Carcassonne

A repeat. In 1975 it was still beautiful, but less filled with tourists. I can compare because it was the same time of year...mid-Septembr. Then we toured the city and Roger and I sat up on the ramparts gazing out on the countryside. This time there was a fee to walk the ramparts and the old city was filled with tourist shops. Last time there were people practicing Middle Ages crafts, this time tourist shops. We did not eat out, but I can tell you that last time we had a great meal with a bottle of rose. I did not drink much at the time, so it was quite novel and fun.

I still have the hand crafted basket that I bought there...it is in my kitchen.

This time we spent the entire three days looking for information about the walk. You see, there is no information in the USA, and I couldn't even order the book on the internet. Laura purposely booked us in a chamber d'hote with a glowing review by Rick Steves for its friendliness. Hah, tepid and snarky. When the wifi wasn't working, she told me it was because my phone was on airplane mode. I said, 'non,' but she insisted. It turned out they had changed the password. My thought to myself, very chauvinistic, was 'didn't we invent the internet, wifi, iPhone?'

Enough said!

The tourist office lead me in the right direction by sending me to a bookshop to by a book about St Jacques de Compostello. I bought the book, the lady was super sweet and accepting of my limited French.

Later we walked to the old cite and found the other tourist office where they were initially cool. The lady got her assistant to print out a list of places to stay on the pilgrimage and she eventually became very enthusiastic about our trip. Truthfully, in the rest of Carcassone, it seemed like a secret. Anyway, she eventually opened up and told us to go to Notre Dame de l'abbaye. well,that was the golden ticket. They sold us both a 'credential,' a document that you get stamped at each stop to prove you've done it, and reservations for a three course dinne that evening. Okay, so this would be our first, in five days, meal out in France, the culinary capital of the world, so I was all in.

There were only six of us at dinner...Québécois, French (pilgrims) and Brits (an artist couple, he paints royal horses in Kentucky). The dinner was pretty amazing for 13 euros: unlimited wine, leek quiche, salad, bloody steak (huge), and potatoes, and mango cake. Wow!

At any rate, we met one fellow pilgrim, Bridgitte, and one pilgrim at the end of her trip, and learned a few things. Tomorrow we begin.

The lovely ladies at tourist office.

Night view

The bridge