Carcassonne for Easter (with Kylie and Anthony)

We've had a long break between holidays, but Easter finally arrived, and with it (plus a couple of extra days) a trip to the South of France (which always sounds exotic to Australians, but a little ho-hum to English people - go figure!).

Kylie and Anthony (friends of ours who we first met in Australia) picked us up from Carcassonne airport on their way back from a few days in Biarritz and San Sebastian and together we went to our rented house in the village of Pexiora. Pexiora isn't much to look at, to be fair (there are only 500 or so people in the village - but it does at least have a grocer and a boulangerie), but the house was great inside, and we were welcomed with a basket of bread, cheese and ham, along with a bottle of Blanquette Limoux, a local sparkling wine which claims to be the original (Dom Perignon stole the recipe on his way to Champagne).

Enjoying some sunshine in the back garden of the house

On the day of our arrival (Thursday), the sun was shining and the weather was warm, so we decided to rent some bikes and make our way from Bram (the closest large town) along the canal as far as we could in the few hours remaining. We managed to get 2/3rds of the way to Castelnaudry, where the canal opens up into the only large marina on its length from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, before having to turn back. It was a beautiful, relaxing ride in late afternoon sun, and a great way to kick off the holiday.

Bram port, our starting point for our ride

Action shot - Tour de France we weren't

Pausing to enjoy the view

Our finishing line - there was a house like this at every one of the locks (there are 65 all told on the Canal du Midi)

Friday dawned a little greyer, and prompted us to take to the car for a day's exploring to the South and East. We started in the town of Limoux to visit the market, and pick up fresh food and cheese for the night's dinner. From there we wound our way down through 'Cathar country', hilly terrain near the border of the old kingdoms of France and Aragon where the Cathars (a group of religious heretics) had made their last stand before being wiped out. Their legacy is in a series of dramatic ruined hilltop castles (although technically they didn't build the castles and the ruin is more from the passage of time than from any battle that took place there). We climbed Peyrepertuse, one of the castles, and were rewarded by spectacular views and a real sense of history.

Entering the castle

Kylie and Anthony inside the castle (not that anywhere was really inside, because none of it had a roof)

A shot from the most distant corner of the castle looking back

On the way back we stopped off at a few of the vineyards that we passed - and picked up a great selection of wines for dinner and, since it seemed to be the speciality of the region, wines for dessert (which went down very well over great food and great conversation that night).

Unfortunately, on Saturday the weather rolled in - as our landlord put it when he delivered more firewood, beau temps pour chiens (good weather for dogs). Fortunately we were able to put that firewood to good use, and spend the afternoon playing 500 (boys vs girls) and finding a good restaurant in which to celebrate Sarah's birthday. In the end, we settled on Domaine Gayda, a fantastic restaurant attached to a vineyard about 20 minutes from where we were staying. We initially got lost looking for the place, but once we got there and enjoyed about four hours, seven courses and some fantastic (and cheap!) wine from their cellar we felt that Sarah's birthday had been celebrated as it deserved.

Outside the restaurant

Kylie and Anthony at dinner

Cheers! (with local wine, no less)

Sunday the weather was still bad, but since it was Kylie and Anthony's last day we braved the rain to visit Carcassonne, a World Heritage listed site which has housed a fortress since around 500 A.D. (although the current site was built around 1250 and re-constructed in the 1800s). The site featured in 'Robin Hood, Prince of Theives' and, even through the gloom, was breathtaking in size and completeness.

The girls taking refuge from the rain

Inside the walls, Carcassonne could have been any other medieval town

But from the outside it would have looked impregnable

We dashed from cover to cover to miss the worst of the rain (made easier by the fact that it is more of a town filled with shops and restaurants, than a defensive fortress), and made our way into the inner bastion, which had great views back over the rest of the castle and the cathedral.

Monday, Kylie and Anthony headed off to Paris and we went for a drive to Toulouse (which was almost a ghost town since Monday after Easter is the big French public holiday, and since I'm pretty sure no locals will read this - was just another European city). We then headed south towards the Pyrenees, ending up in the town of Foix. Unlike the area around the Dordogne, where we visited last year, this part of France felt quite tired and industrial - the towns looked a little greyer, and the landscape less lush (more like the parts of Spain that we have visited). Around Foix, as we started to get into the foothills of the Pyrenees, the lush green began to return, and we felt that it if we'd continued then it would have begun to become beautiful, but the failing light made us turn back.

Stephen outside the Capitol building in Toulouse

The town of Foix, with the castle up above

Unfortunately, that marked the end of our French adventure. It was great to be out in the countryside, enjoying the 'real France', where a bit of the language and a lot of sign language was necessary (rather than everyone speaking English) and where we could savour the fantastic local produce (not to mention the sightseeing).