Jour quarante-quatre

...began on a bad note....I'm always so happy about continental breakfast and I usually eat a lot so I won't have to pay for lunch a few hours later. But this time, I went too far. Half way through my last piece of toast, I was way too full, and combined with the cigarette smell from the smoking floor we had to walk through, and the freezing dark morning, I felt so sick that I boarded the bus thinking I was for sure going to throw up. And we all know how much I hate that. Shae gave me a piece of gum, made me close my eyes, and explained my perfect paradise to me (where there was no food) just fresh air and trees and beauty, then told me to put my ipod in and made me play the Corinne Bailey Rae album to think of summer, followed by a sleepy mix of Iron and Wine to put me to sleep. She knows me so well by now. I can't believe I just told that story. The consequences of my frugality.

Anyway, a couple hours later and a bus ride up a steep switchback filled road, we arrived on top of a mountain at the Quéribus Castle of the Cathars.

Our two favorites: "The little girls"

Madame's daughter, Anna-Marie, as well as Chalita's (director of BYU study abroads who came to help us the last couple weeks) grand-daughter, Olivia.
We then got to go on a tour of the Abbey de Fontfroide, a beautifully secluded monastery where the Cistercians in 1093, near the border of Spain.

We came to realize that we were definitely the youngest on the tour, surrounded by a bunch of classy old folks, dressed better than us.

"look I'm in an old person parade!"

We got to make a stop by the Mediterranean!!
Harry Potter spells (November 18!)And finally, we arrived in the medieval town of Sarlat at the most quaint cute little hotel, (that I will return to with my husband) the St. Albert.

Then we all went out for a traditional dinner of goose liver, duck, and the most delicious potatoes au gratin I've ever tasted.

Then it was lights out.

k THEN it was lights out.

A demain,

b