Categories: Moving to France, Occitanie
Discussed in this Episode
- Autignac
- Languedoc
- Béziers
- Mediterranean
- Pyrenees
- Faugeres Wine Appellation
- Provence
- Deux Chevaux
- Renault 4
- French Immersion School St. Paul Minnesota
- Collège
- Lycée
- Lycée La Trinité Béziers
- Occitan
- Vendange
- Narbonne
- Les Halles de Narbonne
- Sète
- Plage de la Baleine
- Marseillan Plage
- Etang de Thau
- Bouzigue oysters
- La Garrigue
- Cistus flowers
- Wild thyme
- Wild rosemary
- Wild fennel
- Côte Vermeille
- Bagnouls
- La Guinelle
- Collioure
- Mussels
- Razor clams
- Fresh oysters
- Les Tuiles de Sète
- Octopus pie
- Water jousting in Sète
- Pont du Gard
- Grands Buffets Narbonne
The richness of narrow and deep travel experiences. Of staying in one place long enough to let it start telling you its story, rather than chasing newness and adventure. Mainstream travel isn’t really a way of getting to know a place, it’s more like quickly consuming the highlights of a place, like eating junk food.
And what many people don’t realize, because they don’t stay anywhere long enough, is how homogenized and genericized travel has become in its efficiency.
Favorites
Watching my kids become French schoolchildren
Picking grapes during the vendange.
Working in the village winery.
Teaching myself the basics of French Mediterranean food.
Establishing a relationship with the garrigue—the iconic Mediterranean scrubland.
Visiting La Guinelle Vinaigrerie outside of Banyuls
Participating in the assemblage of a wine vintage
Eating a lazy Sunday lunch at Les Halles in Sète
Stocking up for a week of cooking at Les Halles in Narbonne
The Plage de La Baleine between Marseillan Plage and Sète
Favorite Restaurants and Foods
La Courtille, Tavel
Restaurant Mirazur, Menton
Asador Etxtebarri, Axpe, Bizkaia, Spain
Les Halles, Sète
Äponem: L’Auberge du Presbytère, Vailhan
Auberge de Combes, Combes
Oysters of Bouzigues from the Etang de Thau
Violets de roche
Grilled fresh mackerel
Banyuls vinegar
Piment d’Espelette
Macaronade Sétoise
Gardiane de Taureau from the Camargue
Faugères wine
Homemade vin d’orange
Vin de Noix
Ail rose de Lautrec
The entire trip was an education. We learned how different Mediterranean France was from the rest of the country. We gained very intimate knowledge about winemaking. We learned how different Mediterranean fish were from the Atlantic and Pacific fish we are used to at home. We learned
how often French workers go on strike! We learned how important a good lunch is in French schools compared to American schools. We learned about the importance of French domestic cooking, cuisine de bonne femme, compared to the more well known exploits of (mostly male, mostly ego-driven) haute cuisine.
We arrived imagining Languedoc would look more like Provence, and had to get used to our rustic bluecollar surroundings, which, by the end of the trip, felt like home and we couldn’t have imagined staying anywhere else.
Many of the seaside villages had turned into amusement parks and gift shops catering to a particular kind of “manufactured fun” that we did not respond to.
We learned how rewarding it can be to interact with a place from a position of ignorance and wonder, rather than trying to impose a vision of what a trip should be. And as a result, we learned how silly the “rude and haughty” stereotype of French people really is.
Our trip started out very stressful because we didn’t know how to integrate and fit in, despite speaking French and despite our children attending local schools. By the end, I wouldn’t say it was restful, but we reached a point where it felt like a second home.
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Episode Page TranscriptCategories: Moving to France, Occitanie