Day 31 - Carcassonne - Medieval Citadel

August 03, 2018

Today we got up early -- well, if 8:00am is early! We had breakfast, made our usual ham and cheese baguettes for lunch and got ready to go. I have to confess that it's nice to have a car, it is definitely a luxury. We drove directly to Carcassonne to see the medieval city. When we got there and saw the huge city walls from far away, we were all impressed. Gregory found a nice parking spot and then we only had to climb up a short distance. It was only 10:30am and it was hot already. We walked all the way up to the entrance, which was impressive but when we walked in, it was even more impressive to see that there was a whole city inside the walls. Of course, the whole place is full of touristy stores, restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops (which were making a fortune on a day like this!) and more.

It was crowded so we walked to the outer towers that Daniel wanted to climb. There were some stairs but you had to climb up a wall to get to them. Sunshine and Daniel did it and encouraged Gregory and me to climb up to see the view. We did it, I didn't want to think about how I was going to come down, The view of the city and the countryside beyond was breathtaking.

After coming down, we continued our walk and we found the Basilica. We went in to see it and to cool down! It was very similar to what we have seen so far. I was actually surprised to see so much glass. Afer that, we found a medieval museum. I got really excited and told the family that the entrance was going to be my treat of the day. Daniel stayed with me while Gregory and Sunshine went to visit an exhibition of classic rock photos down the street. No comment!

The medieval museum was cute and had activities for kids so Daniel and I had a good time, trying to figure out riddles, playing medieval games like horseshoes, dressing up and seeing how the knights use to live here. We also found out that the place we were in used to be a bar and a bordello.

After lunch, we wandered some more in the medieval streets. I was thrilled to imagine how life was here, hundreds of years ago, and to imagine how the people in town must have known each other well. Inside this medieval fortress was the castle of the count which had its own fortifications. Since we had already climbed stairs and walked around so much already, we decided to skip it and to go find an ice cream store and hide from the sun. The temperature was well over 90 degrees and we could feel it. We found an ice cream shop with air conditioning. I paid for an overpriced bottle of water and again it made me realize what a precious thing water is!

After that, we were all done and decided to go back home. Gregorio found a different exit out of the castle and I'm happy he did because we discovered the amazing art of Felice Varini. The project, called Eccentric Concentric Circles. The monument celebrates the 20th anniversary of the inscription of the city of Carcassonne on the world heritage list of UNESCO.

The following information was found at http://www.carcassonne.org/manifestations/concentriques-excentriques.
The door of Aude
The work is commensurate with the monument, exceptional in scope and visibility. It extends on the western front of the fortifications of the City. The complete perception of the work is done only in front of the Porte d'Aude and invites the public to a real aesthetic experience valuing the pedestrian route from the Bastide to the Cité. The 15 circles of yellow color, constituting the work, unfold from a circle adjusted in the opening of the Porte d'Aude. The drawing spreads in space like a wave, fragmenting and recomposing the geometry of the circles on the towers and curtain walls of the fortifications. This project, among the most important proposed by the artist, is in line with the achievements that engage the landscape, beyond the monument.
We took some cool pictures, descended happily while seeing people going up miserably!
We stop in a little store where the monsieur was super nice. We bought water literally half the price of what we paid inside the castle and my "card postale" (Postcard) for my collection. Since we can't buy or carry much stuff from our trips, I decided to buy a postcard from each place we visit and will then display it on a wall back home!

On our way back home, we found some traffic in the autoroute, so we decided to leave the toll road and drive through the pretty towns of France. It took us a little longer but it was worth it! Sunshine made Gregory stop in one of the many sunflower fields to get some pictures.
We made our usual stop at our usual grocery store called Lidl to get our baguettes for tomorrow's breakfast and lunch. I'm truly enjoying our French breakfast of bread, cheese and "confiture" (jam).
We got home around 6:30pm made dinner, did more laundry and packed our stuff to get ready for our next destination: Bordeaux!