Part 2 -SW France
Sep 17th, 2005, 05:52 AM
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Part 2 -SW France
Due to a jetlag oops, I posted the first part of this report on the Europe board. This site is more appropriate. Sorry.
Sunday, Sept. 4
Collioure-Carcassonne
We had a 7:30 wake-up call because we knew this would be a long day and I wanted to spend a little more time here in Collioure. It was a very foggy day and there was perfect calm along the seaside. Again, we found a nice boulangerie and picked out some scrumptious croissants and rolls and headed to the seaside where we were again able to get some coffee and enjoy watching the fog along the water. Locals went for their early morning swims and then off to the rest of their day.
As we were getting ready to leave they were setting up for the local market. There was a colorful tables and umbrellas with the usual array of items. We did find a great tablecloth and my DH succombed to buying some cut-off pants that I've been wanting him to get.
We left wonderful Collioure about 10am. Our first stop was the lovely Catalan town of Ceret. The Catalan colors of red and gold were everywhere. This seemed to be a very handy base town to explore the Pyrenees area and also had lots of charm.
We continued on the road and after some difficulty found our way to Les Orgues, "the Organ Pipes"- just north of Ille-sur-tet. The geological formation of the mountain is quite spectacular. This is definitely worth visiting.
We continued on towards our lunch stop in the tiny hilltop village of Eus. We hoped that there would be a restaurant but weren't sure. We parked the car very low down on the hill because these streets were built to accommodate burros-not cars. Following our instincts, we climbed and climbed streets of steps to the top of the village guessing that this would be a logical place for a restaurant. Voila- there it was. A tiny mom & pop place served lunch outside at the top of the village and provided a very nice panoramic view. The owner thought he was some kind of entertainer and we really enjoyed his antics. We had a delightful lunch There were 2 choices- meat or fish. We chose the meat and were not disappointed. He explained that the platter consisted of all local recipes. There was a mixed grill, and rice topped with a salad. A nice little glass of wine and I was all set. We spent a little time exploring this tiny village and hoped that we would find our car on the way back. We didn't know if we had parked legally. But, success. It was there
Now it was on to the Gorge of Galmus. This was a very, very difficult trek. There were about 40 miles of twisting and turning high mountain roads with sheer drops. There was no relief. Also, there were no signs of people nor animals for many of these miles. I couldn't imagine how difficult it was for DH to drive. After a while, I just closed my eyes and kept thinking, are we there yet. Finally, we did see a few villages. At this point the driving wasn't quite as difficult. There were constant switchbacks but they weren't as tight and the cliffs not as steep.
After a couple of hours, we were rewarded with the spectacular views of the gorge. A hermitage was built into the cliff a ways down from the top of the mountain. I can't envision how this was done. We walked down many flights of steps and through a tunnel in order to find the gorge water and the hermitage. I would recommend going there if you don't mind this kind of driving. It took it's toll on us, especially DH.
Now we still had a few more hrs. to get to Carcassoonne. We passed through some pretty towns- one of which was having a town festival/carnival. We also passed the mountain top Cathar castle @ Arques ( I think)-very dramatic. It would've been great to have the time to stop.
Finally, we spotted the citadel of Carcassonne. We were thrilled. The staff of the Hotel de la Cite met us just inside the citadel walls and led us up to the hotel. We told them to park the car. My husband didn't want to look at it for a day! We explored the town, the largest, fortified intact town in Europe. We made dinner reservations at the garden terrace of the hotel. It was all lit by candles and the weather was perfect. In fact, it had been perfect all week. We enjoyed a nice bottle of local wine. It was a fun evening. After dinner we sought out chocolate. We settled for chocolate mousse at a nearby creperie. This worked. By this time we were exhausted but had had a great time.
Monday, Sept. 5
We altered the planned itinerary for the day because DH needed a no drive day. After the usual bread and coffee breakfast we took the 10:45am tour of the Chateau Comtal. This is the heart of Carcassonne. It was a short (45 min.) tour,in English. We felt it was well worth the time. Carcassonne is quite impressive if you can get past the tacky shops. It's a shame they decided to allow the town to
go in that direction. Fifty people still live here.
There's been a lot of pro/con discussion about Carcassonne. For me, with an M.A. in Modern European History, I haven't met a castle that I don't like. With a little imagination you can envision what life was like in feudal times. It's fascinating. For those who may not be avid castle fans, you may not appreciate this as much. I also am not bothered by the fact that much of this is a restoration with some features that are not authentic. It provides the spirit of what was. My husband who isn't a castle groupie, found Carcassonne to be very unique. He truly enjoyed it. In Sept. it wasn't very crowded. At night you hardly saw anyone. In Sept. you also miss the opportunities to enjoy their sound and light shows which we enjoyed in the past in the Loire Valley.
After the tour we shopped and poked around. It was very cloudy and looked like we would have a storm. We decided to have lunch and went to the Cassoulet de Castelnaudary to try the cassoulet. This is a white bean dish with pieces of pork and duck. It's very tasty but a bit greasy. Service here was excedingly slow and it turned out to be a very leisurely lunch.
