Day 18: Le Cite, Carcassone

This morning we wandered around the new city, where there was a market on in Place Carnot.  There seems to always be a market on where ever we visit!

We bought a couple of baguettes, which we ate on the banks of the Aude River and walked through beautiful parkland past an old mill before heading on up to Le Cite for further medieval exploration.

We entered Le Cite via the Aude Gate, which was a reasonable climb.  The city was very strategically placed on high ground, something that the Romans had first appreciated more than 2000 years earlier.
As we made our way past towers and walls, we could see that there were a lot of defences that had been incorporated into the city: towers had slots to allow archers to fire down upon any attackers below who would have been funnelled into smaller and smaller areas as they approached closer to the city, murder holes, portcullises.  Tower after tower, the place seemed pretty much impregnable.  In fact, I don’t think the castle was ever taken by an opposing army.  Any attackers looked at the city and basically gave up before even trying!

What every house should have, a murder hole.

We ordered some crêpes, and while we were waiting I could hear a woman behind me asking the others in her group, “What are they, omelettes?”  I thought the question a little strange, as the sign on the guy’s stall clearly said crêpes, but I turned to her anyway and told her that they were crêpes.
“Oh, do you speak American?” she said.
Umm, what?!?
“No, I speak English” I replied.   Or to be specific, “I speak Australian.”

We did the tour of the palace, which is highly recommended. Lots of detail on the history, the fortifications, and the viscounts that lived there in succession.  From memory, they weren’t liked too much by the people in the city, and basically turned their palace into a fortress within the fortress of Carcassonne to protect from attack from within.

It was mentioned on the audio tour of the palace that under the remains of a church, which was subsequently demolished, some Roman mosaics were discovered.  I explored around, and worked out where it was.  But they weren't accessible, being under a concrete platform. However there were some small holes in the side of the platform which I could just stick the camera through, and I was lucky to be able to catch a photo of them!

We walked around the old city walls, then did the tour of Carcassonne from the Petite Train to get even more history.  We then walked back to the new city where Michelle returned to the apartment while I continued exploring the city and the canal.

We drove up the Le Cite for dinner in the evening, but were unable to get into the Restaurant Adelaide, which Sharon had recommended to us, so instead sat down on the terrace of La Fragrance des Lice.While waiting for out meals to arrive, a lovely black and white cat decided to jump up onto my lap and settle in for the evening!  Priceless.

The waitress didn’t notice him at first, and was startled when she saw him!  She explained that he was a city cat, and he didn’t have an owner and just wandered around from place to place.

He was so gorgeous, and I felt really guilty when I had to ask him to hop down when my meal arrived.
The dinner was a huge improvement over last nights, with very nice Fois gras for entrée and really delicious Duck L’Orange for main. I ordered the soft cheese with fruit puree and honey, not understanding the menu properly as the waitress explained that fruit and honey might be too sweet (I was meant to choose just one).  But she said I could have both if I wanted to.  So I did :-)
Delish!

Getting back home was a bit of an ordeal.  I got down the mountain to the new city OK, but the new city walls are octagonal rather than rectangular, and I lost track of the number of corners I had passed and ended heading off in the opposite direction.  But the GPS got us back home OK, thank goodness!
And as we walked up the stars into our apartment, Edith Piaf's La Vie En Rose was playing full blast from the next apartment.  We are in France!  So awesome!
The evening was spent relaxing and watch the Eurovision 1^st semi final.  I loved Ireland’s song, which didn’t even get through.  I even tried to vote, but the SMS voting from the Eurovision app wouldn’t work.  Probably because I had an Australian mobile number.  I’m pretty sure if my vote had counted that Ireland still wouldn’t have gotten through though.  Tragic :-/

See some more pics of Carcassone via this link.