This is my response to this week’s Flashback Track Friday prompt, where we were challenged:
Where is your heaven on earth?
There are a several places which stick out as feeling like home, and today I’ll just concentrate on a couple.
For a start, I’ll stick to France. It’s always been right up there, when it comes to immersing myself into the lifestyle. I love French food, culture and language, and before the stroke, we would visit 4-5 times a year.
Paris
One of the places is Paris. As in, I spent lots of time there, just hanging out. Specifically, the area around La Mouffe street market, in the fifth arrondissement, a little way in from the Place d’Italie. Immediately before I met Mrs Bump, I was single, and used to visit there about one weekend every month. All my clothes, even, were French.
I could quite happily have ended up in Paris, but worked in IT which is a very Anglo-Saxon industry. And Paris has the same weather as the UK; it would be nice to be somewhere warmer.
I’ve previously shared one of my photos of the area. This was taken at twilight on a dark, December evening and I’ve farted about with the post-processing.
Pays Cathare
Speaking of warmer, another of my favourite areas is a place I first visited as a singleton, and we just kept on going back there after we were a family. In fact, Mrs Bump and I booked a vacation down there, before we were offered a cancellation slot for the wedding, so the vacation became a honeymoon! It is the Cathar region, right down in the south western tip of France (anything west of Marseille is considered “south west”).
The first time I visited the area was to stay in the tiny hamlet of Le Vivier, about an hour south of the main town of the area, Carcassonne. We flew into Toulouse, which is another hour along the autoroute. Le Vivier was so small it did not even boast a bakery! (which, in France, is a big deal. A van came out twice a week.)
You can see the typical colours of the buildings there, plus that wonderful sky. The area is in the foothills of the Pyrenees, it is rocky terrain and one of the common features of the region are the old castles built onto various hilltops:
and Carcassonne itself boasts a complete medieval city (a World Heritage Site) about a mile from the modern town.
Just in that area around Carcassonne, too, there is wonderful food and drink. The village of Bize Minervois makes one of the most delicious cheeses (happens to be goats’) I ever tasted.
while a little way away, in Lézignan-Corbières, the Château Grand Moulin makes some of my favourite wine. And, because it’s not a partucularly fashionable region (strictly, Corbières, although it might also be known by the more generic Languedoc, which refers to that whole swathe of south-western France) it’s also very reasonable. A good Corbières wine is sublime, by the way. They’re quite light, nowhere near as full-on, say, as a Bordeaux or a Côtes du Rhône.
I have to say, though, just in conclusion, that these places, no matter how beautiful, are basically just bricks and mortar.
It’s not places, but people, who make life worth living. It’s people who create my heaven on earth.
Mister Bump 
I love Paris. One of my favourite cities. We stayed in Montpelier on a language learning course so I also know the area around Carcassonne. Thank you for reviving some wonderful memories this morning, Pete. 🙂
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I loved Montpellier, too. And Toulouse. Just those warm-climate cities… Perpignan was a bit iffy, but easy enough to escape. And I loved walking on the beach in just a jumper, at this time of year.
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The climate, as you say, is fantastic.
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Oh wow these are going on my travel list now! I’ve been to Paris twice and loved it ranks number three behind NYC and London where I’d live in I could afford to
Great pics too
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Only one of the Cathar pics was mine, I didn’t think mine were particularly publishable and found better online. Plus a lot of my travels were without a camera. Remember those days?
Definitely, go, but I’ll warn you – buy a one-way ticket.
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No one way ticket I like hopping around
Still these pics are fabulous
The cheese and wine alone are sellers
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Yes, the autoroutes make everywhere accessible, but once you get off them, it is a very agricultural area. And a lot of the agriculture is vines.
There’s lots of wine produced around there (you hear of Vin de Pays d’Oc? Oc is a very general location and refers to pretty much the southern half of France.) but very little is any good.
I swear, Michele, once you taste the culture here you’ll never want to go back to the US!
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I believe you😀
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Thank you for sharing these memories of a beautiful place. I agree, the people do make it heavenly.
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Most people, to be honest, I’m ambivalent, but there are just a few….
However, you asked us “where”, so that’s my excuse. If I thought I could travel there, I would go back in a heartbeat. One way ticket. Nowadays, all you really need is a phone line.
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Well, you can’t get a hug through the phone, and I say you can travel wherever you set your mind to go. I’m sure Paris could be in the trip.
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Not least, UK people aren’t allowed to go live over there any more. And, personally, I have ongoing medical needs that the French state would not cover. They wouldn’t let me in because they enjoyed my charm!
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My 42nd wedding anniversary is coming up in a few weeks, so I just put Corbières in my Ocado trolley. Thanks for the recommendation. On a special occasion I like a glass of wine. I love the Loire Vallley … almost as much as northern Italy.
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I hope you’re not disappointed. I generally find that the UK wine merchants have it about right – the more you pay, the better the wine. But there’s a big mark-up compared to buying direct.
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I like light wines. Like bougalaise
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You might therefore also enjoy a good Fitou. The two regions are next door, Fitou is around Perpignan iirc, closer to the border. But both regions are top tier.
My usual choice is Burgundy, but it’s no coincidence that I’ve also spent time there. Makes the whole thing more personal when I’ve actually visited the vineyard.
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I can’t drink Burgundy. Even one glass gives me a headache. Peder knows Fitou. He says it’s a good one.
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Fingers crossed for the Corbieres, then
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Bloody fingers!! Beaujolais wine
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I took called Château de Caraguilhes Organic Corbières
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I tell you what I used to find invaluable was the Guide Hachette. Used to be a real book, used to have to buy a copy, but perhaps they went online now?
Basically, every wine I found in there was excellent. Never heard of that producer, btw. But… Hundreds. Thousands.
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I don’t know much at all at wine, but I usually have pinot grigio if we’re out. Peder knows heaps more about it than me. I’ll check out that book, so thank you.
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Yes, it is online. French language, though.
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So I see. I found it on Amazon. Happily, Mr M speaks French fluently; he worked in Paris for many years, and then worked in Côte d’Ivoire for a few years.
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And he came back?
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He worked for Danish shipping company, and they moved their guys on to new positions every 4-5 years.
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