Trip to Ireland and France, Day 6, Tuesday February 17th

Before we came on our trip, Aisling discovered that my favorite rock band, Oasis, was performing in Toulouse while we were in France. Toulouse is only about an hour from Carcassonne so we decided to buy tickets and head to the concert. Carcassonne is small, so a car is unnecessary, but for the trip to Toulouse we rented a car for the day. Gordon and I walked over the the train station (La Gare) in Ville Basse and rented a Peugeot. So after getting used to driving on the left in Ireland, Gordon had to switch to driving on the right again, although with roundabouts! The walk to La Gare was pretty fun as we got more of a sense of what the Ville Basse was like, the churches, shopping etc. We did stop in a chocolatier and buy some chocolate snacks!

We headed back to the hotel and picked up Nan, Nana and Aisling. The plan was to drive to Toulouse, do some sightseeing, drop Nan and Nana off at a restaurant while Gordon, Aisling and I headed to the concert. However, we decided to make a couple of stops on the way (okay, slightly out of the way) to Toulouse. Carcassonne is in an area of France known as "cathar country". Apparently, the Cathars were a religious group persecuted by French catholics in the 12th and 13th centuries. So all the towns have significant Cathar history, including churches, castles etc. There are so many towns to pick from and sights to see, it's hard to choose where to go! But we decided to go to a town called Lastours, which is the home to the remains for four castles, built up very high on ridges and mountains in the Black Mountains for protection. Lastours apparently welcomed the Cathars and paid for this later when the French kings destroyed the castles.

It took us a little while to get our directions straight, but once we were out of Carcassonne on the way to Lastours it was a very nice drive on older French roads, very picturesque. It didn't take long to get to Lastours, a very pretty little town. One of the ruined castles was visible from the road. We followed the road to try to get up to the castles, however, that's not possible, so we turned around and came back to the town. It's very lovely, small with a river running through it and lovely old buildings. It's in a valley with the castles looking down on it. We stopped for lunch in a friendly little restaurant with great food. By this time we've gotten totally used to "le menu" the three course meal, with a glass of wine. After lunch, we headed up to the viewpoint, or the belvedere, where there's a fabulous view of the castles. It was fabulous. So we took some photos and then headed out of Lastours, back down the French country road to the motorway.

We decided to stop on the way at a little winery, Salitis. We pulled in and it said they were "ouvert" but it seemed pretty deserted. The sign said ring the bell and we'll come out. So we did, and out came the owner of the winery, a french woman. She brought us into the tasting room, which was very informal, and she spent a great deal of time talking to Nan and Gordon about the winery. Apparently, it's been in her family for four generations, and all the owners are women. She gave us several types of wine to taste - Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, merlot and dessert wine - and even Aisling got to taste. We bought four bottles of wine, none of them over 7 euros, and headed on our way to Toulouse.

Before we left California, I had printed a google map directing us from Carcassonne to the venue of the Oasis concert, Le Zenith, in Toulouse. I had intended to buy a map of Toulouse before we headed there, but I was unable to find one in Dublin or Carcassonne. We wanted to stop at some of the sights of Toulouse and needed a map for that, but we headed toward Le Zenith and figured we'd just get one there. So off we went, and followed the google map. Unfortunately, Le Zenith is near the Toulouse airport, in a fairly industrial neighborhood so we were a little concerned about finding a place for Nan and Nana, who somehow had now given themselves the nickname "the wrinklies". So we drove around a little bit, and finally found a store. I went in and in my very bad accent asked for a map of Toulouse. The guy went behind the counter, dug in a drawer and handed me a map, which he said was a little out of date and so he gave it to me as a gift. Who says the French are unfriendly? He was delightful. I studied the map, and figured out where the big cathedral, St. Etienne, was, and we headed toward it. We headed across a lovely bridge, Pont St. Michel, along a big boulevard toward "le grande rond" (the big roundabout), which was big, and we parked near St. Etienne. This was clearly the nicer part of Toulouse - fancy shops, nice bars and restaurants, and of course the cathedral. St. Etienne is a 12th and 13th century cathedral. It's quite large, beautiful stained glass, lots of ornate side altars and a huge organ. The city of Toulouse in that area is very beautiful, very attractive architecture and cute little windy streets. We toured the cathedral, walked the area, and set the wrinklies up in a coffee shop, found a restaurant for them for dinner, and a bar for after dinner, and then we headed to the concert.

We drove over to Le Zenith and parked in the lot, which was free! We then decided to eat at a food truck, where they were grilling sausages and burgers. I ordered a "burger americain". It was a baguette, with the burger cut in half and put in there like a sandwich, with chips (french fries) on top! The burger may have seen the grill for about 30 seconds or so. It was definitely rare! We then went on into Le Zenith. It was open seating, so we found a good spot and waited for the show. The opening band, Three Piece from Liverpool, was sort of boring. But then Oasis came on, and they were fabulous. They played lots of my favorites and they were really great.

After the show, we headed back over to the center of Toulouse to meet up with the wrinklies. I was a little worried about leaving them, but I needn't have been worried. We found them in a bar. Apparently, they had had a couple of gin and tonics, a half bottle of wine with dinner and two aneracs (a type of brandy) and were having a grand old time. So we more or less poured them into the car and drove back to Carcassonne.