A cheap flight from Cork is always an opportunity to explore a new country / city and at the beginning of April we went to Carcassonne in Southern France. Well, we’d played the board game of the same name many times, himself more than me and it was a place we both wanted to visit. Getting there was super easy with an early morning bus ride from Evergreen Rd, just a ten minute walk from the house and a fifteen minute journey to Cork airport. We flew over southern England, on to Paris and then directly down south to land at Carcassonne (CCF) two hours after our delayed departure from Cork. We stepped off the plane and were through passport control in five minutes to a waiting bus, the service only runs when a plane is arriving and we were dropped off at the train station in Carcassonne a half hour later.

It was too early to check in to our BnB so we walked around a bit to get our bearings. A stroll toward a central square to grab a pastry and browsing the local shop windows, we wanted to find out where the castle was, the one from the game. As we were going in the direction we needed to go via Google Maps we found the local Tourist Office that had expansion packs of the board game in the window so we quickly popped in to take a look. It was cool to see that they’d the game on display and on sale as many people mightn’t know about it. Anyways, after finding out which direction we needed to walk to the castle, the first sight of it was quite magnificent as we crossed a bridge and rounded back across the Pont Vieux bridge, then toward the city centre.

Our accommodation was close to the train station, so we found it quite easily and fumbled with the main door access code to get inside. Up six flights of stairs to our top floor apartment with a view of the street we’d come in on and we settled in to relax after a long day of travelling. The next day was when we’d visit the Cité de Médiévale Carcassonne, take tour of the castle itself and walk along its battlements. We both absolutely loved the experience and I took some of my favourite photos that day which I added to my portfolio on VSCO. The food was lovely too in the main square of the Cité where we sat outside amongst American tourists enjoying pizza and lasagne, and had some ice-cream before we headed on home for the evening.

We’d found out the day we arrived that our train to Montpellier had been cancelled due to the pension reform strikes so we needed a plan B to see our friend Betty on Thursday. I found a local car rental company, Free2Move, who rented spare cars from car dealerships in the area so we needed to get to a Citroen dealer in an industrial area close to the airport. We walked to the dealer location because we were not sure if any buses were going that way and managed to get there at 11AM and then drove two hours down the coast to Montpellier. We’d a little hiccup before we parked up where we missed our turnoff from the tolled motorway so ended up driving twenty minutes further before coming back to park in a multi-storey next to the train station. Harry was a bit miffed at the error but as we settled into walking around this new city he started to feel better.

There was a local protest relating to the pension reform strike so there were loads of Gendarmerie around escorting the crowd and it was just after seeing this that I found a nice little coffee shop, Astére Coffee, where I got a nice little oat flat white. Betty had recommended a nice place for us to eat so we headed there, to Broc Café and we both ensured we had a good lunch to set us up for the rest of the day. A stroll around the adjacent Botanical Gardens was lovely and helped himself recharge a bit before Betty met us off her tram. The next few hours was spent catching up, eating pastries and crepés, drinking teas and coffee, and we had a lovely late evening meal at another one of Betty’s recommended restaurants. Unfortunately, I’d had a headache all day that I wasn’t able to remedy and it turned food poisoning shortly before we needed to leave to drive back to Carcassonne.

The drive back from Montpellier was arduous but we made it back before midnight and packed the car right around the corner from the apartment. I ended up taking a shower before going to bed and woke up the next morning somewhat worse for wear but was able to take part on the that days proceedings. Although I wasn’t feeling the best, himself had planned a trip to two local tourist sites but before that we went to Carrefour to grab some breakfast. I told him about my memories of hyper-marchés from when my family went to France on summer holidays in the 90’s. They hadn’t really changed and still had everything under one roof. A short drive through local vineyards, up into the hills and we arrived at Latours so we could hike up to Les Quatre Châteaux de Lastours. The hike was easy and the views when we got to the castle were lovely and after about two hours we’d made our way back down to our car so we could go on to our next destination.

The Gouffre Géant de Cabrespine is one of the biggest caves in Europe and we made a choice last minute to see it. The drive further up the hills from Lastours through a small French village with vineyards surrounding was quintessentially French but everything was closed due to it being Good Friday. A twisty road and a steep enough ascent up, and we arrived at the small information office, and entrance to the cave. Through a heavy steel door, smell of mould in the air and we emerged into the belly of the mountain, and the cave opened up in front of it. I didn’t expect to see what I saw when I entered as I gazed up at the ceiling one hundred feet above us. It was another two hundred feet of so below us to the base of the cavern so it’s immense size humbled me. A hour of walking around as we listened to an audio tour via the digital device around our necks and a single headphone. We marvelled at stalactites and stalagmites, all that I remember learning about in primary school. It really was a super experience and one we’d definitely repeat if ever we were in that area again.

We’d walked a considerable amount after leaving the Gouffre Géant de Cabrespine so we drove back to Carcassonne, grabbing some food from the Carrefour we’d been to earlier and then dropped the car at the Citroen dealership, only after we’d went to the Cité de Médiévale Carcassonne viewing point for a photo of the citadel. The walk back from where we dropped off the car was tough as we passed a car crash where a woman was stuck in a car that had been turned upside down. There was many around the place where the crash took place so we walked past on but kept speculating how the person in the car was as we heard multiple emergency services vehicles sirens behind us in the distance. With sore feet and legs we made it to the apartment, and slowly crept up the six flights of stairs to relax for awhile. A quick walk to see the citadel by night was all we did for the rest of the evening as well as immersing ourselves in our silicon obsessions.

There was a few hours available to us in the morning before we needed to checkout so we aimed for the local Saturday market a few blocks from our accommodation. We followed older shoppers as they strolled to the busy outdoor market full of stalls of all types of food from local produces. Himself loved it, as he always does and I couldn’t help taking as many photos with my Leica as I could before running out of film. Since we’d touched down in the city we hadn’t seen many locals around but this market was bustling with people shopping and bartering fruit, veg, meat and bread. It was a wonderful way to spent our final few hours in a lovely city. After that we checked out of our apartment and bid farewell to Carcassonne but we were lucky that our bus went through the city and then via the Cité de Médiévale Carcassonne so we were able to see so much more before eventually reaching the tiny airport. Our flight departed on time and we arrived into Cork before 4PM, to get our bus home. Both of us had a super trip and would consider going back to Carcassonne again.

Note: Although we brought the Carcassonne board game with us, we never played a game because we did so much and we’re too tired each time we returned to our apartment accommodation.