The old city of Carcassonne is close to where we will hire our canal boat, although with all of the locks, it is unlikely that we would reach it in our week of hire. Rick Stein, on his Canal du Midi adventures, stopped (I remember) at both Castelnaudary, and Carcassonne and made the local dish "cassoulet"- a must taste for those of us who watched his TV series. It is a peasant dish based on dried white beans, pork parts, duck, sausage, onion, celery and garlic all stewed up for hours and then baked before being left to coagulate and congeal. It sounds disgusting and looks it too, but aparently it is fabulous and even better after two days!! Russ said that if you eat it with your eyes closed, it is quite tasty although he is waiting for the inevitable production of flatulence today! It is not likely that I will be looking for the recipe but I am sure that Nossie will convince Russ to have another plateful during our time together!!
We had a lovely , if cold and cloudy day wandering the old La Cité of Carcassonne, and browsing the little streets of it's interior where about 350 people live. Apparently the town began back in the Gallo-Roman days some 2500 years ago, but came to dominance in the South of France in the 12th century when the Cathar religion grew strong. However, after the crusade against the cathar heretics in the 13th century (many ghastly massacres) the town became the fortified site that can be seen today. Later history shows that it sank into decline between the 17 and 19 centuries and much of it was a crumbling ruin by the time the architect named Viollet Le Duc (who also put his stamp on the Louvre in Paris) decided to restore it.
While only the lower limits of the walls are truly authentic, and there was controversy about the tops of the towers being pointy or flat, the restoration was listed as heritage by UNESCO in 1997. Aparently La Cité is the most popular French tourist attraction outside Paris (I read this somewhere) and has 3.5 million visitors every year ( work that out on a daily basis!)
kitschy touristy streets in La Cité
The view of La Cité as it is known is impressive as you drive into Carcassonne but you can't stop on the narrow roads to take a photo. It rises majestically from the hills on the horizon and presents an imposing vista of towers, ramparts and solid walls, making a huge statement. It apparently has 52 towers and 3 kms of ramparts and presents the visitor with a grand entrance over a drawbridge (no longer drawing, I glean) over a dry moat with two huge towers, in the middle of which are 2 iron or wooden grids that used to lower to keep out assailants.
There were also cavernous spaces above that allowed huge stone rocks to hail down on those trapped between the two grids. Charming stuff! If this image is not enough to get you in the mood, there is a museum of Instruments of Torture so you really get the picture. We declined to visit that one.
We learned heaps about the defences of this old citadel in the tour and it was fascinating stuff. An english speaking tour of the walled enclosures is available at about 2pm and is included in the entrance fee, but you can roam the perimetres or anywhere in the touristy souvenir-filled streets of the central part of the Cité for free. The charge is only for the historical museum part but we think this was fascinating and well worth the money. None of my photos do the place justice, but they do show the huge number of tourists we encountered on this rather ordinary day in summer.
However we found ourselves a nice leafy courtyard /beer garden, far from the madding crowd, and enjoyed some respite from the cold gale force "Cers" winds that blow onto La Cité from the valleys.
this should be a reduced photo size, but....
After lunch we decided to investigate the the other half of Carcassonne, the bastide sister city established in the 13th Century and where most of the polulation live. This is where the Canal Du Midi passes and of course we had to check it out. Russ took the most uninteresting picture of the canal and in deference to our friends, we decided NOT to include it!! But because this had been such an uninspiring vista of the canal, Russ decided we should take the long route home, along the back roads (not the péage), so a chance to see the canal would again present itself. The trip took about twice as long - without stops- but since it doesn't get dark here until 10pm it is like late night shopping every night and photos can be snapped until well after 9pm!!
We discovered wonderful spots on the way, like the little bridge over the river Aude;
the villages of Alzonne, Villepinte, Castelnaudary and Villefranche de-Lauragais where we had a convivial drink in a bar and then bought some lazagna from a charcuterie (the only vegetarian thing he had in the shop...AND he didn't speak a word of english so that was a challenge!)
We passed by a number of wind generators on a hill and actually stopped to see how much noise they made, but we were perhaps disappointed: they made nothing we could discern. But then again, we were perhaps half a kilometre from them. And then we found several fields of more mature sunflowers.
Most importantly after all the checking of maps and roads, we found the Canal Du Midi and we clamboured out of the car, down an embankment and onto the tow path to have a walk and find a spot for a couple of photos; we reckon this was a superb part to show you all!! In less than three weeks we will be floating serenely down this canal in our luxury canal boat with Jan and Nossie having a most indulgent and relaxing time. Russ can't wait.
Don't know where our next excursion into the french countryside might take us, but rest assured we are thinking of you all!
So, as Pam has learned to say, "toute à l'heure" !!!
Russ 'n Shirl
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