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July 24, 2006
Carcassonne
At Carcassonne
The walled city of Carcassonne is one of the city highlights on my Tour de France. I've never seen a walled city before and Carcassonne is a remarkably preserved (no doubt for the tourist benefit, there are loads of them in Carcassonne) and on the UNESCO world heritage list. The city is most impressive from the outside on the way into Carcassonne, I pity all those people who arrive by bus/car right in front of the old city. The best view of the city is from the old bridge, you won't miss this bridge if you walk from the main Gare SNCF to the old city.
However once I got into the city at about 2pm, there was a massive tourist jam in the small roads of the walled city. I could not believe the amount of people inside the city, I should have guessed this by the number of tourist buses parked outside the walled city. I was mortified at the amount of souvenir shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, private museums and ... people. That was unbelievable, you couldn't possibly enjoy the old city at around this time.
After checking-in at the hostel I was informed that I can't check-in until 3:30pm. I left my bag in the hostel and went to explore Carcassonne old city with a million other tourists, this was not a pleasant experience. I was back at the hostel at 3:30pm exhausted by the tourists.
Back at the hostel I hang out with a bunch of other travellers at around my age for a change :) I am usually one of the oldest backpackers in the hostel, when there are a few of us at around late 20 - early 30 we tend to gravitate toward each other ha! Anyway that was a good evening, I left the group for a while around dusk to explore the city. At around this time I was finally able to enjoy the Carcassonne, less the tourists and when the souvenir shops are closed.
Back at the hostelm the group and I continued on drinking and talking about life in general. Another late night :)
The Accidental Travel Companion
The next day I went down to main town (Ville Basse) outside the walled city. It was a much better option rather than rubbing shoulders with ten of thousands tourists inside the walled city. One of the churches that attract my attention the most is located in the main shopping drag. It's so old and unlike the rest of churches in Europe it has wooden floor board. It creaks everytime you step on it adding the ancient feeling of the church. Not spectacular or no where near as ornate as other churches in Europe, this is definitely not to be missed in Carcassonne.
Arriving in the hostel I was greeted with my accidental travel companion. I first met her in the hostel in Paris, we were in the same room together. She left Paris for Orleans and I told her I want to go to Strasbourg. Of course my plan changed and I went to Lyon instead. Coincidentally she decided to go Lyon after Orleans. After Lyon I went to Marseille then Nimes while she went to Nimes, Sete and back to Nimes. This is where we once again stayed in the same hostel. I left Nimes a day earlier to Carcassonne although we kinda knew that we might bump into each other again in Carcassonne because this is apparently a common route. I met a Quebecois and and English dude at Nimes and again at Carcassone. While in Carcassonne I met yet another Quebecois on its way from Toulouse to Carcassonne then Nimes.
The Three Musketeers
I shared a room with four young Parisians (one is currently living in Sao Paulo) who couldn't get the hostel in Biarritz and ended up in Carcassonne. Bored to death (obviously not interested in Carcassonne many churches) they went out on day trips everyday. They are super friendly and very willing to speak English to me, once again dispelled the myth about French people's aloofness.
That night in the hostel, the Parisians invited me, the English dude that I met at Nimes and now in Carcassonne and an Irish chick to go to this "lake" about 10km outside Carcassonne to drink and to create some fire. Of course they only have a very small car, a Renault which is smaller than a Peugeot 206. I'm not exagerating here, but we did manage to put the six of us there. The security people around the parking area didn't seem to care about it.
At the like, it didn't matter how hard they tried, we couldn't get the fire started. Make sense since it was raining pretty heavily just a few hours before. I tried to tell them so many times that it's just not going to work but they kept trying. Ahh .. youth :)
Then come the incident that may well award this night as the most bizarre night ever in this travel. Actually no, that last night in Vietnam takes the cake, this night come close but. For reasons that I didn't know fully, three of them started fighting and walked to the hostel. This is a good 10km walk at 4 in the morning. The driver, which was the youngest of them all, and us three outsider managed to convince one of them to go back to the car but the the two who initially started fighting wouldn't budge. We did manage to talk to the guy at the front but he decided to wait to the second dude to make up and walk together to the hostel.
I never knew what time they got back to the hostel as when I woke up at about 10:30 they were already in their respective bunks.
Finishing Da Vinci Code
On my last day in Carcassonne I hang around in the hostel, walked down to the city to have lunch, went to a park along the river Aude to have my siesta and finished Da Vinci Code. I have to say I'm a bit dissapointed with the ending.
That night passed a lot less bizzare than the night before. A few of us talked about life until the wee hour in the morning. The next day I walked to the train stations with my accidental travel companion and the Quebecois chick that I met earlier at Nimes. Here I said goodbye to my accidental travel companion knowing that this probably it. She's on the way to Biarritz for a week before going back to London while I was on my way to Toulouse and then most likely (well I know now by the time I wrote this post) to Barcelona.
Posted by vhadiant at July 24, 2006 10:37 AM
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