Trip to Ireland & France, Day 5, Monday February 16th

This was the beginning of our France trip, so the group of us - Nan, Nana, Gordon, Aisling and me - headed off early to Dublin Airport for our flight to Carcassonne on the very no-frills airline, Ryanair. We obeyed their very specific rules about the dimensions of our single carry-on bag. The flight was full but went smoothly and we arrived in Carcassonne on time. On our descent, we got a fabulous view of Carcassonne. This is the oldest medieval walled city in Europe, restored in the 19th century, and it looks magnificant from the air. When we got off the plane, I think the first thing we noticed was that it was much colder than we anticipated. I think temperature wise, it was okay, but there was an extremely cold wind. This is because Carcassonne is in a valley in between the Pyrenees and the Black Mountains and it's sort of a wind tunnel.

We took a shuttle to our hotel, the Citea Carcassonne. It's an "aparthotel" meaning the rooms are meant to be more like apartments and we were really pleased. The rooms had large living areas and very well-equipped kitchens. Carcassonne is divided into two distinct towns, the old medieval city, called La Cite, and the newer city, called Ville Basse. They're spearated by the Aude river. Our hotel was on the La Cite side of the river, just outside the walls, and close to the older bridge, Pont Vieux, which is a walking bridge only. So once we were settled we decided to head out for some lunch. We headed across the Pont Vieux to Ville Basse. The views of La Cite from Pont Vieux are fabulous, so we took lots of photos. But we really felt the wind on the bridge and we were pretty much freezing to death.

Of course, it was about two by then, and we forgot that many French establishments serve lunch, then close for a few hours before opening again for dinner. So we weren't having a lot of luck finding something, until we were directed to a restauranct called La Salle du Dome near and old dome. That restaurant is open "toute l'heures". They were only serving one dish - Cassoulet, a local speciality. It's a stew made of duck, sausage and white beans, and given how cold we were and how warm and tasty it was, it was perfect.

After lunch we headed back across the Pont Vieux to La Cite. La Cite is on the top of a hill and it's a pretty steep walk. We weren't sure that the mothers were going to make it! But somehow they did. We came in through the Norbonne gate. It is very touristy, full of little shops catering to tourists, but at this time of year, there aren't so many tourists, so it felt fine. Even with the commercialism, it is an amazing place. The city walls, the fifty plus towers on the walls, the little cobbled streets, and the quaint buildings are all very nice. We just wandered around La Cite and didn't visit the castle of the church. We stopped for coffee and crepes in one of the many little establishments before heading back to the room. We stopped on the way back at a little grocery and at a boulangerie and bought lots of food including cheese, pate, baguettes, wine, meats and coffee for the morning. We spent the evening playing cards and snacking and drinking wine. It was great!

After we were done snacking, Gordon and I went out for an evening walk. La Cite is lit up at night, and it looks beautiful. We also found an easier way into La Cite from our hotel and we walked around the wall and battlements. There is a fabulous view of the Ville Basse and the rest of Carcassonne from La Cite. Some of the restaurants were still open, we could hear the music coming from them. Other than that, it wasn't that lively, probably because of the time of year, so it was easy for Gordon and me to just wander around. It was cold, but it is definitely worth walking around La Cite at night.