Market Morning and Bike Ride Afternoon

I’ve written a number of times about the Sunday morning market in Esperaza. The last few times we have gone the weather has been windy or cold, so when the predicted rain didn’t show up this morning m, we decided to go to the market. 

The trees are in bloom along the river

We bought some fresh eggs, the farmer picking out each egg and placing it in a carton. 

Asparagus just coming ripe cost 4 euros a bunch. Expensive but less than last weekend. Two barquettes of strawberries. 

Some Gouda cheese from René and a wheel of chèvre (goat cheese). 

When I told Earl we were having strawberries and asparagus for dinner, he suddenly had a craving for sausage so we stopped by the cheese and sausage stall for a dried sausage with cèpes, a kind of mushroom. 

We bought three violets to plant along our back wall. 

They were only 1,50 euros each. 

There are 9 holes along the wall, so we'll need to buy a few more. 

Earl planted them while I was teaching this afternoon. 

Pain aux raisins, literally bread with raisins, but this is definitely pastry with flaky swirls

When we go to Esperaza, I get a pain aux raisins, because theirs is the best. We can also get coffee à emporter (to go) from one of the cafés. We sit on a ledge in the sun and enjoy our pastries and coffee,  before masking up again to move through the market. 

We were watching HouseHunters International and we saw an episode set not far from here in Montreal, France. The show followed the American home buyer to the market in Mirepoix where I saw a vendor who comes to Quillan and Esperaza. I took this picture of him and showed him this morning. He was delighted and asked me to send it to him. 

He thinks the show was filmed perhaps two years ago.

After I finished teaching, we were out the door, driving half an hour away to Voie Verte en Pyrénées Cathares. It's a former railroad line that has been turned into a "greenway" bicycle path. We followed our friends Matthew and Jo to Chalabre, our bikes hung on the back of the car. 

The way is fairly flat, no hills to speak of, but when we turned around after 8 1/2 miles, a vicious head wind impeded our travels. Around that same time, my butt, not used to bike roads, began to complain too. We ended up riding nearly 18 miles, around 27 kilometers. 

A tunnel lit up as we traveled through it. 

At the turnaround point, we stopped for some clementines and water. Jo and Matthew had brought a thermos of green tea and real glass cups. Yeah, things are different when you travel with Brits. 

Tea time on the trail

An action-packed day with minutes to spare as we returned home before out 6 p.m. curfew.