We were doing the region injustice by just spending a night here. But well...our focus was on the ROAD-trip within 2 weeks.
I was introduced by a friend on "workaway" programs after this trip, and realised that I might have missed out a little in this region. I've chosen Carcassonne for a night stop before proceeding to the Provence region the next morning.
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| The new town of Carcassonne. Besides for the tourist office that is useful, it is just another town, with no activities after 6pm. Limited dining options too. |
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| View of Carcassonne Cité from Pont Vieux. Pont Vieux is a pedestrian bridge linking the new town and the old Cité. This place is a good alternative to park if you want to explore both the old and new town. |
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| A Michelin mascot at the entrance to the Cité. Look out for cars going through. |
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| Dame Carcas - She is a legendary heroine who defended the Cité. After she foiled the enemy's siege, the Cité sounded the bells ("sonne") to celebrate. Hence, the name Carcas-sonne. This is of course a new replica, the original is housed in the Chateau. |
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| One of the towers at the outer ring wall |
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| One of the many "loopholes" at the outer ring to shoot arrows. When I was watching Lord of the Rings, I've been wondering why those guys on the ramparts never get killed when they fire arrows. Mystery solved now. |
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| The area between the inner and outer walls is called the Lice. You'll see lots of signs in the Cité guiding you to the "Lice" for a good view of the plains. Cars actually come in and go on the Lice to access the Cité too. The hole that I just passed in the picture goes underground, I'm guessing that it could be a hidden access to the other side of the wall. |
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| The Michelin mascot hesitating to walk further... |
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| A bird told me that I should just continue walking... |
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| Breathtaking view of the plains from the outer wall. The outer wall is not the highest point in the Cité, but we could already see very far. I was standing here and imagining myself as a watchman, looking out for enemies coming on from afar. |
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| The cathedral inside the Cité |
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| A mechanical control for the organ above |
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| The medieval roof arches and stained glass |
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| These are sun dials that the shops are selling. I'll get this if I have a big garden. |
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| We had enough of the royal families' lavish apartments in Paris, this Chateau interests us as it presents more on medieval warfare. Unfortunately, we arrived a little too late to go in. Nonetheless, it was interesting to know (from an explanation panel at the Chateau's entrance) how foolproof the defences were. |
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| Where I'm standing used to be a part-draw bridge. Pardon my messy hair, there was a mini tornado in the Cité. |
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| The hoard and the moat at the Chateau. Imagining scenes of intruders being stoned and shot, bloody bodies falling off the bridge into the moat, and then eaten by crocodiles...Eh, the crocodiles are my own imaginations adopted from fairy tales. |
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| This was what the villagers saw on a daily basis, without the houses. |
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| This looks like one of those medieval scenes I saw in the movies. |
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| This is an eerie night scene |
Food and Accommodation
We stayed at Hotel F1 that is 6mins away from the Cité by car. For 30 Euros/night, it is cheap and good for a night's stay. Nothing more though. There are no attached bath/toilet, only a wash basin in your room. The baths and toilets are communal, but clean and modern. Down side is that the toilets have no wash basin, so after your "business", you'll have to go back to your room to wash your hands. No other problems if you don't have the habit of washing hands though. Don't expect too much help from the reception, as they are non-existent after 10pm. I prepared some ear-plugs which were very useful for our trip. The corridors can get noisy in the middle of the night due to the communal toilets. In the morning, poo before everyone finish their breakfast. The toilets were so busy after 9am, that the Student has to hold his poo till we reached the next destination.
There is a Centre-Commercial 3mins away, get your cheapo fuel and backups from Carrefour before you hit the road again.
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| Tiny room for 2+1. The bed above is kids' size |
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| Key-less access to the room |
Forget about dinner near the hotel and in the new town, Carcasonne Cité has the most variety. We had the impression that the Cité could be more expensive for dinner, but it turns out that it is more reasonable than the new town.
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| A satisfying dinner in the Cité. This is a delightful after dinner treat. The sugar is still burning when it was served, and the vanilla taste was so fragrant. I don't suspect any vanilla essence, because I can still see fragments of the vanilla stalk, and we are in France! |
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