Afterwards, we decided to walk offf some of our calories and walked down from the citadel into the town of Carcassonne. It was a very steep descent. We found a tributary to the Aude River and walked along the path for a couple of miles or more. We started to cross the bridge in town to walk on the other side of the river when we heard thunder. It had also turned quite dark. We very hurriedly climbed back up to the safety of the citadel just as we saw some lightening. We were fortunate enough to get back into our hotel just as it began to pour.
This was the beginning of a lot of rainy and cloudy weather for us. That night we went to the Brasserie Donjon for dinner. We spent the evening talking with a British couple who were artists/teachers and enjoyed a larger and more leisurely meal due to all the lightening. (When you live in NC you learn quickly to respect lightening.) We shared a salad, tagliatelle and white wine. All were quite good but the chocolate cake was wonderful.
I hope that this report helps. More to come.
Sunday, Sept. 4
Collioure-Carcassonne
We had a 7:30 wake-up call because we knew this would be a long day and I wanted to spend a little more time here in Collioure. It was a very foggy day and there was perfect calm along the seaside. Again, we found a nice boulangerie and picked out some scrumptious croissants and rolls and headed to the seaside where we were again able to get some coffee and enjoy watching the fog along the water. Locals went for their early morning swims and then off to the rest of their day.
As we were getting ready to leave they were setting up for the local market. There was a colorful tables and umbrellas with the usual array of items. We did find a great tablecloth and my DH succombed to buying some cut-off pants that I've been wanting him to get.
We left wonderful Collioure about 10am. Our first stop was the lovely Catalan town of Ceret. The Catalan colors of red and gold were everywhere. This seemed to be a very handy base town to explore the Pyrenees area and also had lots of charm.
We continued on the road and after some difficulty found our way to Les Orgues, "the Organ Pipes"- just north of Ille-sur-tet. The geological formation of the mountain is quite spectacular. This is definitely worth visiting.
We continued on towards our lunch stop in the tiny hilltop village of Eus. We hoped that there would be a restaurant but weren't sure. We parked the car very low down on the hill because these streets were built to accommodate burros-not cars. Following our instincts, we climbed and climbed streets of steps to the top of the village guessing that this would be a logical place for a restaurant. Voila- there it was. A tiny mom & pop place served lunch outside at the top of the village and provided a very nice panoramic view. The owner thought he was some kind of entertainer and we really enjoyed his antics. We had a delightful lunch There were 2 choices- meat or fish. We chose the meat and were not disappointed. He explained that the platter consisted of all local recipes. There was a mixed grill, and rice topped with a salad. A nice little glass of wine and I was all set. We spent a little time exploring this tiny village and hoped that we would find our car on the way back. We didn't know if we had parked legally. But, success. It was there
Now it was on to the Gorge of Galmus. This was a very, very difficult trek. There were about 40 miles of twisting and turning high mountain roads with sheer drops. There was no relief. Also, there were no signs of people nor animals for many of these miles. I couldn't imagine how difficult it was for DH to drive. After a while, I just closed my eyes and kept thinking, are we there yet. Finally, we did see a few villages. At this point the driving wasn't quite as difficult. There were constant switchbacks but they weren't as tight and the cliffs not as steep.
After a couple of hours, we were rewarded with the spectacular views of the gorge. A hermitage was built into the cliff a ways down from the top of the mountain. I can't envision how this was done. We walked down many flights of steps and through a tunnel in order to find the gorge water and the hermitage. I would recommend going there if you don't mind this kind of driving. It took it's toll on us, especially DH.
Now we still had a few more hrs. to get to Carcassoonne. We passed through some pretty towns- one of which was having a town festival/carnival. We also passed the mountain top Cathar castle @ Arques ( I think)-very dramatic. It would've been great to have the time to stop.
Finally, we spotted the citadel of Carcassonne. We were thrilled. The staff of the Hotel de la Cite met us just inside the citadel walls and led us up to the hotel. We told them to park the car. My husband didn't want to look at it for a day! We explored the town, the largest, fortified intact town in Europe. We made dinner reservations at the garden terrace of the hotel. It was all lit by candles and the weather was perfect. In fact, it had been perfect all week. We enjoyed a nice bottle of local wine. It was a fun evening. After dinner we sought out chocolate. We settled for chocolate mousse at a nearby creperie. This worked. By this time we were exhausted but had had a great time.
Monday, Sept. 5
We altered the planned itinerary for the day because DH needed a no drive day. After the usual bread and coffee breakfast we took the 10:45am tour of the Chateau Comtal. This is the heart of Carcassonne. It was a short (45 min.) tour,in English. We felt it was well worth the time. Carcassonne is quite impressive if you can get past the tacky shops. It's a shame they decided to allow the town to
go in that direction. Fifty people still live here.
