CHAPTER 16. SOUTH WEST FRANCE CONT.

Then it happens! On the way to the bank in Quillan to change some traveler checks Betty, walking behind Glenn on a narrow sidewalk, falls and breaks her kneecap! The street had seemed mostly deserted, but immediately people are there to help: two policemen, several men, and a woman who brings a chair for Betty. They call an ambulance and within minutes she is on the way to the hospital. One of the men leads Glenn in his car to the hospital, takes him in and makes sure they know who he is before leaving.

Betty is taken directly to X-Ray and is soon in bed in her room. The surgeon explains he will operate in the morning, pinning the two pieces of the kneecap together and putting a ring around it. The anesthesiologist and Betty decide she will use a local. Glenn is allowed to stay in the other bed in the room during Betty’s 12 day stay and eats all his meals with her there.

The Clinique de la Haute Vallee de l’Aude is private and small, has 30 beds, and serves Quillan’s population of 6,000 plus the surrounding rural areas. They have capable orthopedists due to their proximity to the Pyrenees ski areas. Our room on the second floor of a new wing has two hospital beds, bedside tables, a small table with two chairs, a lounge chair, a color TV, fluorescent lighting, two closets, and private toilet with lav and bidet.

Communications are somewhat difficult. Glenn’s French is very limited and Betty’s much better but lacking in technical vocabulary. The doctors and some of the nurses speak English fairly well and are anxious to practice it; our French-English dictionary gets a good workout. A couple of the nurses speak Spanish; this helps since we are more fluent in it. The thing is that people stick with it and work at communicating until we understand each other pretty well. We have found this to be true in post offices, stores, hotels, and restaurants in all of rural France.

Even in the hospital French food is good and arrives in the room hot and tasty. Meals include bread and dessert, or fruit and cheese, and a carafe of red wine. They serve a drink and cookies at tea time.

They start therapy on Betty’s knee the day after surgery. The therapist Dymos Elefthériou, a delightful Greek-Italian-French mix with a fine sense of humor soon has Betty up and walking with English canes down the corridors and eventually up and down stairs. By the time we leave the hospital she is able to do a minimum amount of walking.

While Betty is getting better Glenn goes out for a couple of hours at a time exploring Quillan and the area. Quillan (pronounced Key-yon) is a very neat and pretty town; buildings are mostly 3 stories, with many wrought iron balconies. Some streets are narrow, some wide and with trees. The Aude River flows through town and at times is set up for kayak racing.

Quillan is in the foothills of the Pyrenees about 50 miles south of Carcassone. Nearby are mountains with wildflowers and lumbering activity, rivers and streams, small garden plots, ruins of chateaux sitting high on rocky prominences, steep rock gorges, vineyards, pretty farmland; an almost endless variety of sights. The back roads are narrow but well marked; one is more apt to meet bicycles than other cars on them.
A very scenic site near Quillan is Renne le Chateau on top of a high hill with a 360 degree view of the country around it. The Michelin map of the area shows many green lined highways and roads nearby, indicating that they are scenic drives. Quillan is not particularly a tourist destination, but with the beauty of the countryside, it could very well be one.

Released from the hospital, we decide to continue with the remaining 3 weeks of our trip rather than rushing home. Betty has a padded removable splint with velcro fasteners on her leg and English canes but can’t walk very far, so we will have to do our sight seeing from the car. We drive to Carcassone with a cloudburst rain along the way obscuring visibility. We usually try to pick out a hotel from the Michelin Red Guide in advance; the small city maps help us find it. We find the Montsegur Hotel and the Spanish speaking woman clerk has a room for us. The building looks like it has been converted from and old mansion.

After breakfast in the elegant dining room we check out and drive to the old city which has been restored beautifully. We find the entrance, drive over a moat, and park. Betty stays in the car with a fresh Herald Tribune to read and Glenn walks around some. There are many cafes and a “tourist trap” feeling.