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!

Last day in Barcelona Spain

Today was our last day in Spain.  We leave tomorrow morning for France.  People have asked us our impressions of Spain.  They are mixed.   Pros:  Lovely people who can't speak English (for which I do not blame them at all!).  A country that is very into celebrations and food.  Lovely weather, especially coming from the Midwest this winter.  Inexpensive wine. Very family oriented. Fairly clean with good services, bus, train, etc.  Cons:  Language barrier is harder here than other places we have been. Tremendous numbers of people on the street (very crowded) so it is hectic. Food is abundant but tastes a lot alike.

Would we come back? Not any time soon.  We are glad we came, but are glad to be moving on. Maybe we are just too old for all the late night tapas crawl, etc.

the Columbus Monument

Big Yacht

This morning we got up and walked the entire Ramblas, the seaport, and then back again.  It was a beautiful day, about 60 degrees and bright sun, so it was perfect for a walk.  The Ramblas is a dried up riverbed which is now a main drag throughout the tourist part of the city.  We have been on it before, but today we walked the length. Saw the Columbus monument, the port, all the fishing boats, lots of people out and about.  We came back and crashed for an hour or so and then off to the ElAnglais department store.  Went to the top for some great views and a glass of wine.

 Met some people from Manchester England (big soccer match here against Manchester and Barcelona).  Then they left and another family came from Toronto.  Fun to visit with them too.

Last night, we went to a crazy place to eat. It was an Asian fast food and it was so cool.  Jerry and I are totally doing this when we get home with left overs.  Right in the middle of the Carefour grocery store just down from our hotel was a place that cooked Asian to order.  Let me see if I can explain.

First, choose noodles(lots of kinds) or rice
Then one protein and a vegetable, then a sauce.  They have hot, spicy, sweet,
peanut

This guy takes your list and assembles all the ingredients into a takeout box - raw

This guy takes a little oil and dumps all the takeout box into his wok

Then the sauce

Stir it up - you pay 5 euros.  Fabulous!  2 minutes at the most.

such fun, and Good!  You could have something different every night.  :0)

Came back and packed and set the alarms again.Back to our little room, going to make an early night of it. We leave about 10 tomorrow so have to get up and out of here.  Off to France tomorrow!