In Carcassonne: The Fortress

October 6, 2023

With no particular schedule for the day, this is the first morning of the trip when we can really sleep in. Eventually the bells ringing from St. Vincent's church every 15 minutes get us moving. By 11:30 we're ready to venture out from our apartment in the Bastide Saint-Louis district to walk to the walled Cité of Carcassonne.

We pass by Raymond Sudre's beautiful sculpture of Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, at the Museum of Fine Arts

The Pont Vieux over the Aude River leads us to the Cité.

The Cité is strategically situated on the main route between the Mediterranan and the Atlantic Ocean. Its history goes back 2,500 years to the Gallo-Roman era in the 6th century B.C.E. The castle, first built in the 11th century, was heavily fortified in the Middle Ages as the lords of the Trencavel dynasty battled for control with the French kings. The formidable defenses of the castle include double-walled ramparts, four gates, and 52 towers.

From the fortress we can just make out the Pyrenees in the distance to the south.

Inside the fortress we take the audio tour. It's a little hard to follow with background music overwhelming the narration, but still cool to walk through the towers and wooden galleries where the castle's defenders launched missiles on their assailants. We spend some time at the small museum in the castle where some of the architectural ornaments found here are displayed.

After our tour, we find lunch in the pretty courtyard at Le Bar de Vins. I'm craving comfort food and order a Croque Monsieur, basically a fancy grilled ham and cheese. The fancy part turns out to be truffles that taste icky on my childhood favorite.

Barry orders a burger "medium-well" with frites. It comes out medium on the outside, bloody on the inside, in a pink bun that looks like it's been stained with beet juice. He might try asking for future burgers to be cooked "bien cuit." Back in Sete that produced a steak cooked to death, but maybe it would work for a hamburger. Then again, we'll be in Spain in four days where the vocabulary is probably different.

The walk back towards our apartment is as interesting as the Cité. There's time to have a look around the neighborhood and wander into a few shops. In a store stocked with treasures for a medieval armory, Barry finds a replacement for his missing pocket knife. We think that one escaped in his tumble down the bank by the canal a couple days ago.

Handsome souvenir of our visit to Carcassonne

Looking back at the fortress from the Pont Vieux

Beautiful windows in St. Michael's Cathedral

We're hoping to get the currency exchange errand done here. I've found only one Banque de France in Carcassonne, a couple blocks from our place. Through the intercom at the door, the receptionist explains that this is an administrative operation only. No banking services, certainly no money exchange. That's puzzling. If you don't do any customer service, what is there to administer? At least we're close to the Monoprix. We pick up a few things for dinner and head back to the apartment, happy to have nothing planned for the rest of the afternoon.

The bell tower of Saint Vincent Church near our apartment

The St. Vincent facade, a tough shot in the narrow streets here

I haven't been able to shift up to the big ring on my bike lately so Barry spends some time adjusting the front derailleur. While I rarely move fast enough to make use of it, it's nice to have on a flat stretch of good road. As I wheel it out to the street for a test ride I discover that another screw that secures the rack is gone, probably shaken out by the gravel of the last couple days. That's an opening for another luggage escape, not to mention a crash hazard.

We're spoiled by an abundance of well-stocked bike shops at home and haven't seen anything like them yet this trip. Rich Frasier recommends the Fun Sports Cycles shop which is still open and not too far away, the same place that tuned up Keith Classen's bike a few days ago.

We would both go, but Barry's front tire is soft again. In the interest of making sure we get the rack back together today he switches wheels with me and heads to the shop. Luckily they have the screw needed, plus tubes, snacks, a new tire for his front wheel and a larger water bottle. Wish I had thought to ask for CO2 cartridges to replace the ones I had to give up at TSA security three weeks ago.

Off to see the bike wizards at Fun Sports Cycles

With my front wheel restored, I take a ride to test the derailleur adjustments and everything clicks into place perfectly. We have a nice space right outside the door to wash off the trail dust, and clean and lube the chain. It feels good to get it all shined up for the next phase of the trip.

Tomorrow we'll roll the bikes onto the train for Bayonne. There's a 14 minute connection in Toulouse that could be tight, but at least we'll have control of our bags for this trip.

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Ginny and Pete DarbyLove Carcassone. We “stumbled” on it years ago on a Friday night during a torrential rainstorm. We ended up eating cassoulet in a bar with lots of locals—and tourists. I convinced the waiter that beer was better than wine to go with cassoulet. No one wanted to go out in the rain, so we stayed in and drank. As the evening progressed, the whole bar ended up toasting different tables and singing La Marseillaise, God Save the Queen and The Star Spangled Banner.
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7 months ago

Janice BranhamTo Ginny and Pete DarbyWow! You two really know how to find the fun
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7 months ago