I decided to take a field trip to Carcassone which is a fortified medieval city about an hour train ride from Toulouse as it is said to be beautiful and is a world heritage site. The trip proved that is correct. It is stunning and very impressive.

The train ride was fun but I realized that a Saturday in August in France is not necessarily the ideal day to travel. There seemed to be lots of people on day trips to various stops along the train route. The train was packed but I did not have a problem getting a seat. The train’s final destination was a town close to the Spanish border on the Mediterranean Sea. The vistas during the train ride were of rural France with lots of farms.

I had not seen any vineyards until this train ride. The area around Carcassone has its own appellation for wine. As we approached Carcassonne, I began to see lots of vineyards out the window. There were a huge amount of vines planted. Unfortunately, the train was moving too fast to get any good pictures. I definitely wanted to taste some of the local wine after seeing the vineyards.

After I got off the train, I walked through the new part of the city and climbed an impressive hill to get to the medieval city. My belief that Saturday in August is not the ideal time to visit an important tourist destination was confirmed when I saw all the people entering the walled city. The streets are very narrow as expected and were packed. I was reminded a little bit of visiting Venice. There were lots of tourist shops right as you enter and lots of people.

I took a tour of the Chateau and the ramparts of the castle and city. It is very well preserved. I learned on the audio tour that France introduced a Ministry to preserve national monuments in the late 1800 and that is when they began restoring and rebuilding many historic sites that had been allowed to deteriorate previously. Carcassone was one of the first places to be restored.

After the tour, I found a place to have lunch and opted for the local sausage and wine. The wine was just house wine but very good. It was a nice dry red wine. I opted for the “Formule” which is a two course meal, sausage, French fries, salad and dessert for 13 euros and a quarter carafe of wine for 8 euros. The meal was very good.

I visit the Basilica a Saint Nazaire which was small but very beautiful with lots of stain glass. Again, it had been restored in the 1870s.

After wandering the old city, I headed back town to the new city in search of canal boats as Carcassonne is on the Canal de Midi as well. I found some boats but not the traditional canal boats. I found a group of boats that people can hire for vacation. One group was actually loading up while I watched and was given instructions on driving the boat. I, now, know that I can rent a boat and do a test run even though they are not the traditional boats.

While waiting for the train, I also saw one of the locks in operation. There was a tour boat that loaded up and moved to the canal. I saw that there was a women who came out and operated the lock for the boat. It all seemed simple as the boat operator did not even get off the boat, just through a rope to the women who secured the boat to the lock and then closed the lock and lowered the water and opened the lock. This seems doable.

After the train ride back to Toulouse, I found a nice restaurant to have dinner. I keep finding different areas with cafes and restaurants that I had not found before. Dinner was good and accompanied by a local wine, Cucugnan. It is from the Aude region of France which is just south of Toulouse toward Spain. I had Dernacueuillete Petit Derna which is a blend of Carnignon, Grenache, and Syrah. One site described it as easy to drink, limpid, ruby colored red and supple. I would say that it was good. I had cold zucchini soup and lamb and beans for dinner.

It was a fun excursion.

The picture above, which is not ideal for the explanation, show a man on the right walking down the street with three of his friends. The amusing part is he is dressed as a medieval warrior. When I first got to the city he was standing in front of the gate allowing pictures to be taken of him for a small donation. As I was walking back to the new city, I saw him just walking and hanging out with his friends in modern dress. It was just like he was walking home from work. There was nothing self conscious about him as people looked at him and did double takes. It just amused me.