Faded glory and skies in Carcassonne
Our first really, really ancient site was found in a town called Carcassonne, about an hour away from Sete.
There’s a whole city at the foot of this hill but, really, this is the reason it generates tourism.

May’s no history buff, but even she loved this place.

There’s not much to write because places like this are always a million times better once you’re actually there.

Inside the fortified city, contemporary houses and cafes are in abundance. May couldn’t believe that some people wake up to this view every morning.

Sam acted as May’s tour guide, re-telling story upon story of this place:

“…but before that battle, there was the one where the city was besieged and starving, so the queen fed the last bit of grain to the last pig. Then, the idiot threw the thing over the wall towards the enemy. It burst open, and when the soldiers saw that the city had so much food they could even feed their pigs grain, they gave up and went home. Yeah, it IS interesting isn’t it…”
Eventually, the weather turned terrible: thunder, lightning, wind and rain. It was kinda cool to see it from this place but, it was also not that cool cos we were in thongs and shorts/skirt and no warm gear. We tried to wait until the rain finished. So we went and had a pizza in a cosy little café. In the end, we left when the pouring just began. We ran down the hill, through the town (pizza’s still undigested) and onto a train. THEN, off the train, we had to run across the canals to our hotel in Sete. And this was the result:

So, next time you’re thinking of crusading through France in summer, make sure you pack an umbrella.