Have you ever played the board game Carcassonne? Did you know it's one of my very favourites? Did you know it is based on the medieval old city of Carcassonne, France?
We are currently staying with friends in Montpellier. Guess what? It's warm here and we are very happy to be in some warm weather (high of 25C / 70F). Today seemed like a great day to do a day trip to Carcassonne and check it out.
Bonus: there is an "October weekend" train ticket sale going on, because there is a gas shortage with a oil refinery strike, so we were able to secure train tickets for just 1euro each to go, and just 1euro each to come back. The bad news about that was that we had to be up at 5am for a train that left at 6:15am... but it was worth it.
We had our day packs packed up and the train took about 1 hour, 40 min. We walked around the 'lower city' and enjoyed a playground, a church and a second breakfast at a cafe at a cute little square. Then we walked past a beautfiful cathedral and through the Saturday market before making our way across the bridge and into the old city. From the bridge we could see an animal swimming in the water and couldn't decide if it was a mink or a rat or a beaver or a muskrat or just what...
The old city is a double walled fortification with 42 towers and 3km of ramparts around a cute little town of winding streets, shops, cafes and alleys. It's right up there with the most awesome medieval village you could ever visit.
We peeked in the church and then paid entrance tickets to the castle and ramparts, which ended up being quite a walking tour. Ava (and Rachel) had fun pretending to be warriors in battle and shooting arrows out of each crack in the wall at potential invaders as we went along.
After the castle itself we had crepes and smoothies for lunch at a cafe, and then explored the alleyways. Several of the shops sell the board game and all the expansion decks. We learned of a few that we don't own yet!! I was also excited to finish a geocaching 'Adventure Lab' in the old city. We left the old town and walked back into the lower city.
Along the bridge we spent more time watching the swimming animals and learned that they are "coypu" and are a pest to the French. The girls enjoyed watching them for a while.
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| our photos |
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| This photo of a coypou stolen from the internet |
We made our way back to the train station. With our 1euro special, we weren't supposed to leave until 6pm. We decided to train to Narbonne, another cute city about 40 min East of Carcassone, and check it out because we had time before the train back to Montpellier. We saw the beautiful and tall cathedral there, and then tried to find food for supper before catching our train back.
It was a fun day of medieval village exploration. We walked 8.5 miles/13km/ 28,000 steps, and we were tired at the end. I was really happy to see Carcassonne - a village that I'd heard great things about and would DEFINITELY recommend going if you're anywhere in the area.
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