Medieval France (Thursday 18th July 2013)

Today we stepped back in time to medieval France through the gates of La Cité, the restored walled town within the city of Carcassonne. This visit was high on my list of “must do's” on our visit to France. Carcassonne is in Aude, only 45 minutes drive from Talairan in the Corbieres, both within within the region (State) of Langedoc-Rousellin. Sort of like Bendigo in Central Victoria is to Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley.

Anyway, enough geography. La Cite is massive. It is exactly as I had pictured such a place when I was in my early years of secondary school, studying medieval history. The whole town is surrounded entirely by a very high stone wall, complete with towers and turrets all the way around. There is even a draw-bridge over a wide moat – which is devoid of any water. The major buildings within the walls are the Basilica and the Château, the place where the Viscount lived. Amazingly, to provide further protection to the Viscount, the Château is a walled city within the walled city also surrounded by a moat!

We toured the Château which started with a video presentation of the history of La Cite and its restoration which provided a good background to rest of the informative, self-guided tour. The first buildings on the site went back to the Roman fortress built there. A real highlight was in the Museum which included a real, genuine Roman milestone. The Romans placed one of these stones every 1472 metres, the distance of a Roman mile. It's great when things which are still in our daily language are brought to life.

We left the Château and its ramparts and headed for the streets of the town. As one might imagine the town is a labyrinth of narrow cobble-stoned lanes and alleys with the occasional Place where the community would meet. La Cite grew and prospered because of its position on the trade routes from Toulouse to the Mediterranean. Nothing has changed today. The shops might sell different merchandise (Android tablets instead of writing tablets) but the purpose is the same as it was centuries ago. It was easy to imagine life in the city in ages long gone.

Did I say shops? The girls found them without any trouble. The shops were largely stocked with quality items, mostly jewelry and clothes, or items at the other end of the market, that is, tacky plastic swords, helmets and shields. I think every child had a plastic sword or a plastic axe in their hands. The girls bought some items from the former end of the scale. The other business that was in abundance was the restaurant business. I reckon there are more restaurants per square kilometre within the city walls than anywhere else on earth! Despite the wide choice we searched out one called L'Ostal des Troubadour, recommended by Peter. The girls had spaghetti carbonara and I had a delicious local cassolet (casserole) of pork sausages, duck, onion and beans. Yum! Kerry and I followed up with a crepe and a cafe

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We left La Cite and went down to the old part of Carcassonne, the Bastide, in search of shorts for Emily. We were unsuccessful so the search will continue in another city. Back to Talairan for our regular catchup with Peter at the La Talairane bar. He introduced us to Anna and her son Felix from the town. We must be becoming regulars for when we went to pay after a few rounds the bar owner, the lovely Sylvie, insisted we not pay. Went home to a nice lasagne and salad and off to bed for an early start tomorrow – a train ride through the Pyrenees.

BTW... I've added some photos to the previous couple of posts.