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Carcassone Old City
The view as I enter the town. The title for this one really should have been Going, Going, Gone; but I have already used that one. Anyway you will see why later on in the blog....
After Barcelona, it was another early train ride and I made it with 7 minutes to spare (for someone on holiday, I seem to be giving myself alot of those early starts. I really am a glutton for punishment), then it was a relaxing ride to Carcassone via Narbonne. I just escaped Barcelona in time as it looked like a thunderstorm was coming into town, and arrived in France to perfect sunshine. So I got off the train with no idea where I was going, or where I was staying that night, and I couldn't help grinning! This is what backpacking is all about.
In the end it backfired at his place as the one youth hostel was full (and on a Monday night!?!) so I was forced to camp outside, but it turned out to be pretty warm and bugless so I was happy. Anyway after dumping my pack at the campsite, I heading back to the 'Old City', which is a walled Medieval city, which apart from
Old City Ramparts
View from closer up of the fortifications. a few renovations, lives on from Medieval days.
So I did a circuit of the walls and explored the little cobbled streets before trying some of the local delicacies. Pork sausage had a strange taste to it. Not bad, just strange. Then I stayed around the city and watched a pretty amazing sunset over the French countryside before heading back towards the campground. I stopped beside a cute little bubbling brook and gradually watched as it go darker and the lighting of the city got more pronounced. Very romantic! Even if it was just me and the oversized mosquitoes. Then it was to 'bed' and I had one of my best sleeps of the trip strangely enough. Maybe not so strange when there were no snorers within at least 30m of me.
The following day, I was up before the sun and tramping back to the train station, where I saw my train to Nice actually went via Avignon, so I thought "Why not?" and stopped off there for several hours to check out the former Pontifical Palace (Where a few of the Popes lived when there was too much strife in Rome, and when they were puppets
Old City Citadel
This is the bridge to where the lord of the place lived. It originally had a moat around it in more dangerous times. of the French Kings). Nowhere near as impressive as the Vatican, but worth a look before I continued onto Nice.
I found my hostel, apparently one of the top 10 in the world and was immediately impressed by the Roast Beef and veges for dinner. I could stay here for a while! Then I joined the crowds for a few drinks in the huge common room before retiring for the evening. It also happened to be good timing to be in town, cos the Cannes Film Festival was on. A couple of girls in my room had seen Brad and Angelina, so everyone who was anyone was there. Except Paris Hilton. Hahahaha!!!!
The next day over breakfast, I had no idea what my plans were for the day, until the people next to me started talking about scuba diving. So I ended up joining Hu, Chantelle and Michelle out on the boat for the day which was awesome. Perfect weather while relaxing on the French Riviera. A tough way to spend the day. The others hadn't been diving before so I went off and checked out some deeper stuff before coming back to the boat. Chantelle and I
decided to do a bit of diving off the boat, but didn't see the tiny wee jellyfish, which decided to sting us a bit. Nice of them really.
After getting back to port, we weren't ready to leave the area up the hill to the hostel, so we went for a bit of sightseeing and ended up having dinner at a fancy French restaurant (mainly cos it was their last night) before heading to a bar to watch the Champions League, just a shame about the result. Then it was back to the party hall aka former abbey of the monastery (I love the irony) of a few quiet drinks before being up early to head off to Monaco to meet up with Brendan.
The following day, I caught the train out to Beaulieu-sur-mer, where I wandered down to the marina and found Moira, the boat Brendan is working on. We had a bit of a catch up then headed out on the little tender (that did up to 50 knots) along to Monaco, where we were greeted by the sound of the Formula 1 cars practising before Sundays race. We went and and tried to have a
Old city at night
As it gets more lit up and stands out against the night sky look but couldn't see anything. We headed back to the main boat, where I had my moment of 'fun'. We were pulling in and Brendan got me to grab the line to hook onto the front, but a fender was in the way and we bounced back away. The problem was I still had a hold of the rope connected to the other boat. So I stretched and stretched, then Brendan said ¨Dude, you're going in.¨ I saw my predicament, so replied back sagely ¨Yep¨ and fell into the water. Luckily I had my togs on and the water was alot nicer than the Viaduct in Auckland, but still wasn't planned. Brendan and the crew had a good laugh about it as well.
As it was the rest of them were planning to head out Wakeboarding, so I joined them in that. I had only done it very briefly after scuba diving once so wasn't the most impressive, but had loads of fun. I mean you can hardly complain when you are flying around the French Riviera in a speed boat can you? Then rounded it off by joining them for some roast lamb and a couple of final
Sunrise in Carcassone
A sign I was up far too early beers with Brendan. So overall one of my favourite days of the trip and big thanks to Brendan for inviting me onto the boat. I had a blast!
So that is a quick tour of the South of France and if (when) I come back, it will definately be to Nice. Fantastic city and alot to do around there. Tomorrow it's another country, Switzerland. So to Geneva via Lyon and further East into Europe. Arrivederci!
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