Friday 10.22.2010


In the Car to Carcassonne

It’s cold this morning, but not like yesterday. In spite of our early night last night we sleep even later this morning and it is almost 10:00 by the time we get down for breakfast. Our belief is the later, the better for Alison.

Singapore honeymooners Audrey and Will are even later than us and we get a chance to chat for a while over croissants and dogs. She is in investment banking and he is in business development for Citibank so they’re a couple smart cookies. They are on a whirlwind tour of France so will pass us tonight in Carcassonne and then on to Marseilles, Nice and off to points north. They get one quick peek at everything.


We, on the other hand, are meandering down the road for about four hours and then parking again for a couple nights. We kiss-kiss with Alison, swap business cards with Will and Audrey (they have real ones) in case we’re ever in Singapore, and program Monique to take us the long way to Carcassonne. The first couple hours are the best nosing our way once again through farms, vineyards and villages. The roads get bigger with more traffic as we get near Toulouse and the fun level drops a few notches.

There are no major protests today in Toulouse and our understanding is that the big disruptions are dying down although we see many closed gas stations and signs limiting gas purchases. We sort of dodge the main parts of the city, pass the Airbus facility and bounce out through the burbs continuing southeast. Some American traveler in Europe once described McDonalds as McToilet since it was always a dependable spot for a necessary break. We combine the McToilet portion with a McChicken sandwich with fries for lunch, but it sure doesn’t feel like home.

We can begin to see mountains in the distance as we near our destination. There is an open gas station and even though we can make Spain a couple different ways on Sunday, we think it is a good idea to top off one more time. Now we’re good for 500 miles and we can go anywhere.


Rick Steves describes Carcassonne as the best example of a walled city in Europe and Monique drops us at our B&B right outside the castle walls. The place is cute as can be with three guest suites, a good but cold looking pool and great views of the city walls. Our new home was built in 1980 as opposed to 980 so it is a far cry from some of our previous stops. Our bathroom is bigger than many rooms we have stayed in and the 8-jet shower is especially intriguing.

Our host Benoit makes a dinner reservation for us at Le Jean for 8:00, so after a brief break we take the five minute walk into the old city to nose around for an hour or two. After passing over a real-live drawbridge, we are immediately lost in the twisting narrow stone streets and we really don’t care—it’s fun and the town isn’t that big. After a reasonable period of lost time we pull up a couple chairs in an outdoor square, order a couple beers and get out the map to find ourselves. Our restaurant is only a couple blocks away, and even then we still have to ask for some last minute directions. Monsieur tells us to take the first “droit” and then the next “gauche” and off we go, we think.


Ne pas problem. We are seated immediately adjoining a group of about 30 Japanese businessmen (in a forty seat restaurant) with an emphasis on men. They are swilling wine and having a lot of noisy fun. The good news is that they are almost done and we are peaceful within fifteen minutes. If we are what we eat Mary will be swimming up an Alaskan river sometime next spring. Once again she has the salmon dinner. John has been looking forward to this part of France as the home of cassoulet, a pork and white bean stew that is really very tasty, and he gets the big bowl. Unfortunately he thinks that the Japanese fellows ordered 30 helpings of cassoulet and only 29 showed up leaving the last one in the oven for him. There is a whole sausage on top that has turned to stone on the outside and the rest is a bit mushy. It’s too bad because it had whole ribs and big chunks of meat that could have been a real treat. Better luck next time.


There is a full moon as we leave the beautifully lit old city, which makes for a very spectacular memory. We try to take some pictures from “our” yard when we get back but of course can’t do it justice. This is a pretty nice last memory of France.

Off to our suite.

Today’s weather: Sunny and cool. Low 38, high 65.