There's been a lot of pro/con discussion about Carcassonne. For me, with an M.A. in Modern European History, I haven't met a castle that I don't like. With a little imagination you can envision what life was like in feudal times. It's fascinating. For those who may not be avid castle fans, you may not appreciate this as much. I also am not bothered by the fact that much of this is a restoration with some features that are not authentic. It provides the spirit of what was. My husband who isn't a castle groupie, found Carcassonne to be very unique. He truly enjoyed it. In Sept. it wasn't very crowded. At night you hardly saw anyone. In Sept. you also miss the opportunities to enjoy their sound and light shows which we enjoyed in the past in the Loire Valley.
After the tour we shopped and poked around. It was very cloudy and looked like we would have a storm. We decided to have lunch and went to the Cassoulet de Castelnaudary to try the cassoulet. This is a white bean dish with pieces of pork and duck. It's very tasty but a bit greasy. Service here was excedingly slow and it turned out to be a very leisurely lunch.
Afterwards, we decided to walk offf some of our calories and walked down from the citadel into the town of Carcassonne. It was a very steep descent. We found a tributary to the Aude River and walked along the path for a couple of miles or more. We started to cross the bridge in town to walk on the other side of the river when we heard thunder. It had also turned quite dark. We very hurriedly climbed back up to the safety of the citadel just as we saw some lightening. We were fortunate enough to get back into our hotel just as it began to pour.
This was the beginning of a lot of rainy and cloudy weather for us. That night we went to the Brasserie Donjon for dinner. We spent the evening talking with a British couple who were artists/teachers and enjoyed a larger and more leisurely meal due to all the lightening. (When you live in NC you learn quickly to respect lightening.) We shared a salad, tagliatelle and white wine. All were quite good but the chocolate cake was wonderful.
I hope that this report helps. More to come.
Sep 17th, 2005, 01:20 PM
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Sha - I'm enjoying your trip report. I might suggest keeping it all one thread and posting new installments as replys. That's easier for those of us who want to follow it to do so.
Here is the first part of your report:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34678099
I'm glad to hear you liked Carcassonne despite the "tourisy-ness". I am planning a trip to the area in March and was wondering if it would be worth the extra day going there would require. I think you have convinced me. Thanks
Here is the first part of your report:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34678099
I'm glad to hear you liked Carcassonne despite the "tourisy-ness". I am planning a trip to the area in March and was wondering if it would be worth the extra day going there would require. I think you have convinced me. Thanks
Sep 17th, 2005, 01:26 PM
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Isabel: Thank you for your suggestion. I really didn't know how to go about this. If you go to Carcassonne, I would definitely recommend the Hotel de la Cite. You couldn't beat the convenience and it's a lovely, well run hotel staffed by wonderfully friendly and concerned people.
Sep 17th, 2005, 04:27 PM
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Sha, enjoying this, and I'm a "castle Groupie" too, so I feel sure I'll like Carcassonne. After reading Henry James' "A Little Tour in France" and Ina Caro's book with descriptions of Carcassonne, I decided I couldn't miss it. But I still haven't been yet!
Sep 17th, 2005, 04:47 PM
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Great report!
One FYI though - >> I posted the first part of this report on the Europe board. This site is more appropriate. <<
Both parts are on the "Europe board". All threads are lumped together on one forum -- Europe. Clicking on France or any country merely lets folks search for info about that particular country.
One FYI though - >> I posted the first part of this report on the Europe board. This site is more appropriate. <<
Both parts are on the "Europe board". All threads are lumped together on one forum -- Europe. Clicking on France or any country merely lets folks search for info about that particular country.
Sep 17th, 2005, 06:52 PM
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Sha,
I've so enjoyed your description of Carcassonne because it was exactly how I hoped I'd feel when my husband and I went last year. I'm a big "castle-groupie", too, and have no problem with the restoration aspects of the town. Unfortunately, we stopped there mid-day in mid-July, and I became so completely claustrophobic that I dragged my husband out within a few minutes of our arrival. This is so unlike me, too! But I could see where it could be enjoyable at the right time. I had sacrificed staying there during the evening to stay elsewhere (a good decision), but that meant that Carcassonne was only a stop along the way.
We did spend several days in Collioure, which we, too, loved. Also loved your description of the drive! Looking forward to more.
Paule
I've so enjoyed your description of Carcassonne because it was exactly how I hoped I'd feel when my husband and I went last year. I'm a big "castle-groupie", too, and have no problem with the restoration aspects of the town. Unfortunately, we stopped there mid-day in mid-July, and I became so completely claustrophobic that I dragged my husband out within a few minutes of our arrival. This is so unlike me, too! But I could see where it could be enjoyable at the right time. I had sacrificed staying there during the evening to stay elsewhere (a good decision), but that meant that Carcassonne was only a stop along the way.
We did spend several days in Collioure, which we, too, loved. Also loved your description of the drive! Looking forward to more.
Paule
Sep 18th, 2005, 06:25 AM
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Paule: I appreciate your kind words and am glad you felt the same way that I did. We were amazed to see how Carcassonne emptied out at night. Around 8pm when we would go out for dinner there was hardly anyone walking around. It was rather strange. Also, Collioure is someplace I would love to revisit and just relax.
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