DAY 188 - 8 hour Train to Carcasonne

Sept 23 - Cyril: "masterful, lordly" - The most Humble Host EVER!

We left Paris early as we had a long train ride ahead of us to southern France and the next city we would stay for only a couple of days.  I bought a yummy pastry to eat.  We know how famous the French are for their pastries. 

This isn't crescent-shaped, but YUM YUM!!

A croissant is a buttery, flaky pastry named for its well known crescent shape. Croissants and other viennoiserie are made of a layered yeast-leavened dough. The dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession, then rolled into a sheet, in a technique called laminating. The process results in a layered, flaky texture, similar to a puff pastry.  (I can't imagine making these...very time-consuming!)

Croissants have long been a staple of French bakeries.

 We also had bought a couple of tarts to eat on our trip.

Double YUM!!

 A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard.









 We arrived at Carcassonne close to night fall and our wonderful host, Cyril picked us up at the station.

The fortified city of Carcassonne and the Pont Vieux crossing the Aude river

 

 Occupied since the Neolithic, Carcassonne is located in the Aude plain linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea and the Massif Central to the Pyrenees. Its strategical importance was quickly recognized by the Romans who occupied it's hilltop until the demise of their western empire and was later taken over by the Visigoth in the fifth century who founded the city. Also thriving as a trading post due to its location, it saw many rulers who successively built up its fortifications up until its military significance was greatly reduced by the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.

 The city is famous for the medieval fortress restored by the architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in 1853.  Carcassone greatly profits from tourism, but also is famous for wine-making.

What a handsome guy this Frenchman is standing at the train station!

 Cyril was new at couch-surfing, but when we got there, three other young ladies were there.  One was from Taiwan and the other two from Denmark.  They all spoke good English.  It was a houseful of estrogen!

The Danish girls cooked this meal of Spaghetti Borghanese - delicious!

We ate outside on his back deck.  What a lovely first meal together!

Cyril was the sweetest and most humble guy that one could ever meet!

Greek evangelist who brought Christianity to the Slavic-speaking regions of Eastern Europe.
Read more at http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Cyril#FqlHLBUQHPcgGSGI.99

We all enjoyed some games of ping pong after dinner.

My absolute FAVORITE!!  Cyril made us each our own  Crème brûlée!

 Crème brûlée is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel.  It is normally served at room temperature.  The earliest known reference to crème brûlée as it is known today appears in a 1691 french cookbook.

We each got to caramelize the sugar on top with a small blow torch.

WOW!  Look at me - and I'm not burning the place down like I did my old ping pong table when I was about 10 years old.

A nice keyboard is the center of attention in his main room.

 Cyril had recently divorced, but got custody of his three girls for a week every other week.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to meet them, but I imagine they are sweet and gentle, just like Cyril.  We had several talks about living life to the fullest and about forgiveness.  He has so much insight to life.

His house is very cute with lots of "girl" things everywhere.

The next night, the Danish girls cooked Cyril a quiche.

Cyril comes from Jewish heritage. His grandmother and grandfather are Jewish and unfortunately were part of the Poland atrocities. They luckily escaped to France, but as the German military took hold of Paris, they were “branded” - all Jewish children were not allowed to go to the schools there. They were also informed there would be “tickets” to go get bread and other necessities. As the Jewish people would go out into the streets, sometimes they would be stopped by the officials to see their papers. If they found out they were Jewish, depending on their moods, they might get thrown into prison. From prison they would go to the French work camp or to a big stadium where they would receive no water or food for a week. They would then go to Auschwitz.

Cyril's grandfather was thrown into one of these prisons. Because his wife (Cyril's grandmother), was very strong and had a hard will about her, she “lied” and said that her husband was not well and needed medicine and wouldn't be able to do well there. Somehow, one of the authorities told a German soldier to take him somewhere. The soldier told Cyril's grandfather that he needed to get a map to find out where to go and would he just stay right there, but he winked as he said it. His grandfather, all hand-cuffed, managed to escape and they again had luck or a good fate about them. The two of them hid out, but all the rest of their family perished in the work camp or at Auschwitz. (Cyril has a soft heart for this German man as Cyril wouldn't have been born, nor his three daughters if it hadn't been for this kind soldier.)

Later, when Cyril's mother grew up, she met a man and presented him before her father because they wanted to get married. Trouble was that this man was very poor, he was a Protestant, AND a German. This did not set well with the family and her father said she was no longer her daughter. It was a few years later when his heart softened, however, because Cyril was born and his grandfather could see how much they both loved each other. LOVE won in the end. The same thing happened when Cyril wanted to get married as he presented his bride to be before his parents. She was a Catholic and from Spain. - big problem, but somehow love again prevailed. It was not to last, however, as 8 years and three little girls later they would divorce.

I am honored to have heard this story as Cyril and I stayed up one night to talk about it.  I know his heritage is very special to him and he loves his family so much.  I learned a lot from this wonderful frenchman in two short days.  I am a better person for having met him and I hope I can stay connected to him through facebook and that he will visit us some day.

Tomorrow - the beautiful castle and the story of my getting lost (again), but this time it was very scary!