The Medieval City of CarcassonneLeft our lovely country barn in Bordeaux and headed for Carcassonne. It was raining and 17 C when we left and it was not much better 4 hours later. However, the rain had stopped. Checked into our hotel for a 3 night stay and headed to La Cite, the original name of the town, which was a 20 minute walk away. The medieval walled town of Carcassonne was built in the 1300’s over a former Roman fortress. It has 52 towers and 2 rings of town walls giving it 3 km of battlements. It has a population of 120 permanent residents and has several hotels, many restaurants, cafes and shops within its walls. It makes Mont Saint Michel look very small.
We walked around until 7:30pm and stopped for dinner and a nice bottle of their local red wine. After dinner I wanted to take another look at the place all lit up after dark. The wind was blowing and it was definitely wet and cold. After about 5 minutes of walking, Rita wanted to know where her Cashmere sweater was as this was not the weather to be tramping around in summer gear. She was a trooper and managed to make it all the way around before we headed home and what we thought was going to be a good night’s sleep. How wrong we were. The hotel was on a major road junction and our room faced the traffic. After a sleepless night, Rita explained “Life is too short to stay in a bad hotel”. So we decided right then and there to check out and move on. But to where? We dug into our book on Provence that Chris Jones has lent us and found Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Chris had stayed there for a week and wrote little notes saying how she liked the place. We read about the accommodation recommendations and contacted a place that had renovated a convent into a 5 room hotel and restaurant. They had a room for 2 nights, so we booked it, cancelled our room in Carcassone and rerouted our Tom Tom.
The cloudy, wet and cold weather from yesterday had gone and was replaced by a beautiful sunny day with 24C temperatures. We decided to go back to the old walled city for one last visit and spent about 3 hours rediscovering the place with sunshine. It was a totally different experience.
Tomorrow will talk about the “Venice of Provence”, Isle-sur-la-Sorgu
We walked around until 7:30pm and stopped for dinner and a nice bottle of their local red wine. After dinner I wanted to take another look at the place all lit up after dark. The wind was blowing and it was definitely wet and cold. After about 5 minutes of walking, Rita wanted to know where her Cashmere sweater was as this was not the weather to be tramping around in summer gear. She was a trooper and managed to make it all the way around before we headed home and what we thought was going to be a good night’s sleep. How wrong we were. The hotel was on a major road junction and our room faced the traffic. After a sleepless night, Rita explained “Life is too short to stay in a bad hotel”. So we decided right then and there to check out and move on. But to where? We dug into our book on Provence that Chris Jones has lent us and found Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Chris had stayed there for a week and wrote little notes saying how she liked the place. We read about the accommodation recommendations and contacted a place that had renovated a convent into a 5 room hotel and restaurant. They had a room for 2 nights, so we booked it, cancelled our room in Carcassone and rerouted our Tom Tom.
The cloudy, wet and cold weather from yesterday had gone and was replaced by a beautiful sunny day with 24C temperatures. We decided to go back to the old walled city for one last visit and spent about 3 hours rediscovering the place with sunshine. It was a totally different experience.
Tomorrow will talk about the “Venice of Provence”, Isle-sur-la-Sorgu
Rita smiling through the cold and wet inside the walls of old Carcassonne.
Walking between the outside and Inside walls of Carcassonne.
Carcassonne at night 
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