Our way of traveling is casual. We have an itinerary and places to stay every night but what we do during the day is often decided as we go along. Thursday we saw a brochure for the Chateau de Foix and decided to go there. Of course first there was a great French breakfast. I love croissants!!
The Chateau de Foix was built in the Middle Ages.
They have a nice museum and demonstrations of things like stone cutting, medieval weapons and building machines. We went to the demonstration of weapons of war. The lady giving the demonstration asked for volunteers to help operate the trebuchet. Duke and Brian volunteered. It turned out to be hard work turning the big wheels to raise the one ton counter weight.
After unwinding the rope the volunteers stood back and she released the throwing arm. There was nothing being thrown but it was pretty darn impressive.
We also climbed to the top of the chateau tower.
After finishing at Chateau de Foix we had coffee and frites at an outdoor cafe in a pavilion near where the car was parked.
We like to stay off the freeways and instead drive the backroads. Not far from Foix we were driving along a narrow road when we saw a woman buying a baguette from a baguette machine! That is something I have never seen before. We went around a few blocks and managed to get back to the corner with the machine. We bought a baguette and ate it as we drove down the road. It was fresh and very good!
The house where we were planning to stay Thursday night wasn’t available for check in until 5:00 so we found our way to an old church we could see in the distance.
As I was walking around the church I met three ladies out for a walk. They offered to show us the inside of the church. One of the ladies pulled a key out of her hip sack and we went inside. They were very proud of their church. They told us it was built in the eleventh century.
At 5 we checked into our house and then went for a swim.
Around 7:0 we went out to find a restaurant for dinner. We drove all over the town and couldn’t find one open so we bought salad, salmon, pizza and wine in a grocery store just as they were closing. Luckily we were able to use the oven at the house and have dinner and cards there.
Marion's Blog 