As I don't want to hog the members' news thread with all the pics and bla bla, here's a little topic on our medieval weekend, it was great fun, and absolutely exhausting, but unforgettable. Day 1 Our first stop was at Carcassonne, one of my favourite places, and although most of it was restored in the 1800's, it is still as near as you can get to a real fairy-tale medieval castle ! We went on the tour of the inner castle, which we have never done before (the "cité" is a whole town inside the ramparts, the actual castle is a smaller building inside, and has been used in many films, such as Robin Hood Prince of thieves, where K. Costner gets catapulted over the wall...) We walked around the ramparts, and wandered through the narrow streets. We also bumped in to a girl with an owl. After a long visit and a delicious lunch, we headed off towards the B&B Reg had booked for 2 nights. On our way we visited a couple of other interesting places, including Lagrasse, a village stuck in the 1950's more or less, with an amazing Abbey that we didn't have time to visit... Once we arrived at the B&B we settled in and had a little snooze (well, I had a snooze) and woke up about 5 minutes before our reservation at the medieval restaurant. Got up, dressed as fast as humanly possible in our medieval garb and dashed out to the restaurant ! It was built in the west wing of the castle of Villerouge Termenes, 12th century, and the building was as breathtaking as the meal. First course : PIE ! chicken hearts and livers, mainly, unfortunately not my kind of thing, Reg ate most of mine, and his. Served with salad and honey sauce. Oh yes, did I mention all this is eaten with your fingers of a large slice of delicious bread. It's absolute torture trying not to eat the bread before you're done using it as a plate !
Second course : Roast Piglet in a wine sauce and a spinachy-thing. They actually managed to get me to eat and enjoy something with spinach in it !! It was delicious, and the sauce soaks into the bread-plate, when you finally get to eat it, the mixture of honey sauce from the starter and the meat sauce and spinach is just.... *groan* Dessert : Pears in Red Hypocras (spiced wine) and almond cakes. Need I say more ? We finished off with a cup of Red Hypocras, delicious !
Day 2 We got up and had a terrific breakfast, there was so much food, so much variety, we could have eaten all day ! Then we headed off on the path of the nearby [WIKI]Cathar[/WIKI] Castles to the largest of them; Peyrepetuse ("pierced stone"). It's on the top of a mountain, at about 1000m (this is only about 50km from the mediterranean coast, so the rise is very impressive). We parked, and payed our entrance fee, then began to climb. It took about 20 minutes climbing steps and slippery stone paths to reach the first wall, and once inside, the visit took us about an hour and a half. This is a view from the top of the highest tower, the stone walls are all crumbling and the security of the site is... well, I'll be polite and say typically French ! :lol: Let's just say that if you're lucky, there's a rope between you and a 100m sheer drop, and these are the more secure places. But still, breathtaking, both by the view, nature and history, and by the sheer effort of climbing ! And so we made our way down, had a late lunch, and drove off round the countryside to see the other castles (but not climb up to them, we had had enough climbing by then !). We picked some wild herbs (thyme and rosemary, hmm !) and met a few wild horses and mules, it was a beatiful quiet sunny afternoon... We then went hunting for a restaurant open on a sunday evening, not an easy task in a region where the closest supermarket is 80km away. On our way we picked up a German hitchhiker, and dropped her off in the next village where she lived. We finally found a pizza place in Lagrasse at about half past nine, and it was probably the best pizza ever !
Day 3 We decided that after all that we had rather had our share of old dry stones and we could do with a bit of life and colour before going home, so we headed off to the famous animal reserve at Sigean, on the Mediterranean coast. I had never been, Reg had at age 10, and we were both eager to see what all the fuss was about. The entrance fee was rather enormous, but hey, we were there, and we decided to go ahead. As we ate our picnic lunch, we got peacocked. The peacocks were all round us like sparrows, begging for crumbs ! The whole visit took us about 4 and a half hours, the car safari took about an hour and a half, and took us past bears, lions, zebras, giraffes... Amazing, and the sheer size of the park was amazing (300 hectares if that means anything to anyone) and the animals were all in "pens" the sie of fields, it was quite a relief after visiting tiny zoos with loads of animals in small cages... Reg enjoyed himself (and so did I) ! And then we made our way home, and just stopped off to take a few pictures of one of the wind farms on the way. I love the great big windmills, they're even more amazing up close... (the grey spot in the corner isn't my thumb, it's the storm that was rapidly approaching us !
Wow! What a fantastic birthday present! It sounds like you had an amazing time, and thanks for taking so many beautiful pictures - I almost feel like I got to join in. (How corny does that sound? But it's true!) The animal park sounds great, I'd love to go there. I'm currently harbouring ambitions to visit one of the John Aspinall Foundation wild animal parks in Kent, jobs and money allowing.
Heh, I took over 250 pics this weekend, these are just a small selection ! It was great fun and I must say, that although I have explored and enjoyed quite a lot of the south west of France, this was a part I didn't know and really enjoyed. The landscapes are very dramatic and beautiful, every turn is a new view, I'm quite surprised at having discovered something so different so close to home (it's about 2 hours drive from Toulouse) If anyone makes it over here I'll take them touring with great pleasure Edit : here is the website of the castle-restaurant where we ate, it'll give you a better idea : Restaurant Médiéval - Villerouge-Termenès
Add to to do list: Visit France. You'll probably suffocate if you hold your breath for this to happen but a girl can dream...
Me, too, I wanna go to France. but I'll be lucky to get to Fergus Falls( a long story I'll tell you how it went next week)
