Our running joke in Rome was that we were walking around looking at old stuff just to fill the time until the next meal. Our day revolved around breakfast in the room at 8 am, second breakfast at Pepy's across the street, lunch around 1 pm, cocktails when our feet gave out after the afternoon walking around time and dinner as soon as the restaurant of choice opened...usually at 8 pm.
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon for a hike with our friends Melanie and Gonzalo! Pic Saint Loup has beautiful vistas and rock formations. After we all met for sushi at a new restaurant in the new mall near Montpellier. We love sushi!! What a great Sunday!!
We had a fun time combing through the brocante market in the small village of Assas today. It is a once a year market that attracts a lot of vendors with some really interesting items for sale. One man had antique copper hammers that were heated up to red hot in a fire and then you put them on a small lump of metal to solder it. He had maybe ten different sized hammers with all types of wooden handles. He also had six or seven long tongs made out of various materials from wood to ivory that were used to split the two layers of leather to make gloves. Here are pictures of some things we decided to bring home with us. The clock and matching lamps (now for pillar candles) were from the 1920s or earlier and made of a beautiful green marble with brown veining. That was our favorite find today. I found two plates that have the Vieux Metiers de France on them like a tea cup that I had previously found. The plates have a chestnut vendor (Marchand de Marrons) and a Marchande de Choux (Cabbage seller)
to the center of Montpellier 
and then walked up the hill school. The huge benefit of all this effort on their part is that I was not able to take our traditional first day of school photo! So to start a new tradition...here is our first 
swim after school photo! 
Notre Dame de La Merci - Nathan's School
College Saint Francois-Regis - Celia's School
Nathan is finally completely done with braces! He has been going to the Ortho's office since he was 8 years old!! What a beautiful million dollar smile ( figuratively and almost literally!) just in time to wow those cute French high school girls.
So I started this summer with every intention of keeping this blog up to date and fresh....here it is the 26th of August (Joyeux Anniversaire, Little Bro!) and I have not written a single post! Well give me a week to finish sending Celia and Nathan off to a new school year and I promise those intentions will be again full of their old vim and vigor!! Here are some wonderful architectural gems from the lovely city of Carcassonne to keep you visually interested and coming back for more!! Joyeuse Rentree, mes amis!!
