LA SOUQUETO CHAMBRES D'HOTES (MIREPEISSET, FRANCE)

I will always feel forever lucky for these three days I got to spend with good friends in the south of France. La Souqueto, run by family friends from when I used to live in England, is a B&B situated just by the Canal du Midi in a Medieval French village. It was the first stop on our trip, and so absolutely beautiful and perfect that we kept joking about canceling the rest and just curling up here for the remainder of the month.

We were picked up at the train station after a full day of travel (the usual train-bus-plane-bus-train kind of thing that takes the whole day and somehow all of your energy) and couldn't believe it as the car pulled up in this tiny, secluded village that smelled like bonfires with orange-tiled roofs and smoking chimneys. Almost immediately we were offered a glass of wine--the first of many during those few days that came from a winery just up the road.

When we weren't lounging in the hammock and drinking wine (which, let me tell you, was not often) we were going on walks (or boat rides!) or taking trips to the market, or wandering around Narbonne, not thinking about anything other than how lucky we were to be here. Mel and Jon, the owners, were the kindest hosts anyone could ask for, and weren't at all affected by the fact that the last time they had seen me I had two overlapping front teeth and a center-part. They went above and beyond in every aspect, doing way more than their jobs required to keep us entertained. They drove us everywhere, would make us lunch, and luckily allowed us to cook dinner on the last night as our way of attempting to say thank you for everything they did.  

This will always be one of the fondest memories of the trip, and I hope to return again with the rest of my family in tow--and perhaps our dogs to keep Pheobe and B company!

PS. Really important side note: the snail in the picture above fell over almost immediately after I took it. How is that possible. How does a snail fall over. In what cruel world would a snail's shell be so top heavy that it couldn't make it across the road without toppling? These are the questions that keep me up at night.