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.