The First Week

Well readers, it’s been a full first week as of this past Tuesday, every day brimming with new things, getting our house set up, getting our bearings around town. So many highlights and we haven’t even really left the town itself yet since we’ve gotten here. Tomorrow is the first time we’ll be doing that, heading an hour north to Carcassonne to hit the nearest Monoprix and Emmaus, as well as a large indoor brocante I’ve heard a lot about. So many towns around here I want to explore: Lavelanet, Ginoles, Puivert. And those are just off the top of my head. All in good time, John reminds me.

This week we focused on the house and the town meaning we:

• Decluttered and cleaned to make the place our own, because it’s been sitting, uninhabited for a year. Took stock of what we had (a lot, we are so fortunate, more about that later) and what we needed. We’ll be filling in furniture here and there but we have a lot of basics. Rearranged a few rooms. Picked up a few things from FB marketplace that actually came from right down our own street. That was a funny messenger conversation, when I realized that in telling us how to get to her house, the seller was describing how to get to our own street.

• Went to the small (maybe medium-sized) Wednesday village market. Heaven itself to be able to walk to a village market that is less than a five minute walk away and that has fresh fruits and vegetables, a couple of stalls of brocantes, several stalls of clothes, household gadgets and a great coffee truck.

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• Hit a vide grenier AND the weekly Sunday market in Esperaza, which is about fifteen minutes up the road and several times the size of ours, set up right along the river and attracting loads of visitors. Food trucks, cafes, artisanal and organic products, clothes, brocantes. At least a half a mile long. Glorious.

• Met our next door neighbor Alain, who works in Limoux and who we see coming home from the bus each day, often with a baguette. Met Dawn, the neighbor down the street, who is unfortunately (for us) moving back to Ireland soon but from whom we bought a dresser, a desk, both hand-painted by her, a screen and several other smaller items. Also met Brian, another neighbor who happened to be nearby and who cheerfully helped us move said furniture.

• Enjoyed a coffee and a chocolate chaud in the Place de Republic, right on the river, something we’ll probably be doing as often as we can.

• Walked Asuna everywhere. It was John, really, who did this, as thanks to him we are well on our way to having one of the best walked dogs in Quillan, as we do in Conway. But I can safely say that she is settling in beautifully and loves all the new smells on her walks. She is a dog that refuses to walk the same route twice in a row so she is having a grand time here sniffing out Quillan.

• Learned that there is a Wednesday noon siren here too, which made me feel right at home.

• Ate dinner outside on the patio more often than not, which is a great way to meet the neighbors.

• Made many trips to Mr. Bricolage, Bazaarland, Aldi, and the Carrefour supermarket to lay in all manner of supplies: hedge clippers, phone chargers, pillowcases, duvet covers, brooms, laundry baskets, dog beds. You get the idea. Not to mention food. Today was a particularly exhausting day of kitting out the house and as we were driving home I thought, as tired as we are right now, imagine if we had to start from scratch. Imagine if we needed everything: beds, mattresses, basic furniture, kitchenware. We’d be flattened every night, not to mention broke and probably sleeping on mattresses on the floor. The former owner left us all that, in good shape. He even left us a tv. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing what we find in Carcassonne and very soon, to getting my hands on a vacuum, because a broom and a dustpan are no match for dog hair.

  • Looked at the mountains that surround us and thought, I hope we never take this view for granted. Then heard from another neighbor that in all the years she’s lived here, she never has.

That’s probably enough for now, more next week! Thanks for reading!

Stephanie