April Trip: Carcasonne

Although our spring break trip started in beautiful but rainy Montpellier, our photographic record started in Carcasonne.Carcasonne has been on our to visit list for quite some time. However, we traveled there expecting a throng of tourists and a castle redone to suit wheelchairs and strollers. Fortunately, it hasn't come to that. As for the throngs of tourists - they weren't there yet, especially at night.Carcasonne has a long and turbulent history, due to its strategic location between the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea and between France and Spain. Starting in the 11th century B.C. its inhabitants included Gauls, Romans, Visigoths, Saracens and Franks.Rio's favorite story is how the city got its name (she did the entire audio tour very diligently). The legend comes from a battle, between the Saracens and Franks, led by Charlemagne, (who were attempting to overtake the town). When the Saracen leader of the town died, his widow, Dame Carcas, had straw dummies placed along the battlements, dressed in the armor of dead soldiers. The Franks, thinking they were outnumbered, decided to starve the inhabitants of the town into submission. After many months all that remained to feed the besieged population was one barrel of food and a pig. Dame Carcas fed all the food to the pig then threw it over the walls. When the pig hit the ground it immediately split open. Charlemagne's troops, seeing all of the food contained in the pig's stomach, were immediately discouraged, believing the town had abundant supplies. At that point the Franks lifted the siege and retreated. The bells began pealing in celebration and the town's people began cheering "Carcas...sonne(Ring,Carcas)".While it is a great story it is believed by some to be pure fantasy mainly bacause the Saracens were Muslims and would have never kept a pig inside the city walls. Also, in the early 9th century when this supposedly took place, the inhabitants spoke mainly Latin, not French.This is a more romantic story than the decidedly truer version which says the name came from Occitan roots. "Carac" means rock and "sonne" means wood (there used to be thick forests around the town).

April Trip: Visiting friends in Midi-Pyrénées

April Trip: Toulouse stop

We drove into Toulouse without a plan. Actually, there were no hotel reservations or research of any kind for our trip. By chance (most old town streets are one way, so you're kind of forced to go where the street wants to go) we found parking in front of Basilica of St. Sernin. It seemed like a shady part of town with men in black leather jackets peeking from behind the trees and most of the cars in the parking lot missing a window. But then it turned out it wasn't just a part of town, it was the whole town. Our forced parking spot led us to probably the nicer (in our travel category) hotels overlooking the basilica and an excellent restaurant where we had amazingly well prepared cassoulette.

First Night

Woke up on the first night - wondering who the hell was shooting guns!
Apparently someone had some excuse for throwing a fireworks show as big as Macy's - and left it up to the sudden thunder to do the advertising.

Never did find out what the occasion was. But there could be worse welcoming celebrations...

East and West after a storm

View towards Cannes

And towards Cap Ferrat

Easter Egg Hunt

Even though we had to forgo the roasted Easter lamb for dinner due to lack of a kitchen....le lapin hopped into our garden and left lots of chocolate things to eat. The chocolate chicken had to compete with our usual rotisserie poulet. No competition!

Can you find Rio?

Apparently she was mad at the photographer about something.