Carcassonne

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Carcassonne turns out to be a very strange contrast of verrrry old (site occupied way before Roman times) and authentic, mixed with tons of crappy tourist stuff (can you say fake medieval stuff with cheap plastic swords for the kiddies?).

THe old stuff is way cool, and the rest, well.... Odd, I thought. Maybe just since we don't have sites that old.... Seems like they ought to be revered, or something, rather than ... celebrated? ... with cheap plastic weaponry......

Something else that I suspect is different from USA -- we had a REALLY nice lunch in a really nice restaurant up there (walled city built on top of sizeable hill). THere was a lot of fast food type stuff, too, but would you find really GOOD food at a tourist trap site? I guess I've never looked.........

My daughter is a serious foodie, and her main point on this trip is to try all the local/regional/seasonal foods of as many different regions of France as she can manage. So she is focused and critical and energetic about searching out the sorts of places she wants to eat. And there were multiple candidates up there, and the one she chose was lovely (and not expensive, for a Really Nice Place).

It is really hot today -- the hotelier said 37, whatever that means in F, but I think 40 is about 100.

It's a dry heat :-) and it was breezy, so if you were in the shade,not bad, but walking back down from all the way up there....... I was exhausted. I've had a few naplets (after a shower1!!!!!!!) and now am feeling ok.

THey do light it up at night (we saw it from a distance last night) and we plan to get close enough to try for some nighttime pics before calling it a day).]

It is huge and spectacular froma distance and from up close (unless you are caught ina mob of sweaty tourists....).....\]

Tomorrow we shift to Bordeaux........... Wish us air-conditioned trains...... :-)



In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.

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