Southern France!

Carcassone is the quintessential walled medieval town - it’s even impressive from far outside the walls with its pointed towers and high elevation. Click here for great pictures and history.  It has a moat and two walls around it so that if the enemy breached the first, they were attached from the second! I had been here years ago and was excited for Dermot to see it in all its historic grandeur.  So when we arrived on the Auld (river) side entrance to the town, it was very strange to see huge yellow circles seemingly painted onto the exterior walls and entrance. At first, I was dismayed but once we read that this was an art installation which was supposed to be a conversation about historic places and their relationship with modern use and life, I felt better about it.  Thankfully, it was only on one side and not yellow-striped throughout.

There was a band playing Rolling Stones songs as we arrived at the castle which was nice, but it was alittle hard to imagine medieval life with the accompaniment of “Jumping Jack flash its a gas, gas gas.” 

Our pictures here.

The day was hot but we forged ahead through every open doorway, up every tower, along the ramparts and experienced the castle and surrounding town.  It's so large that the pictures, as usual, can’t capture the essence of it. Dermot was intrigued by the increasing number of machine-gun toting Gendarmerie assembling in the courtyard of the castle.  There was apparently going to be a ceremony such as a cadet graduation. Eventually, the heat and thirst drove us to a square with shade and lots of seats where we relaxed with over-priced drinks. We toyed with the idea of staying for dinner. Rick Steves highly recommends seeing it lit for the evening but it isn’t dark until after 11 and our campsite closes its gate for the night at 10:30! So we bought some groceries on the way back and had a great dinner then watched some more soccer.  The night was hot making it difficult for me to sleep and we decided either the beach or heading north would be good.

Friday we took care of some bills and researched going south to the beach, but the sites wanted us to stay for a full week so we decided to go to Arles instead. We hit the camp’s “fitness area” which consisted of a large field with fairly ineffective workout machines set about the perimeter and a short zipline. Then we went to the pool for a swim and a bit of relaxation before more soccer/computer time then we made dinner.  The pool area has a great view panoramic since it sits on top of a hill. The wind blows over the mountains and creates a wonderful sound through the pine trees. 

The Dordogne region has alot of walnut trees, wheat fields and corn fields (the corn being to fatten the ducks and geese). This area we noticed has alot of vineyards and or trees we noticed the door down has many walnut trees and olive trees. We had quite a scare when we thought we’d lost one of the sets of keys to the camper (they were found by a fellow camper in the pool area) then we had more soccer/computer time.

I have to say that after having foie gras de canard on Dermot’s birthday I developed a craving for it on the following day. We had picked up an expensive can of foie gras d’oie (which is fattened goose liver) and it was calling to me but we are saving it for an emergency. 

Saturday we headed for Pays de sites Cathars (Country of Cathar sites.)  History usually extolls the virtues of the victors of wars and the losers are reduced to the footnotes but this area seems to hold onto its regions’ Cathars history.  The Cathars (or Albigenians) were a group of Christians who held a unique interpretation of the early religious writings.  They eschewed materialism as evil and were vegetarians. Though many in the area tolerated them, they were seen as a threat by the Catholic Pope and were deemed heretics.  Thereafter there was a crusade against them and men, women and children were tortured and murdered. 

One Cathar ruler held out at Chateau de Peyrpertuse castle what was a strategic place near the border between Spain and France in the 11th century.  When he was defeated, the castle was rebuilt and enlarged and used for centuries.  It lost its importance/strategic position in the 1600’s when a treaty between France and Spain moved the border south into the Pyrenees. This ruins required a lot of up and down (but mostly up) climbing to get to the ruins.  Once there, it was really fun to scramble up and down the ruins checking out all the views and poking into every room like kids. A good audioguide explained the rooms and what they were used for.  Dermot got a kick out of waiting in a darkened room to scare me!

 More pictures and history here.

The views were magnificent and stretched all the way to the Pyrenees. It made the hair-raising drive up to the cliff and down again worth it and we returned to the campsite drained but satisfied.  Then we went out for a canal-side dinner at a local restaurant.