Surprise surprise

Well, it's been a while since I wrote, and I'm happy to announce, I'm back on an English keyboard, yay! Only thing is, I've kind of gotten used to the French one but anyway. So, lots of news! I'm now in a new place - a really cute BnB called Colours of Pays Cathare; it's in the minute village of Verzeille near Carcassonne, so haven't moved too far. It's still beautiful out here, only it's not as flat, so the vines are planted in slopes which offer some wonderful scenery. The lady who runs the BnB is called Jan and she's from near Milton Keynes, but moved here 6 years ago and started the Chambres d'H^otes from scratch. She's decorated the whole place herself and done the manly jobs such as the plumbing, tiling etc, amazing. She's really kind and cooks really well, so I'm definitely going to get fat. Plus, when there are guests here the breakfast consists of croissants and pain au chocolat, so you know what's gonna happen with any leftovers.
So my job here is to help her with preparing breakfast for the guests - but there aren't that many at this time of year so I'll be helping with DIY jobs and decoration around the house. There's some painting jobs to be done which I'm looking forward to. What I'm working on at the moment is sandpapering some wood bits on the upstairs room and varnishing them - it's nice to be doing something different from pruning vines, and living here feels like luxury after being at the farm.
So, on Friday I visited the nearby town of St Hilaire, which has a very impressive abbey, and which is said to be the place where Blanquette was first discovred. Now, Blanquette is a kind of local sparkling wine made from a particular type of grape only found in this area. It's really delicious and the sweet variety tastes a bit like cider, only a bit more refined. I'm going to be using the bike a lot because there are loads of beautiful villages scattered around the area and the roads are pretty quiet. So I came back, had dinner with Jan and started getting things ready because there were some guests arriving that night, from Spain. I was going to be able to use my Spanish, Jan said. So, at half 9 in the evening I hear the gate, look through the window, and I see my Mum walking up through the garden. Ha. Yep, it was my parents coming to pay me a visit - pretty convenient that I was staying at a BnB! So that was lovely and I was in a state of shock for most of the weekend. They enjoyed being served by me at breakfast, although I did sit down with them and pinch their pain au chocolat. We had a really nice weekend although I felt guilty not working for Jan at all, since we were out all the time, but I'd get the weekend off anyway. So we went to Carcassone to the food market and that was great; bought loads of fresh fruit and veg for a very reasonable price. Had lunch in The Cite, which is the old part of Carcassonne, where the castle and the old city walls are. It was nice to be out not worrying about spending money, and also having some company! After that we drove for a while trying to find a Cave (wine cellar) where we normally buy Blanquette from, and they bought some cartons to take back to Spain. That night we had dinner at this nice restaurant on top of a hill, and the views were super, and there was a beautiful sunset and some horses who wouldn't eat my biscuits. Today we went to another Cave at 10 am, and tasted another couple of wines... Then they took off, they had a long journey ahead of them.
It was great to see them, but I missed them for the rest of the day.
Jan and I went for a walk in the mountains this afternoon and there were beautiful views overlooking the hills, the vines, the tiny villages and the ever present electric windmills.
I'm really glad I'm here.