No biking, but loads of walking!
Hooray! A morning without having to load up the panniers! Aside from that though, we stick to tradition and hit the camp’s shop for morning croissants to hold us over until lunch, tuck our iPads and expensive toys into our backpacks, then hoof it out and onward to the old Citie of Carcassonne to tour for the day.
It’s only about a kilometer (for my US friends, that’s equal to around 2187 cubits) from the camp to Citie’s western entrance. The walk took us though a park along a creek, and down some quintessential french lanes…
Now, recall the first view of the Citie from yesterday? Here it is as a refresher:
We wondered about what looked like random geometric yellow paintings on the outside walls… Well, we closed in on the Citie entrance, climbing as we went…
…and along the way the yellow lines began to make sense…
Finally, we pop around a corner and see the entrance straight on!
Freaky in a picture, and it was freakier in person. Turns out that this is a temporary art project: “Concentric, eccentric” by Felice Varini, a Swiss artist, and the project is there to celebrate Carcassonne’s 20th anniversary as a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site. Unsurprisingly, some locals love it, and some locals hate it. It IS temporary though, as the ‘paint’ is actually yellow-painted foil tape that is stuck to the walls. It is non-destructive, and will be removed in September of 2018. Close-up of the foil:
Well, into the Citie we go. First job, find the TI, get the map.
Map gotten, we also elect for the English language tour later in the day, then head to the castle and ramparts – the only ‘for pay’ sights in the medieval town. The rest of the town is free to explore, as it is all restaurants, shops and a couple of hotels…
We wait in line in the already scorching heat, and finally make it in. It turns out one of the ramparts is closed for maintenance, so we scoot through the castle reasonably fast, listening to our English audioguides at the interesting spots, then exit back to the medieval town via the other rampart.
Back in town, we took in a beer and a snack next to a Southern USA family with heavy accents and screaming kids…the parents seriously musing about finding a McDonalds and buying a couple hundred chicken nuggets to feed the kids for the remainder of the vacation. Ahh… On the other hand, they’ve taken their kids to Carcassonne, France. This IS a Unesco world heritage site and all, but honestly, it’s kinda out of the way of the typical French vacation spots, so whatever the reason that they’re here, good on ’em. And hopefully the kids will get to Disney Paris sometime during the vaca…
Anyhoo, we followed that up with the tour, another walk around and a beer, then left the medieval town to head into Carcassonne proper. Aim? Well, the Tour de France came through town a week prior, and we were hoping to find a souvenir biking shirt or two. We looked around best we could, and finally were told by a shopkeeper that the Tour set up their own tents for selling gear and no one else gets access. She seemed quite happy that they were long gone!
Well, our aims dashed, we lowered our expectations and looked for another beer.
Carcassonned-out, it was back to the campground, as their restaurant was plenty good enough for the likes of us. We took in some food, a few more beers and enjoyed the night’s entertainment…magic!
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