Carcassonne

By the middle of the afternoon we have reached Carcassonne, a plain modern city, but a beautiful medieval walled town that has been turned into a tourist shopping district. Still a lovely place with some great across the grapevines of the Languedoc. For me, the real highlight of the day was the drive through the vineyards on the way to Carcesonne.


Autumn has arrived on the grapevines and, in the afternoon sunshine the light shines through them, lighting them up like stained glass windows in the most decorated cathedrals. They really are a special treat, but more on that tomorrow. That evening we stayed in a car park camp site right next to Carcassonne, so our view for the evening was the lit up walls of the old city, very special. We paid €10 for the privilege, a small price to pay.
The next morning Tasha and I wandered down the hill while Bex and Rach’
slept and found a boulangeire (spelling) with for fresh croissant and a
warm baguette.



We headed south from Carcassonne into the depth of the Corbiers wine appellation. Being Sunday all the vineyards were shut, but the views were fantastic. With the routing we had set Fiona found us some brilliant roads to take through twisting gorges with rivers that were dried up, except for the occasional pool. Endless rows of grapevines, reaching up the hills, in all shades of late autumn. We drove through
lanes of tree tunnels, again resplendent (getting into that word) in autumn shades.



We stopped and walked around Lagrasse, a lovely old village that the tourist trails had not found. A good stop.
I don’t feel I have done justice to the views in the region before we headed back to the main highway to Spain… you’ll have to see it for yourself.