Friday, August 30, 2019

Rocamandour - Day 1

The road that descends from Rocamandour is narrow and comes with switchbacks and a tunnel both of which stop traffic regularly. 
Who builds a city on the cliff of a gorge in the Middle Ages?
For lunch, a proper complete.
After a rest day, we dine overlooking the town.


Viaduc du Millau

Departing Carcassonne after noon, we have lunch at the nearest small town in the Corbieres wine region, Lezignan-Corbieres. At a small café filled with locals, we enjoy a guitar player and good outdoor lunch.
 
 
There is one planned stop today and that is the famous Viaduct de Millau. Since seeing a documentary on its construction, this has been on CJ's bucket list. It's a weird engineer thing. It is one of the tallest bridges in the world.
It is past 7:30 when we arrive at our hotel, La Troubadour, in Rocamandour.  Although it seems CJ blew his driving time limit today, it is really only a 4.5 hour driving day.
 
 And cassoulet yet again.


Thursday, August 29, 2019

Carcassonne W/O Tourists

If you get up early enough you avoid the tourists.  CJ was 95% successful this morning having to contend only with the first busload at the grand entrance to the city.  They only buggered up a few pictures.

The cathedral is adjacent to our hotel. It's CJ and the maintenance man in the cathedral.
 
 
He has the entire city to himself until he arrives at the grand entrance where the days first  bus has unloaded a group of tourists still attempting to get organized.
 
 
 
He walks between the inner and outer walls.  Pity the fool who managed to scale the low outer walls to arrive in this killing field.
At the entrance to the Keep, only a lady policeman and local woman impede his picture taking.
 
CJ descends the entrance road from the new city.  It is simply the most amazing example of multiple levels and directions of defense.
 

Carcassone By Evening

There is a special light show at the Keep in the evening. It's creative and entertaining.  On various parts of the keep, images and the history of the castle are presented.
 
 
 
 
Ticket holders get a second tour of the Keep, this time by night.

On exit, Carcassonne by night is on view.
 

Carcassonne First Day

We first saw the vision that is the fortress of Carcassonne perched on it plateau during our first circumnavigation of France in 1996.  Seeing it from the air on the Tour de France, sealed the deal for a visit.  In 2006 we visited but special circumstances precluded our visiting longer or staying overnight.

We've finally made it.  This is a special place and we've made it more special by staying at the Hotel de la Cite, within the old fortress and up against the inner walls.

CJ explores the Keep and fortress walls.
 
 
 
This is a good view of the castle walls.  The picture is taken from the taller inner wall and looking down on the lower outer wall. With the city far below, can't imagine a need for double walls.
 
Within the walls of the fortress is a quaint city with narrow streets, shops, restaurants and lodging. Carcassonne is served by a train station.

We have dinner reservations at a restaurant a few hundred feet from our hotel.
 Foie gras and cassoulet of the region.  Chef has a fine cassoulet preparation.

The route to Carcassone

How does a simple couple of hour drive turn into a day of frustration.  Blend unexpected stops, with  the bad idea of driving during the French August business closures, and a few too many intentional diversions and eventually the day gets away from you and you've lost a half day in Carcassonne and become wickedly frustrated; and hungry.

Before we can get on the road we must pass by Dominique's pharmacy in the cute little village of Cabannes to restock on drugs.
At that point the GPS lady, whose patience we'll try greatly today, takes us on a motorway route and we head north (through Chateauneuf du Pape and Orange) to catch the southbound motorway. In Montpelier, we decide to have a short exploration since we've heard good things about the town in terms of long term visiting and retirement. Far too long later, we've found no quaintness, no parking and no open restaurants.

Vincent was telling us about a seaside place called Sete.  Seeing signs and believing it very close to Montpelier, we give it a go.  It's not close, it is quaint, the restaurants are closed and there is no parking and we've wasted a lot of time and don't have a clue where we are.  CJ heads cross country to Beziers. We pass through the Picpoul de Pinet wine region.  We've more than a few cases of this inexpensive but delicious white wine over the years.

We can't find a single restaurant in any tiny village along the way.  Thankfully CJ has a box of cookies just for such an emergency.

Beziers, a world heritage town, has character and a bull ring but the restaurants are also closed and the town is too spread out.  Narbonne offers up much of the same.

Before we know it, we've made Carcassonne and it's after five.  We find the private hotel car park on the second pass but not before having found ourselves on the other side of the river in downtown modern Carcassonne.

The personal shuttle ride to the hotel is exciting as it weaves its way through the walls and streets of the old city pushing aside tourists by the hundreds.

Bottom line.  We made it.  The hotel is marvelous, dinner is marvelous, even if a bit cold and windy, and the service is top shelf. We order a cheese platter.  The lateness will end up messing up our dinner selections following in less than two hours.

The hotel abuts the interior castle wall and has spacious gardens.
From a raised deck, usually set with a couple of dining tables, one looks directly upon the Keep and has a view of new Carcassonne.
 
Dining is outdoors in the courtyard.  It's windy and chilly causing them to issue the women blankets part way through dinner. Nonetheless, the setting is lovely.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

An afternoon with our French "Son"

On Sunday afternoon we are honored by the arrival of Vincent, our French "Son", and his fiancé.  They have driven up from Marseille to spend the afternoon and have dinner with us.

It's a fine day for relaxing by the pool.  For part of the time we watch as Vincent performs yard maintenance on devices he's installed to catch bugs.
 
Dominique prepares for cocktails.
 
 
Cocktails in the heat send CJ and Christian back to the pool.
 Christian keeps producing one fine dinner and lunch after another from his outdoor wood-fired grill; excellent meats, an outstanding cook, and the perfect cooking tool.  It doesn't get better.
 
 
 Ambiance
Alas, they must drive back to Marseille to work tomorrow.  It's been short but wonderful visit.  We're honored they made the drive to see us.