Wow! Beautiful Medieval city, gorgeous apartment in building that’s several hundred years old, everything decorated for the holidays, light snowfall, and the love of my life to share it all with me. Carcassonne is turning out to be a wonderful gift from friends Helen and Rob who invited us to spend the holidays with them in their flat (while they toil at their jobs in Manchester, England). We can’t wait until they join us for New Year’s celebrations to complete our wonderful holiday picture card.

Rob did warn that Carcassonne wasn’t going to be warm during the winter despite Southern France’s reputation for year-long sunshine and beach weather (this is also how people think of Southern California which, having lived there for 8 years, we now know better). What we hadn’t expected was snow! We’ve had a light dusting – just enough to make everything white – and for a kid in our building to make a small snowman in the backyard.

Our first day consisted of only one outing to get provisions after which we were in and out of bed recuperating from our Madrid colds. The next day we motivated ourselves to leave the comfort of the apartment to at least write an e-mail to Helen and Rob to let them know we had arrived (and were still alive). We managed that and a trip to a department store to buy ourselves more warm clothing so that we could venture out more.

On our third day here we put on almost everything we own (two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two sweaters and two jackets, leather gloves (thanks Mom), hat and scarf) and walked around the city center and the Saturday market. The poor vendors were freezing and trying to keep their produce from being ruined by the cold. One even had a blanket draped over his parsley for fear it would ice over.

We bought vegetables and cheeses, checked out the skating rink, stopped for a delicious hot chocolate in a little café, walked through the flea market (where we could have bought warm clothing for much cheaper had we known), and then made our way home to the warm and lovely apartment where we played my favorite French signer Charles Trenet and played Yatzee.

This is the first time in about 12 years that we’ve experienced winter and a whitish Christmas (we expect the snow to have melted by then) and it feels a lot like Toronto. Even though we saw some of the white stuff during our round the world trip in Bolivia, Tibet and Antarctica, it never felt like this as we were just passing through those areas. We’re in Carcassonne for the holidays so it feels more like a Christmas at home. No need to dream of a white Christmas.

WHAT’S NEXT: We’re in Carcassonne at least until mid-January, then we’ll likely go to Hong Kong for Chinese visas, maybe spend a week or two in Vietnam if we save enough money, and then move to China for Jacob’s job in Wenzhou in February 2010.

NOTE: My “This Expat Life” & “Writing on Wednesdays” blogs are on hiatus until we settle down in Wenzhou in February 2010. Between now and then, I’ll be writing only about Baby Boomers Traveling. Hope you enjoy coming along with us.

If you would like to subscribe to this blog, click on the envelope next to the word ‘subscribe’ at the top of the left-hand menu. You will receive notification by e-mail every time this blog is updated. I solemnly swear to never sell, trade or give away your information to anyone!