France, pt. six

Due to high traffic predictions, and the coolness of the town where we were staying, we chose to stay put and tour Carcasonne for Tuesday, Bastille Day. Carcasonne boasts the largest fireworks display in all of France. But it also has one of the most restored castles in the area.

All the cool castles charge admission, but we didn't come all that way just to look at the outside. True, we drove to many castles on this trip, and some of them were accessed by a long, uphill climb. We usually drove to those, and then chose whether or not to pay to enter. Even ruins can look cool, but the restored castles were more up Mom's alley. Good thing we chose Carcasonne.

The city of Carcasonne is directly next to the Medieval Cité. I'm a bit rusty on my history, but I think the castle in the Medieval part was built around 1100-1200 in stages, and surrounded by two complete ramparts. The outer ring was built at a different time than the inner walls, and the narrow twisted streets became filled with city amenities like tanners and bakers and such. Currently, it houses shops and museums and restaurants, plus a hotel or two, such as the one pictured here. We wondered how you can drive up to it and park, since the town is entirely pedestrian. At times, the surrounding town (the Carcasonne area) was razed to the ground (almost completely) to rebuild a tighter controlled area.

The other picture is from a confectioner's store, where they had expensive and beautiful piles of cookies. So nice! We were all waiting on Sean to make a purchase across the way, and someone was giving away samples in this shop of these cookies; we were like moths to the flame! I would have bought some but they were super expensive. The free ones tastes great! However, Sean did not get to see or partake, as he did not see me wave to him from the store.

This last random picture was taken by my Dad. We spotted this kid in line for admission to the castle and thought it looked just like Chris circa 1982.