Carcassonne Walled City – 43.20698° N, 2.36622° E

We planned to spend most of the day exploring the walled city. There are two major walls. The first wall surrounds the perimeter of the entire city and the second wall surrounds another smaller area that would be even more difficult to get past.

We sent Bruce & Barb ahead to see if they could get over the first bridge. They were successful so we followed closely behind.

We had explored the “commercial” area of the city the night before so today we focused our attention on the inner wall fortifications & all of the rooms throughout the castle. We had to go over another bridge to get into the second fortified area. Getting past these fortifications would have been extremely difficult “back in the day!”

This was a self guided tour that included the use of personal audio devices with a narrative explaining the history and purpose of each area on the tour. Our first stop was to view a 3-4 minute long 3D animated video showing the entire city. This was exceptionally well done & gives the viewer an excellent overview. The photos below hardly does it justice.

Scene 1 (above)

Scene 2 (above)

Our tour continued in a circle along the top of the fortifications and through a series of towers & rooms – some dedicated to defending the castle and others used as living areas.

There was a lot of climbing up & down staircases. In several spots I was feeling a bit of vertigo – especially walking along the walls between the towers and down some of the very narrow & steep spiral staircases.

Being up so high did have its rewards with some great views of parts of the city of Carcassonne that were in the valley below & outside of the walled city.

We concluded our tour with a stop in the cathedral to view the architecture & the stained glass windows. We were allowed to take photos inside this building so I was not misbehaving getting the shots below 🙂

The stained glass was beautiful – reputed to be some of the oldest surviving originals in southern France.

Catherine really liked the massive bell!

After the tour we were pretty pooped so we headed back to our hotel for a rest & a late lunch.

Later in the evening & after dinner we took a 5 minute walk from our hotel to a great vantage point to see the walled city lit up after dark. Carcassonne is a fascinating city & well worth the effort to come & see it. Tomorrow (Friday) we leave Carcassonne & head to the village of Homps – about a 45 minute taxi ride.

Cheers!

Metropolitan Abbesses Subway Station Entrance – 48° 53′ 04″ N, 2° 20′ 19″ E

Today we leave Paris & travel by train to Carcassonne in the south of France. Carcassonne is almost 800 kilometers south of Paris. The entrance to the subway station is only about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. This is the deepest station in Paris’ entire subway network. Thankfully there were not too many stairs to the ticket area & there was an elevator from there to track level. The ground level entrance is a beautiful example of Art Nouveau architecture & there are only a few entrances of this style in Paris.

Our subway ride to the Gare Montparnasse train station took only about 20 minutes & then we waited another 30 minutes to board our "first" train to Bordeaux St Jean – about 3 hours duration. The station is absolutely massive & extremely busy. Our train was very fast frequently achieving speeds in excess of 300 km/h. It puts Canada’s Via Rail system to shame. We have a lot of catching up to do. The next segment of our train journey to Carcassonne involved a quick transfer to another (slower) train but still very fast & comfortable. We arrived in Carcassonne around 4:00 & took a taxi to our hotel.

Our hotel was located on a small street in an older part of the city with great views of the medieval walled city high on the hill above. After settling into our rooms we walked up to the old city & explored it for a couple of hours before sunset. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site & when you see it it is easy to understand why. It’s like something out of a storybook.

There are two sets of walls surrounding the city. The first set surrounds the main city area & the second set surrounds the main "castle" area.

Once inside the city walls most of the buildings around the perimeter of the inner walls are dedicated to tourism shopping, souvenirs & food services. We were not very interested in shopping, etc. but really enjoyed the architecture.

We are really looking forward to having a much closer look tomorrow (Thursday, September 8).

Cheers!

Paris Cafe Bruant: 48°53′8″ N 2°20′7″ E

After a reasonable night’s sleep we were ready to start exploring the Montmartre area of Paris. First on the agenda was some breakfast. There weren’t any Tim Horton’s showing up on Google maps so we “settled for” fantastic coffee & fresh croissants at a sidewalk cafe just a few steps away from our hotel. Sorry Tim’s but we could very quickly get used to this French routine!

We lingered at the cafe for quite a while just enjoying our surroundings & people watching. Also wondering if we looked like locals or like the jet-lagged Anglos that we really are.

Our friends Barb & Bruce we’re staying at a place just a 10 minute walk from our hotel so we set out to rendezvous with them. Bruce is absent in the photo below because he was the photographer!

Our guide books suggested an interesting walking tour of the area so we set out to see the sights.

There are several well preserved windmills in the area that looked somewhat out of place but we learned that they were used to grind gypsum that was quarried throughout the area & used for building.

The architecture in this area is very interesting & attractive. Lots of photo opportunities.

I was also interested to see how much care was taken to blend the water tower into its surroundings.

We stopped at the Musee de Montmartre which had a lot of displays about famous painters Renoir & Suzanne Valadon. She was a model for several famous French painters & an accomplished artist in her own right. The photo below shows a recreation of Suzanne’s studio in the museum which in the house where she actually lived.

Our final objective on the sightseeing tour was the Basilica of the Sacred Heart which was located at the “top” of the mountain. This was opened in 1875 and overlooks Paris. It is beautiful inside – sorry, no photography allowed – & the views of the city were fantastic. It was well worth the climb!

We enjoyed the vista of the city below but unfortunately there was a bit of a haze in the air so it was hard to spot the iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower & Arc de Triomphe

By this time we were all running out of steam & ready for a bit of a rest. Thankfully it was mostly downhill back to our to hotels.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning we take the train from Paris to Carcassonne!

Cheers!

Our adventure in France has finally begun!

Hotel Audran, Paris – 48°53′6″ N 2°20′10″ E

For several years Catherine & I had talked about doing some road traveling & canal cruising in France but the pandemic had forced us into a long delay.

With Covid-19 finally in the rear view mirror we started making plans last fall. Early in December we shared our thoughts with our longtime friends Bruce & Barb from Winnipeg & asked them if they would like to join us for a wee cruise. They had spent time with us on Santosha on the Rideau Canal so they were “on board” right away to join us in France & we started the process of transitioning from an idea to a solid plan.

After considering a lot of cruising options we finally settled on a 1-week self driving charter boat cruise on a portion of the Canal du Midi – beginning in Argens (near Carcassonne) & ending in Lattes (near Montpellier). Our adventure would begin with a meetup with Bruce & Barb in Paris.

On September 3 we departed from London airport on an Air Canada flight to Toronto & then connected with a direct flight to Paris. We were a bit concerned about making our connection but we had a 3 hour layover in Toronto so what could go wrong?.

Our flight from London departed on time & we found our next departure gate in Toronto with plenty of time to spare. With less than an hour to go before boarding time Air Canada announced that there would be a short delay while some unscheduled maintenance was done to the plane. A forty-five minute delay extended another 90 minutes and then was extended for another 90 minutes. Then, after finally boarding the plane we were delayed another 90 minutes while Air Canada sorted out a luggage problem! This was not a good start to our adventure but at least we didn’t miss our plane!

We finally arrived in Paris on Monday afternoon local time – almost 6 hours later than our original plan. We had no energy left so we went to our hotel in the Mont Martre area of Paris & tried to sleep off our jet lag. Tomorrow we meet up with Bruce & Barb & do some exploring in Mont Martre.