So, this is Chuck posting. All kinds of things to report, we had enjoyable days in Avignon and Carcassonne.
Day 10. We toured the Palais du Popes. (I think I have it right) Which was a home to some of the competing Popes during the medieval time period where there was contention over which Pope was the true Pope. Clement 5 was the 1st Pope invited by the King of France. The king tried to keep Clement to extend his own power, and after Clement died, the next appointed Pope was apparently more than happy to stay. However, a schism developed and there was a time period where "two Popes" were supposedly known to the world, until it was finally decided years later.
It was a great day for the weather. We have been so fortunate. It was in the low 70's, sunny, just perfect. We also visited the gardens there. When we were coming out of a church, however, two women working together tried to pick my pocket!!! I actually said to the one who was responsible for distracting me, "nice try". Don't know whether she knew English. Needless to say, Karen was ahead of me and didn't hear it/see it, and I told her and pointed out the 2 women. They split up immediately (the one noting I was pointing at her). However, as we walked away, they came back together and talked. I was fairly $%^&* about it. Should probably have twisted her arm behind her back and taken her down, right? One thing I have noticed, there are rarely any police around. We rarely see them. In Italy, there were several federal or military types patrolling the train stations with their automatic weapons. But I would certainly see more police at home. Almost never see them on the highway, and we've been doing a lot of driving.
We had a nice drive in the afternoon to Carcassonne. Found our place (a home stay via AirBnB) very easily. Karen has enjoyed these home stays and the chance to see how others live. This woman was very welcoming, and we had a good opportunity to see another side of French life that was outside of the normal tourist view. We went in to the main town, and found few opportunities to eat. But as usual, the wine is great! So we settled on a good pizza with nice small salads. Then we decided to go into the walled city separate from the downtown. That was a nice walk. A medieval castle/fort almost perfectly restored. And it was great to see it at night, although by the time we walked back to the car, it was getting cold!
We crashed, no email, posting, etc. All that walking and good wine has it's effects on us.
Day 11. Martine, our host, had bread, a chocolate croissant, cheese, juice and great tea for us. A nice breakfast, and not too early (9 am).
Then it was on to the castle/fort. We thought we would be arriving too late to have a good tour of the walled city. The "palace" part was opened at 10 am. and we did an audio guide tour. i have to say I enjoyed it immensely. The restoration left it appearing as if it was some point in the 13th century. We had a nice tour, taking many pictures. Lots of historical information. Then we went to the cathedral. Not only was it quite a cathedral, but we listened to a small mens choir. They were excellent.
After that, we went for our planned big lunch. And boy, it was a good one. One of us got the 4 course lunch, the other (ha, me!) the 5 course lunch. Yes, 6 courses. Now, to be fair, we have talked about how we are going to have great dinners every day, and then by the time we are ready to eat, many places are closed, and our choices are few. And then no good dinner materializes. Some days we have lunch with food from a market (and cheese, bread, ham, fruit, etc can be pretty darn good) but today, we had a great one. Karen had the traditional "cassoule" which was a baked dish of beans, beef, sausage and some chicken. I had salmon with hollandaise sauce. But to talk about all of these courses, we shared french onion soup, a great salad, bread, timbaly (seafood souffle), cheese plate, peach melba, and a dessert crepe. We were stuffed! Took some great cheese and bread with us (which we had for dinner).
Sadly, by 3 pm we were leaving. we had a great late afternoon/early evening drive to Clermont / Ferrand. We found our Holiday Inn very easily. What happened next is very funny. We parked in the gaage, and apparently took the wrong elevator!!! So, we came into the office building NEXT to the holiday inn. And we could NOT get out of the building. Once in the elevator, the button to return us to the parking garage wouldw NOT work! The floors all had offices with locked doors. Again not a situation to NOT have a phone, righty? Eventually, I found a button that would let the front door of the main floor open. And we got out!
Ah, the stories for another day.
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