France- 2 weeks- 1 car- my mother and some Ash Part 5

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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 name which derives from the word carcass! This came from the fact that during crusades, the Franks had good reason to think that the inhabitants of Carcassonne would soon starve and surrender. But Dame Carcas, the widow of the Sarrasin lord of the castle, devised a plan to save the city. She had a pig fed with the last sacks of grain the inhabitants could find. When the pig was fat enough, it was thrown over the city’s ramparts. At the sight of such a well-fed fat animal, the astonished assailants concluded that the inhabitants still had enough food in stock to stave off famine and weren’t about to surrender any time soon. And so they gave up and quickly lifted the siege. Dame Carcas rang all the bells of the city all day long to celebrate the victory.
We spent the day walking around the great wall and exploring the medievel towns buildings. I was impressed with Hoetl de la Citi which is a UNESCO sight with gorgeous views of the city. It's Michelin star restaurant was a bit to pricey after our eiffle tower extravaganza so we opted for some cocktails in the library which made for a nice afternoon. For dinner we stopped at a very busyrestaurant and I sampled boulbanaisse (i forget how you spell it) which I would equate with a creamy stew and then headed back to the hotel. I think after all our driving mum and I were looking forward to the idea of spending the last week in Provence and not having to drive so much or so we thought!
In the morning we left for the romantic area of France making a stop at the Pont du Gard which is is the major stonework of a 50km aqueduct that runs between Uzès and Nîmes. It dates back to roman times in the first century A.D and every time I see things like this I am still amazed by how they used man labour to create buildings we would not dream of building today. The most amzing thing is that the bridge was constructed entirely without the use of mortar. Each stone was laid together in exact measurements so that no space was allowed and therefore no mortar required. It really is an amazing site and the museum has loads of information about the aqueduct system. The only bad thing about our stop was the cost of the parking combined with the 50th toll we entered on the way. I think all in all we spent about 250 euros on tolls over the entire 2 weeks!
Although I will write a seperate entry about Provence I need to mention that when we arrived in Vaison La Romaine I immediatley discovered these amazing gooey centred merignes that came in all sorts of colours and flavours. I loved them so much I lugged a box og them back to London. There was a story with that too but maybe thats for around the dinner table!

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