South of France Day 5

The next day Anthony and Lizzie drove with us up to the medieval town of Carcassone. It really reminded Brian and I of Bezalu, which is not far away in Spain. In the middle ages the Spanish-French border was in flux and both of these towns once held strategic defensive positions, but when the border shifted Carcassone's importance waned. Failing to develop further left it a bit of an architectural time capsule (and modern day tourist trap). The entire city is enclosed by a double wall. You can walk in between the walls or ride in a wagon as you'll see below.


Just outside the city they have a carousel. This is what Iain's face looked like when he saw it.

So of course Mama wanted to take Iain for a ride. He thoroughly enjoyed it, and so did Lizzie. :)



Inside the double walls is a heavily fortified castle. After riding the carousel, Anthony and Lizzie went into the castle and Brian, Iain, and I went for a walk around the city. We ended up climbing around on the ramparts (walls) for awhile which is good fun. Here's the castle from the outside.


Stopping to sniff the stinky marigolds on our walk. Iain learned to smell flowers instead of consume them on his first birthday, and he hasn't stopped taking time to smell the posies ever since!

Brian is standing on a ledge about 6 feet off the ground. That gives a bit of perspective to how big the ramparts are.
Iain discovered a great new game called "touch the rocks" with Papa. It is amazing how the simplest things delight him. He is a joy to be around.

The city is full of tourist shops now. This one was selling pricey but pretty biscuits and chocolates.


After our ramble we met back up for lunch and then headed off to see the church. I still love these old churches, no matter how many I see.



After leaving the church we went to the theater, but it was closed. We heard lots of noise coming from outside the town, so Lizzie and Anthony decided to check it out. It was a medieval style tournament like the have at Renaissance fairs.

After another stroll and scramble round the ramparts and a quick peek at the cemetery, it was time to hit the road again.