Bordeaux to Carcassonne Day 5

Bonjour,

We departed from our hotel and drove for half an hour out of the city to an old winery called Chateau du Taillan. It is an old winery that was orgionally created and run by monks until a family bought it. (they still own it 5 generations later) There spectiality is SBS and Cabnet Merlot. It is the only winery that has a fireplace in the cellar as the monks used the top level for their living room. We got shown around then went did a wine tasting of their white and red. They had a Rose so Rhian bought a small bottle to try and taste, its cheap so why not!! Then we all loaded on the bus for the rest of the ride to Carcassonne. (Pronounced Car-Car-sow-n)

On the way to Carcassonne we stopped at a sight seeing place to take some pics the Chateau Comtal. It was built in 1120 the castle is a fortress within a fortress. It has city inside the walls and a castle in the middle with a dried up mote around it. Legend has it why its called Carcassonne is the town was invaded by other regions to take rule of Carcassonne, so one lady decided to get a pig and the towns folk to feed it all there food and when the invasion came she decided to through the pig over the walls to give the impression that the region had enough food and were “fat and plump” so the oppostion would think that they wouldn’t win as they would have enough food to survive any war. So they named it after her.

We had an hour and a half to have a look around the outside walls if we wanted to go in the castle we would have to pay $17 euro so we just went on the outside. It was pretty cool and had a Best Western Hotel inside it. It was VERY busy there was a lot of tourists around and the weather is very warm and sunny (we have had cold and overcast weather till now)

We all got back on the bus and made out way to our hotel. We stayed in a old hospital turned into a hotel. It was very 20-30 retro style. With a big staircase at the entrance to get to our rooms and one little lift. (a lot of people carried their luggage in up the stairs instead of waiting) Then we dropped out stuff and went back down stairs for dinner.

Dinner was at a resturant called Chez Fred Resturant. For entree we had a carrot/tomato, pesto/cake thing with a pastry on the bottom and a small salad, main was a duck and cassoulet bean stew and for dessert was a white chocoate mousse. After we ate dessert Rhian and I left the others and went for a walk around the streets of Carcassonne.

While taking a walk through the streets we came across a police station. I took a photo of the sign because it was called Hotel De Police. Thought it was funny that the police station was called a hotel. Right next to the police station was a small pub. It was called Bar F`1. The entire pub is packed with minichamps F1 models. They had wheels, nose cones, signs, posters and a small statute of almost every drive for the past few decades. Even Mark Webber was on display. I had one drink here then we left to find the others again.

We found the others at an Irish Pub called ‘The Celtic’ we had a few drinks and talked to everyone. Once we had had enough then went back to the hotel for rest.

Au Revoir

image

image

image

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.