Our house sit in the tiny little village of La Courtete France was our very first one. Despite the weather being less than ideal, it was such a cool experience getting to start our time in France to try and live like the French. Which mostly distills down to using tons of butter and garlic in my cooking, and spending the bulk of our grocery money on cheese. 

This was a very easy sit and was a nice opportunity to get our feet wet. They had two dogs, a sweet old yellow lab named Nella, a husky rescue dog from Finland named Gloubi, and a funny and chatty little cat named Amber. They were all very sweet, but they were also very independent and didn’t really want or need much from us, either than to feed them and let them out occasionally. 

The house was really need. A very classic rustic french Aquitane region with several acres of land on rolling hills next to a farm with lots of sheep and some donkeys. One neat thing was the historic abbey walls that were up tucked away behind lots of ivy in the backyard. It felt like kind of a secret garden. I had a lot of fun trudging out there through the mud and exploring their land and countryside. Even though we were only there for a couple of nights, it was so neat to just be there and see what it’s like to live such a rustic and airy existence. 

The owners were a lovely couple from the UK, but have lived all over the world. She was a teacher, and he helped managing the financing to develop nuclear energy sites. 

We really only went on one big excursion through to a couple of small villages to explore. The Aquitane region is so beautiful. Just full of rolling hills and tiny little villages and churches every couple miles. The biggest town that we visited was Carcassonne, which is most famous for their enormous castle that has been extensively restored. We spend an entire day exploring around inside the walls and I got to feel the nostalgia as I had been there once before when I was 8 years old picking up my brother Dave on his mission. I recognized a lot of the alleys and towers, it was really fun. 

We also visited the small town of Mirepoix. It’s a classic french village that sort of feels like it’s straight out of beauty and the beast. It’s main draw is the arcaded central square, and the cathedral with the second largest gothic arch in all of Europe. What’s kind of funny is that the widest gothic arch is actually one of the cathedrals we visited in Girona Spain. We are gothic arch pros now. When we went into the church in Mirepoix they had gregorian monk chants echoing throughout the space.