoid preparing lunch, and it worked as Glenn and Andrew sliced the baguette (bread man honks the horn of his truck everyday as he drives up ; everyone buys a fresh loaf everyday), sliced the various cheeses, sliced the tomatoes and the fruit, and set the table. Then I walked down the stairs and into the room like the queen I am !! It was our second time having a lovely déjeuner. No wine with lunch today as I hadn’t yet had my coffee : thelis Nescafé ? Yes, I have been enjoying these little 3 in 1 Nescafé pouches.
Promptly after lunch, Romain returned. He wanted to show us the lower swimming pond. D’accord . It’s around the back of the property, past the chicken coop, the rabbit cage, and the fruit trees, not to mention the long grasses where plenty of grasshoppers reside ; we caught one – sorry David Carradine. The pond is decently small, but a little sketchy looking in my books, but Andrew is anxious to try his recently purchased fishing net. I’ll go in. I’m a good mom.
We did have to get going, and so we told Romain that we needed to leave as we were going to see Château Queribus . He was quite concerned that we have good directions, and so decided to accompany us. Allons y ! (We didn’t tell him that we have a GPS in the car). I am poking a little fun at Romain, but it is good-natured. He is a friendly boy who truly wants to help us, and it has been quite fun trying to decipher his rapid fire French ; our fingers cannot turn the pages of the dictionary fast enough, nor can we tell him to slow down (lentement) often enough. He is just so excited for us ! Andrew loves having him around ; they created rhythms together in the car on the way to the castle. And then they proceeded to break all of the rules by running up the path and climbing on the walls of the the castle .
The castle is at least a thousand years old, and it was part of a network of five castles which guarded the region. We plan on seeing a few of the others, the most famous being Carcassonne. The slits for arrows, and subsequent firing weapons, were well-angled, and they afforded views in ALL directions ; no sneaking up on anyone in this castle. Above the entranceway is a large rectangular opening for pouring hot oil or other such nasty stuff on unwanted visitors ; that, or just a giant peephole. Check the picture of Andrew, Romain and me looking down. Up, up, up we went to a beautiful view, even with the fog. We’ll have to visit again on a sunny day although it would be much wiser for us to go to the beach. Cloud cover just means the absence of sun, not warmth or humidity.
Before heading home, we stopped in Cucugnan to see an old windmill which has been restored, and in a small on-site boulangerie they sell cookies and cakes made from the mill’s flour ; being nice parents, we bought the boys some biscuits. Now it was the adults’ turn for a treat . How about a bottle of red wine from the local cellar? Thanks. Time to try a wine from the Corbiéres region. Shhhh… don’ tell anyone that we hadn’t yet finished the wine we bought in St. Paul yesterday from the Roussillon region. Towns/villages are so close, yet each one has its own cellar (cave), selling wines from the local vineyards ; it is only green here because of the multitude of vineyards ! You know the old saying : man cannot live by bread alone.