Bonjour from beautiful France!

Bonjour mes amies!  We are back in our favorite place, la belle France.  But let me catch you up on our travel to get here.

Took a 10:30 train from Barcelona station to Carcassonne, France.   Geography lesson again.

We were in Barcelona, Spain.  We traveled up through the Pyrenees Mountains. We got to Narbonne France and then headed a little West.  Our destination is Carcassonne!

We arrived in Carcassonne at about 3:00 PM.  It was warm....really warm, and jumped into a taxi and came to our lovely hotel :  Hotel Montmorecy.  

Hotel Monymorecy

Jerry in front of the hotel, I turn around and Voila!

The walled city

tiny but very nice

Outdoor patio with furniture just for us

Olympic sized bathtub

Off we went to see why we came.  Carcassone , a roman outpost, and city that they built.  In the 725AD it became a defensive site during the feudal period.  It is the best preserved fortified medieval city in the world.  From the pictures you will see it has a deep and wide trench all around, then an outer wall, and even stronger inner wall.  Inside that is a fortified castle.  It is 2 km. all around.  Many armies tried to overcome it, but none were successful including Charlemagne.  It has been the site for movies, such as Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, and others.  We only got  a brief look before the afternoon sun abandoned us, but more details tomorrow.  Jerry is like a little kid.  There are all kinds of little boys and girls with swords and dressed up like knights.  It is very touristy, but so cool.  So this is for Liam, Finn, Duncan, Cooper, and Parker, our little knights.

The moat

The entrance

the Castle inside the walls

This is a double walled city.

A drawing of what it looked like

the cathedral

The cathedral

arrow slits from the outside

We stopped for a lunch because we hadn't eaten much since ....last night.  I had a croque monsieur and Jerry had a salad and french fries (and yes, they really are better here than anywhere.)

Such an interesting place

Real swords in every store Cooper!

We came back to the hotel and rested and researched restaurants for dinner. They light this place up at night and we wanted to wait until it got dark. 

From our hotel

 Picked one called Adelaide, which was wonderful. The medieval city is like a Rat maze inside, but we found it.   I had French Onion Soup and Jerry had chocolate ice cream.  Of course we shared a pichet (pee - chay) of house red wine.

French Onion Soup Gratine

New friends from Andora

While there we struck up a conversation with a couple who were eating something called Cassoulet so we started talking.  Their English was great and it turns out they were from Andora.  So now, geography students, first one who can tell Mr. Emlet where Andora is, wins extra credit.  Put your answer in the comment section.  We have met a lot of people in Europe, but never anyone from Andora.  They are following the blog, so don't disappoint Jerry by not answering.

Well, it is well past my bedtime, and I know I have a lot of castle looking going on tomorrow.  Au Revoir!