Carcassonne

Saturday 11 August 2018

Breakfast is included at our hostel so we started the day well with a well catered spread. Headed straight out for a wander around after breakfast before the tourists arrived. It’s a really lovely old town with lots to see and some great little shops.

We were at the gates when the castle opened and headed in with the first wave of visitors. Great castle with heaps to see and a really interesting history. Neither mum or I thought we’d be keen to attack the castle with its three walls of defence and different rooms and mechanisms for each of the portcullises incase a soldier was bribed to join the enemy. Great moat too!

Once you’d seen the castle there were two directions you could walk around the castle walls. We did the red route first which came out a fair way from the castle.we had crepes for lunch after coming off the walls and then headed down to the main town to have a look and find a supermarket for some dinner supplies. Found the main road which was absolutely covered with umbrellas overhead, a really pretty effect and a lovely way to shield the road from the sun.

Found a supermarket and got pasta, pesto, cheese, biscuits and cheap (cheaper than the restaurants anyway) beer and wine. Sat and ate some more of our lovely cherries from the Barcelona market in the town square and then headed back to the castle town. Made the most of our full day castle ticket and headed up the other side of the castle walls (green route). We enjoyed this route more than the other one as it had much more interesting towers and views. Did a bit of shopping after this, there are way too many lovely things to buy in Carcassonne and then headed back to the hostel for pre dinner drinks. Pesto pasta for dinner as we watched the kids at the hostel attempt to play table tennis, very amusing! If my French was a bit better I would have asked to play but I didn’t have the right words.