One Day in Carcassonne (12)

Given our late arrival, and the fact that Mum had scored a deal on an executive room, we decided to sleep in.  Plus, it was raining.  It'd have been rude not to.

We had breakfast in the hotel bar, and then trekked up to the fortified village.  Well, actually, we were staying in the Mercure Carcassonne Porte de la Cité, which is so close that it was really more of a stroll.

So, Carcassonne...  I will put a bit more history in another entry, but here is a very brief summary of why it is a cool place:

• It boasts 2500 years of history.
• It used to be a really important city for trade, due to it's handy location between Toulouse and Narbonne.
• It has withstood sieges, namely during the crusades against the Albigensians/Cathars.
• It's a UNESCO World Heritage site.
• It will remind you of this Monty Python sketch.

Café Le Trouvère: we got a great daily menu here.

After a wee wander around the narrow, stone-paved streets, we decided it would be good to have lunch.  I'd mentioned cassoulet to Dad, who was absolutely determined to try something very French, and he had become dead set on getting some.  Carcassonne is definitely the place for this, by the way.  It's very close to Castelnaudary, which is the home of cassoulet.

Not the restaurant we went to, but some info about cassoulet (and a very cool sign).

We made a couple of enquiries, and made what turned out to be an excellent choice in deciding to go to Le Trouvère.  We got a 3-course menu for 12€90, and felt like we were having a really French experience: onion soup, goat cheese salad, cassoulet... Being a kind of casserole full of various kinds of meat, and white beans, the latter was perfect for the grey, chilly, wet day.

Cassoulet?  Yes, please... x3!

What's more, the waiter was a total hard-case who kept us entertained by guessing who each meal was for (very difficult on the 2nd course, when it was 3x cassoulet... pourtant il a trouvé), mysteriously running off with our bottle of wine (he claims it needed to be changed, but we still accused him of taking it to drink for himself), and telling us he was just waiting a bit longer to bring the bill because he didn't want us to go.  That was ok... we weren't in a hurry to go back out into the rain!

The one really random thing about this restaurant, however, was that people were coming in with their dogs. And not just little ones, either.  I guess they really are a (French)man's best friend.

Inside the castle of the walled city of Carcassonne.

Looking down from the castle walls, Carcassonne.

One cannot go to Carcassonne without seeing the castle, so Ma and Pa headed off there.  Tour Leader was given some break time, as she had seen the castle on a previous visit, and did not feel like paying again, despite the fact that it was cool walking around the walls.  Besides, it hadn't really measured up to the Château de Pau, in her mind.  So, instead, she went for a rather wet wander around the perimeter of the walled city.

Looking out of the walls of the cité of Carcassonne.

In another attempt to escape the somewhat average day, we had some tartes, coffee, and a diabolo (lemonade and syrup mixture - just to be French).

Kingi, our mascot, getting in with the Ricard Pastis.

And then we had another hour or so that we didn't know what to do with... so we drank Pastis (aniseed liqueur from Marseille) with orgéat (barley syrup) by the fire in our hotel.

Admittedly, not my photo (thanks NiceMatin.com), but pretty much what we arrived to.

When we got to the train station, we discovered that there was a delay.  Brilliant.  AGAIN!  I don't know how I got through half a year in France thinking 'people complain a lot about the SNCF, but I've never really had problems with them,' yet had two significant delays in two days when I tried to travel with my parents.  Long story short, after lots of enquiries and phone calls, we organised our way onto another train.  It may have made us miss the connecting train from Toulouse, therefore requiring us to wait around for an hour there, but never mind.

Saint Gaudens: war memorial and Collegiate church.

What was important was the we got to St Gaudens - and we did!  We even ended up with an English-speaking taxi driver (something I would never have expected in that town), and greatly appreciated our cup of tea with Anne-Marie, our host for the St Go leg of the tour.