|
|
2003-06-01 - Paris to Toulouse to Carcassonne Day 7 We left Sunday morning via the TGV to head towards Carcassonne. The train was very similar to the ones we took when I was in Spain before. The train ride was quite long – 5 hours, allowing for a great deal of napping to recuperate from the day before. We bought a ham and cheese sandwich on a baguette for the journey at the train station. We saw several nice, small towns and large areas of farmland. We arrived at the Toulouse train station around 4 PM, where we met our bus. Our bus drove us the additional 1.5 hours to Carcassonne. Carcassonne was a quaint little town. We quickly unpacked and went down for a look around. We walked towards the lower town, but most of the stores were closed with the exception of the plentiful pizza restaurants. With all the pizza restaurants, you would have thought we were in Italy! Mom and I walked across the bridge upward to the walled city. The river was so calm and there was a small Catholic church on the way to the bridge, with only 10-15 pews. We were unlucky enough to be flashed on the way over by some of the local boys who were down by the river, with apparently not enough to do.
It was around 6PM on a Sunday so we expected for little to be open, but we did find a small store selling lace and pillows. We also found an excellent patisserie and a small grocery store. We returned to the hotel in time for dinner at 7:30. Dinner was very local and was at the hotel restaurant, Le Richepin. The official menu was an appetizer of bavarois de saumon, main course of pintadeau en croûte à la fondue de chou vert and for dessert, parfait glacé aux pruneaux. We had a salmon appetizer with a dressing that favored ranch. I could tell it was really fine food, but the salmon was too fishy for me. The main course was a pastry shell filled with chicken and lettuce, which was very good. Dessert was a plum ice cream with some sort of syrup and accented with fresh fruits (pineapples, strawberries, and raspberries). The fresh fruit was the best part! Following dinner, mom and I returned to our room and enjoyed the spectacular view from our balcony of the castle lit up at night. The rooms themselves were more typical of a European hotel than those we had seen so far! 2, rue des 3 Couronnes Carcassonnee 11000 France Phone: 011-33-4-68 25 36 10
|