Blogs from Carcassonne, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, Europe - page 5

THURSDAY - I have a feeling most of the eating out is at an end. All friends and family are in town. Tonight was a quiet night at the house with Rob and Erica as Kevin went to pick up Julie Brown, coming in from Aussie. I discovered today that Rob has a SERIOUS coffee addiction, and watched a total metamorphosis as he was infused with caffeine. Note to self: carry chocolate covered coffee beans when with Rob Lauder. Rob is an excellent cook, and made the three of us a beautiful salad full of goodies from the frig. It’s amazing what you can do with leftovers. Nothing spectacular, but just flavorful and nice. FRIDAY- Kevin’s birthday dinner was fabulous. The restaurant, La Bergerie, is about a half hour out of Carcassonne. We had worries because ... read more

WEDNESDAY - After a tidy-up of the apartment and a quick hoovering of the last of the food, we bade goodbye to the apartment, Montmartre and Paris. Walked down the hill to the tube with the bags, mine has now expanded to include the LeSportsac, and over to Gare Montparnasse to catch the train to Toulouse. We bought sandwiches at the station which were huge. On to the train, luckily we got on early enough to get space for the bags. After settling in, the sandwiches were pulled out. Note to Self: Carry small jar of Dijonaise in purse at all times! We got off the train in Toulouse and picked up the car. Kevin had bought a GPS in England so I had no maps. Refer to Kevin’s blog, or email me directly if you ... read more

What we thought would be our longest drive forced us to leave the middle of France early morning to get all the way to the bottom and reach Carcassonne. We made fantastic time and spent the afternoon exploring the city. Carcassonne is a fortified French town. It is basically a city that is divided into 2 and then surrounded by a huge, huge wall. Again, it is a very touristic place and it is difficult to find authentic but in the evening the walls are light and the crowds are low so it's a really great time to get a feel for the place. First signs of settlement in this region have been dated to about 3500 BC and I find that places such as Carsassonne are filled with fun and interesting facts such as it's ... read more

Left Valencia with some delay. Strange thing with the spanish railway is the very professional luggage control and checking in procedures at beginning or mainstations.On all the smaller station it s no problem to jump in without luggage control. Valencia- Narbonne took about 7 hours. Specially the last two hours are exciting, the mountains of the Pyrenees and after Perpegnan kind of swamps with water on both sides around the train. Had a stop over in Narbonne to wait a few hours for the highspeed train to Toulouse who stops at Carcassone. Only a 25 minutes trip. I promised myself to visit Carcassonne for two reasons. A few years ago I saw from the train Lourdes- Toulouse the Citadel and it looked magnific. A second reason was my younger brother who died two years ago, not ... read more

Tuesday 3rd November Avignon to Carcassonne This hotel in Avignon might be a cheap one but it has been comfortable and quiet which was a pleasant to change to our stay in Trets with a couple of nights of boom boom music. The weather looks like it’s going to be a changeable and we may get showers on our drive.At least for the present it looks OK and we plan to spend an hour or so in the old part of Avignon before heading for Carcassonne. With a good distance ahead of us we hit the road early into the city and found a car park within the walls of the old city.We were quite surprised to see just how quiet the old city was and devoid of tourists although we guess that Avignon is more ... read more