Today we made our way back into France. Coincidently it was also Bastille day – The French National Day. We knew everywhere in France was going to be busy so we called ahead to a few campsites and found that one said yes, if we just rocked up around 2pm they would fit us in.
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| Mulder takes up position in the camping field |
We headed off with Jim leading us back to France. We arrived in the small town of Trebe outside of Carcassone. The campground à l'ombre des micocouliers, charged us a small fee to camp in their field/minigolf area along with a bunch of other people who arrived for the festivities. Modest accomodation facilities and our first Turkish toilet – I had warned Dave about these J (Basically for those not in the know a Turkish toilet is a squat toilet that you put your feet on designated places on either side of the hole. The toilet can have the tendancy to flush whenever it feels like it, inundating the footholes with water containinng whatever was in the toilet at the time of flushing – FUN).
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| A Turkish toilet for the un-initiated... UltraFUN |
Once we had worked out where everything was we headed into Carcassone, we found a park on the outskirts of town and walked into Le Cite – the Old City. What we found was a spectacular Medieval castle and village. After a 10min squishy trip inside the walls of the old city - we had heard this was bad in tourist season but were hardly prepared for what we experienced – I can’t believe people actually attempted to bring prams in with them!
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| The Outer wall and gate - PS this was the only entry/exit point for the whole place. Makes it easy to defend back in the day but makes it a nightmare for tourists now! |
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| The dreaded cue- although cue would be a nice way to describe it. It was more of a mosh pit turned communal effort to get inside the gate! |
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| We all squish our way into the streets |
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<><><><> | Inner wall and grass area (where a second moat used to be once upon a time) | <><><><> <>
Inside the castle walls we checked out the village stalls, including sampling some glace (icecream) along the way. And visited the Basilica of Nazarius and Celcius – the Cathedral of the Cathars within the city. The cathedral was quite beautiful especially the stained glass windows, which i actually want meant to take photos of but swear I didnt see the sign until we were walking out.
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| The cathedral |
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| One of the many stainglass windows - this was the Rose window Sud (south Rose window) |
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| Hundreds of prayer candles lit in memory of the deaths during the French Revolution |
We decided to stay in Carcassone for the 4 ½ hours until 10 :30pm when the Bastille Day fireworks were due to commence. We hung out near the river and were spoilt with a fantastuc firework display from the castle – a breathtaking backdrop.
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| The castle - WOW! |
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| Reserving a spot for the fireworks |
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| The crowds gathering around the river and Pont Neuf |
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| 2 hours later - more crowds |
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| Wouldnt be very French of us if we weren't drinking wine |
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| The castle at night - sorry about the photo, our camera takes crappy night pics |
The fireworks
All in all a fairly spectacular day and evening – even the wine we shared in the park was pretty awesome !
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