Carcassonne, France. Monday/Wednesday 22/31-July-2024.
Table of Contents:
Monday 22: Fifth leg of this year's interrailing adventure. A long day - eight hours on the train. We took the TGV from Mulhouse to Marseilles (5 hours) then the Bordeaux train as far as Carcassonne. We decided not to rely on there being a buffet car and made ourselves a very nice picnic to have on board.
Our home exchange host very kindly met us at the station and conveyed our luggage to the apartment while we walked (she had a small car and couldn’t fit luggage and us both).
That evening we went for a delicious Japanese meal at Miyagi. It is ages since we were able to dine Japanese so it was a treat to have a bowl of Ramen. They also had Komasa, a Japanese gin that was new to me so I just had to give that a try and it was delicious.
Tuesday 23: We were near the river, close to both the the Cité (old town) and Bastide (new town) so well placed for exploring in either direction. When I say "new" we are talking AD 1160 as opposed to the Roman origins of the old citadel. The first day is always a day to relax and we went for a stroll to explore the Cité up on the hill and had lunch in the tree shaded courtyard of Les Terrasses de la Cite. The route took us over this iconic footbridge.
Then it was back to the apartment for our usual siesta.
Carcassonne has a music festival for the whole of July and, as well as major events in the Cité amphitheatre, there were a number of free events at stages around the new town. After a tasty supper at La Table de Marie recommended by our host we went down to the riverside to watch Natasha St-Pier and her band do a very entertaining set - very Pop/Rock.
Wednesday 24: A day to explore the new town. Mary's hair has been getting a little longer than she liked and she spotted a classy hairdressers that was able to squeeze her in for a trim. Then it was time for lunch at La Petite Café, siesta and then a wander back into town for supper at Le Passage.
Thursday 25: An old friend, Jane, who I have known since primary school has a holiday home about 45 minutes east of Carcassonne. As luck would have it she and her husband, Brock, were there at the time of our visit so they came over and took us on a drive around the area including a visit to the Abbey at Caunes-Minervois dating from the eighth century and noted for its outstanding red marble. If it weren’t for luggage restrictions, Mary would have come away with a beautiful red marble rolling pin!
We then went for supper at Relais Chantovent with an amazing view of the gorge of the River Cesse where Jane and Brock are clearly regulars known to the staff. After an excellent meal, Brock was a hero and drove us back to the apartment while we snoozed in the backseat.
Friday 26: Parkrun is currently suspended in France. It never came back after Covid because of a requirement to have a medical certificate to participate in any competitive events. While that might make sense for races or events like Marathons it is nonsensical for parkrun and contrary to their ethos to be all inclusive. Parkrun HQ are in negotiations with the French authorities to get this requirement lifted.
Originally it looked like we might have to miss a parkrun but Mary spotted that Ryanair fly from Carcassonne to Stansted and that we could fit in a cheeky mid-Carcassonne trip back to the UK on the Friday, stay with our friend Andrea in Witham, fit in a parkrun on the Saturday and fly back on the Sunday. All at reasonable times and at a reasonable price. So that is what we did.
We flew into Stansted, picked up a hire car and drove over to spend the evening with Andrea.
Saturday 27: In the morning we drove over Great Notley near Braintree and got our weekly fix of parkrun.
Then off to the Queen's Head in Maldon for a pub lunch with Andrea followed by a round of crazy golf. That evening we met up with a couple of other friends and went out for an excellent Turkish meal at Astare restaurant in Witham.
Sunday 28: Sunday morning we returned the hire car and had lunch at the airport. We flew back to Carcassonne where we were met by the shuttle bus into town. There are so few flights in and out of Carcassonne that the bus timetable is geared round the flight times! Evening meal was at Cafe de la Comedie where I had the classic regional specialty cassoulet.
Monday 29: The main reason for leaving Cisternino in July and August was to escape the Puglian heat however the heat seemed to follow us around Europe. Carcassonne was predicted to be 38 / 39 °C for our last few days. We do like a river cruise - or in this case canal du Midi cruise. It was a scorching hot day so we thought sitting under the awning with a bit of a breeze would be a good way to pass the mid-afternoon, peak temperature hours.
I did a canal holiday along this stretch many years ago, but so long ago that cruise didn't ring any bells.
The excitement on a canal holiday is going through the locks. The Canal du Midi is a formidable piece of early canal engineering connecting the mediterranean to the Atlantic requiring a fair number of locks to get up over the watershed.
That evening, we dined at Le Bistro D’Alice for another classic French meal.
Tuesday 30: Sting
Partly we came to Carcassonne because we had heard that it was a gorgeous medieval town and partly was to see Sting in concert. We went up to the Cité early to complete the full tourist checklist: we went round the castle and ramparts plus a circuit of the inner wall.
We decided to have a proper restaurant lunch in town followed by an evening snack up in the old city. Another recommendation from our host: we walked half an hour out of town in the blazing heat to Le Jardin De L’Estagnol where they did a “menu complet” for a mere €20. We dined al fresco in a lovely shaded courtyard. We both ordered gazpacho, tuna, and a pineapple dessert, together with a rosé wine that was so pale it looked like a white. The whole meal was delicious and amazing value.
We ordered a taxi back into town as it was too hot to walk. When the taxi company reported back that they were significantly delayed the Madame very kindly gave us a lift into town in her own car.
After a short rest it was time to walk back up the Cité to join the queue for the concert. It was unreserved seats so it was worth getting there early and eat a baguette whilst standing in the queue.
Sting played song after song with very little chat in between. The set was very much drawn from the Police back catalogue with the same power trio lineup of bass, guitar and drums. His voice was holding up well. The full set list can be found on setlist.fm.
Wednesday 31: Fly home into Manchester airport. We had bought train tickets with seat reservations for two hours after we were due to land to allow contingency. As it turned out everything went smoothly and we had time to kill at the station but then the second part of our train journey (from Preston to Penrith) was cancelled. This was the first problem we had on our whole train journey! Rather than risk getting stuck at Preston we bought new tickets and jumped on a train that went direct to Penrith and got home in plenty of time. We have to give credit to Trainline who refunded the price of the whole original journey.
In the words of Frank Sinatra "It's very nice to go trav'ling, But it's, oh, so nice to come home", to sleep in our own bed and look back on our grand adventure.
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