14th July 2013

Bastille Day or Fete Nationale, as the French call it. Well, they would wouldn't they?  People will always dream up ways of obfuscating the atrocities of life to make themselves feel better about their history.  But, it's only by seeing the mistakes of the past that we can know who we are today and try to do better. There's one historical French place I'd always wanted to see - Carcassonne, just a couple of hours S.E. of us. It's the site of the author Kate Mosse's trilogy. So, we drove our family there. We all agreed: the old 3C cite of  Carsac is exceptional. Although, being us, life is always difficult. One dog was still in the clinic, and we took the other one (yes, Bruno!) with us. So, as a party of 5 + one mad dog we traipsed in the heat around the most amazing mediaeval site you can imagine. And, the place was full of Americans. Of course. However much the US boasts, they can never match the history encompassed by Europe. As Him indoors says 'history is a thing of the past'. And Bruno?  We may, enfin, have found the solution - change his diet to hypo-allergenic food (no additives). Well, reader, it worked. He rode in the caleche and didn't even bark at the horses. So, although there may be fireworks tonight, for the moment all is calm en-famille. Ah...