Three years ago, while Steve Barson and I were driving back to Chambéry after Steve had cycled some of the famous mountains of the Pyrenees, we spotted a huge castle in the hills to the east of Toulouse. In the years following, I learned that this castle was called Carcasonne and was a UNISCO World Heritage site. it also happens to be located in the town also called Carcasonne. Huh…Go figure!
Since having seen it from the highway three years ago, I had since wanted to visit it and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. It wasn’t hard to talk the Freemans into it. Mary booked an AirBnB in Carcasonne that was within walking distance to the Castle. But it turns out, it was more than just a castle. It was a complete ancient village similar to Mont Saint Michel, but much bigger and amazingly well preserved. And also just like Mont Saint Michel, the village was full of tourist shops and restaurants although I did not see any hotels within the walls.
We spent most of the afternoon exploring the Village and the area surrounding the castle. It was hot, part of the second major heatwave that hit France for the year, so we had lots of cold beverages and some other treats to cool us off (as much as possible anyway). Nicole and Mary explored some of the many shops looking for gifts for their friends back home while Lee and I walked around along the protective outer wall of the village. We did not go into the castle but saw the outer walls though. It was pretty impressive.
We were getting pretty worn out with the heat of the day beating down on us, so we headed back toward our place,
The next morning, we again walked toward the village, but this time were looking for a place for breakfast before continuing our road trip. We were successful and left Carcasonne with full stomachs.