The very old and the quite new

A big day today.  We were out early to get to the medieval town at Carcassonne that we missed yesterday.  It sits on a hilltop and is pretty vast.

Already there were masses of people there so after a while walking the streets, taking some photos, and soaking up the atmosphere, we queued for 45 minutes to get our tickets to walk the Chateau and the ramparts.  It was a long walk, up and down many steps, but amazing views and again an insight into life on those times.

Then it was back on to the motorway east to a massive viaduct at Millau.  This is a fairly new bridge miles above a gorge.  Quite spectacular as you will see from the photo. There were gorgeous blue skies to see the view from and the drive up there through the mountains was stunning too.

This trip, like others was on a toll road. You collect a ticket at the start, and then when you exit there's a toll both to collect your money, depending how far you have travelled.  We've paid around 7 euros each time, so not that cheap.

For our onward journey, we decided to avoid motorways and take the country roads.  The countryside was truly beautiful in the sunshine, but the roads can be narrow, windy, and often have quite uneven surfaces.  We passed through dozens of little villages with just a few houses, their church, boulangerie and not much more - very picturesque.  We could only average around 60 - 70 kph due to the state of the roads but it was worth it to see the rural sights.

Interestingly, we were mostly seeing rich green pastures, but with no animals grazing and no crops growing.  Must still be too cold at this time of year.  Not sure how they generate income!

In Albi for the night.  This town was a revelation and not what we were expecting.  The centre is also very old, but it was immaculate.  Some of the old towns have an air of decrepitude and look slightly grubby, but not this one.  We wandered after dinner and saw so many quaint little lanes populated with lovely little shops.  Not the crowds here either.

Got up early the next morning to visit the Cathedral St Cecile which is the biggest brick building in the world.  It is quite austere, but imposing from the outside, but inside was just amazing - so ornately decorated and well worth a visit.  Allan bought a souvenir book, so it must have been good!

Oh la la!

I promised that I would tell you about our Chateau experience, so here goes...

We drove into a very imposing courtyard and then rocked up to reception - this was quite spectacular, with a very high stud and lots of wood panelling.  I think the place dated back to the 16 th century, but had been faithfully restored.

Our room was equally spectacular, with a huge bed, not quite a four poster, but with drapes falling from on high.  It was as comfortable as it looked.  All of the furniture was in keeping with the age of the place, and we could look out through our gabled windows to another courtyard.

Fair to say that we felt like we were rich and famous (for a short moment in time) even though the room only cost us 115 euro ($170 ish).

We accepted an invitation to dine in the chateau's restaurant - 45 euros all inclusive each so almost as dear as the bed!

The dining room was lovely and when we were shown to our table, there were three bottles of wine from the chateau's vineyard waiting for us.

The first two courses were cold entrees and then hot entrees.  There were half a dozen choices for each, but they were all fois gras based or seafood based.  Not being a fan of either, I went for the lowest risk options - smoked salmon (a huge plate full) and a seafood and vegetable mornay, which included mussels and oysters, which I didn't eat.  However, I did stretch my eating horizons a bit!

Now you have to remember that the French don't eat until late, so we didn't even start this feast until 8.30 pm - we finished at midnight!

Main for me was suckling pig and then profiteroles for dessert, then tea and aperitifs to finish - we were fit to bust.  Allan enjoyed all of his food too, and managed to make a hole in the wine although we came nowhere near finishing the three bottles.

A very good night, and a great accommodation choice thanks to trip advisor!

Leaving Toulouse...getting lost again...

My goodness, the streets in Toulouse are nightmarishly skinny, especially whilst we are getting used to the new car.  It is an Opel Meriva, manual and larger than we expected.

We made it out of town and headed for Le Cite de l'Espace, which is a museum about space, weather, satellites and related things.  It was exceptionally well done.  Everything was interactive so you could moon walk, you could set the frequencies to get clear satellite pictures and there were lots of games to teach you how things work.  You could also be a weather presenter using the blue screen technology so you were waving your hands around trying to look like you are pointing at a particular place - neither of us indulged in that!  I guess it was aimed at kids but we both thought it was brilliant.  Masses of people but the crowds flowed through quite well so there was no queuing.

From there we headed off to our accommodation for the night which was just 5 kms out of Carcassonne.  Nearing our destination, we were again driving in very narrow streets, relying on the GPS for directions.  We struggled to find it despite loading the name, and later the latitude and longitude into the GPS and I was starting to despair as we went around and around these country lanes.  In the end Allan asked someone and it turned out that we were parked up right outside the place -d'oh!

Shortly after we checked in, we headed into Carcassonne to check out the medieval city.  Turns out we didn't find that, but we walked around the old town.  So quaint, with tiny, tiny little streets but so much charm.  Just before we got back to the car, there was a massive electrical storm, with huge hailstones, so we got quite wet.

Navigating the narrow streets in the pouring rain was just horrendous and we got lost again, just by not being able to get into the right lane at the right time.  Suffice to say that by the time we got out of town, communication between the driver and the navigator was getting a little fraught!

I am not inspired to have a go at driving in the cities, or on the motorways where the speed limit is 130 kph, even though we paid extra to register me as an additional driver.

Our accommodation itself deserves a separate post so will stop here.