Carcassonne

We wanted to get out last weekend, so we decided to go on a last minute road trip to someplace new. We chose the Cité de Carcassonne, which is a medieval town about 4 hours west of where we live. 

Yes, there is a board game named after this city. And no, I will never play it. I don't like playing games that take longer than 2 minutes to explain.

We drove to Carcassonne Saturday morning and were walking up to these gates by 3 in the afternoon. 

Our first stop was to tour the castle and ramparts. It was a nice surprise that it was free for David. He’s still young (under 25) for a few more short weeks. It's good to milk that while he can until he's aged like me.

There wasn’t much to see inside, so we spent most of our time walking along the ramparts and navigating extremely steep and uneven spiral staircases. All views turned out to be totally worth putting our lives in the hands of medieval architects.

The St. Nazaire basilica was next door to the castle. I liked the outside more than the inside, but the stained glass was nice.

This westie hanging out near the church was even nicer. I know it's weird, but I can't help taking stalker pictures whenever I see a European westie. I might miss my puppy a little bit.

Next, we headed outside the city walls to an old bridge- literally called the Pont Vieux. From there we could see the Carcassonne skyline pretty well. Can you call it a skyline when you're talking about a fortress and not skyscrapers? I'll just go with it.

I learned that in 1849 the French government decided to tear this down! Thankfully, that didn't happen and it was restored instead. 

We both enjoyed seeing this beautiful place. Whenever I see fairy tale places like this, the 4 year old me that I still am on the inside is filled with happiness.

If anyone's interested, I also wrote about some French culture and geography that I learned from David here.