Exploring Carcassonne: a day off the bikes

October 29, 2009

Weather: very warm and sunny, wore shorts

We woke up early and walked over to la Cité at 7:30 before breakfast, when everything was closed, the streets were empty of people, and atmospheric fog lingered here and there--pretty amazing to have the place to ourselves! Then we wandered through the historic cemetery right next to the city walls, with big family tombs and lots of photos and fresh flowers. Around 9:00 we returned to the chambre d'hote for a generous continental breakfast, served in a glassed-in pavilion. The only other guests were a young couple from Rugby, England, who were staying for 6 nights.

Early on a foggy morning inside we were the only tourists around.

A dense fog, a cemetery, and a looming fortress provided all the atmosphere you could want.

Benoit suggested that we tour the viscount's palace in la Cité, which turned out to be well worth the nominal entrance fee. A short film with English subtitles provided useful historical background, and there were beautiful views of the surrounding countryside as we walked the inner ramparts. We had a great salad lunch back at Restaurant St. Jean, this time outside with a view of the viscount's palace beside us. The weather was so warm and sunny, that it felt like summer.

We enjoyed surprisingly good food at several restaurants right inside the citadel.

It's a long walk around the cite between the inner and outer walls, and very few people were exploring the area when we were there.

The view from the ramparts toward the Pyrenees off to the southwest.

In the afternoon we walked through the Bastide--the old part of Carcassonne outside the walled city, but we didn't like it much--there was too much traffic, narrow sidewalks and shops. We were glad that we had stayed uphill in a quieter area and so close to La Cité. After a rest in our room we went to dinner at another restaurant inside the walls where we tried our first taste of a local specialty, salade avec gesiers (duck gizzards) and found to our surprise that we liked them!

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