A Day in Carcassonne

Monday 8th November Carcassonne Hysterical breakfast where we were lined up by a young (and only) waitress before we could start and were told what our options were. It began with cold drinks, hot drinks, egg boiling machine, yogurt and went on all the way around the room. The prunes (from Agen) were last and when I took them to our table to mix into the yogurt I was severely rebuked as this was strictly forbidden. 3 men (English) then wandered in obviously having a wicked weekend and looked suitably jaded, and immediately fell into the same trap. They all had that Land Agent look about them and one it transpires had a house up the Piddle Valley where his wife lives and he spends the week in London. Politeness prevented me from quizzing him further but we’ll work him out in time. After breakfast we set off up the hill to the fort, it was drizzling and there was a bitterly cold wind (we have now learned that it is called the Cers, straight from the snowy Pyrenees) but we were full of excited anticipation and the view from outside the castle walls was full of promise. The ‘castle’ or defended city really is huge and spectacular possibly too huge to appreciate, and it had a very turbulent history. The Romans, Goths, Catheres, (local religion denounced by Rome and massacred in the XVIIIs), followed by the Sarrasins all put their stamp on it and our own Black Prince burnt it down. 1500 years after the Romans, an architect by the name of Monsieur Violett-Le-Duc , without the aid of computer imaging worked out just exactly how it had first been put together and presumably with a substantial grant from the public purse, re-built it as it had originally been. After two hours of fairly intense culture it was time for a hot choc followed by a glass of the local red and then the best bowl of pumpkin soup ever at the restaurant Le St Jean which as luck would have it also had wi-fi so we caught up with a lot! It was too cold to do much except hibernate after that so we finished our books. We have embarked on an internet Spanish course, (a bit too late probably) so we practiced a few of the more important parts of lesson no 1. ie where is the loo, soap, shower, bank etc. We met a couple of fellow travelers from America and an amazing looking couple who were from Scotland, the man wearing shorts of all things, he was probably a postman. We have all our clothes on in layers at the same time. 

And so ended a day of physical recuperation.