07 December 2008

Carcassonne and Toulouse …

The weather predictions for Montpellier looked promising; highs in the mid-50’s and sunny. That was before we left. It wasn’t bad when we touched down in Montpellier, but then we started driving away from the coast it got chilly and started to rain a bit. I should have checked the weather predictions for the other areas we were going to, and not just the town where we flew into. I might have brought warmer clothing, as it stood I had a hooded sweatshirt and a light waterproof jacket. I wished I would have brought a sweater too.

We drove to Carcassonne, checked into our rooms, and headed across the river toward the Medieval City.

River and some nasty looking clouds

Bridge leading to the walled city

We were able catch glimpses of it from between buildings…

A peak at the city

We crossed a bridge over what used to be a moat…

Bridge over old moat

And we were in…

Ramparts of Carcassonne

Carcassonne is a completely walled city; some of which dates back to the 6th century. It was rebuilt in the 19th century, so although some of the walls and foundations are very old, much of it is not. It is still a neat place to stop, and the lower town has some very good cassoulet. Here is another picture that I took a few days later from the highway.

Carcassonne from Hwy

After leaving Carcassonne we drove up to Toulouse, stopping along the way in Castelnaudary for some more cassoulet. Toulouse is a nice town that has some areas that are very well kept up. In the downtown area we saw little or no litter or graffiti. There was the occasional beggar, but nobody was very pushy about it. We walked around Toulouse and took some pictures...

Toulouse

Toulouse

Basilique Saint Sernin

We stopped at a couple of markets, had some grub, and drank some good wine.

Outdoor Market

Spices @ Market

calf's brains

And no I did not eat what is in that last picture; although, I will be going to Barcelona in January and there is a place there that specializes in them.


I did get the chance to try a little of someone else’s andouillette. An andouillette is basically a chitterling (intestine) sausage. This was not one of my favorite things.

Click HERE for more pictures on my flickr page.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"This was not one of my favorite things" . . .

Knowing you I interpret that to mean it was inedible. . .

-Steven.

Anonymous said...

T.

Your beer tasting experiences in Germany have persuaded me to start home brewing again.

I am going to do the all grain method and prepare a double stout.

A friend at work that no longer brews is giving be his kegging apparatus, so of course Lauri wants me to build a bar with an official looking beer tap.

Hope to have it completed by Easter (stout and bar). Any plans to return to the Motherland in the near future? Would love to have you come and take it for a test drive.

PMG

-Tony said...

PMG

I too have felt the bug. A friend here wants me to split the equipment cost with him ad start brewing. I however feel that it would be somewhat of a waste to do it here. Although I would like to learn to grow and nuture the yeast so that I can brew some nice banana-y hefeweizens when I return. But I would also like to cure some wild boar meat here too, so we will have to wait and see whether either happens.

No plans to come back anytime soon. Although when I get the opportunity for some training, I may be able to make it up thataway.

Good luck with the brewing and the bar construction.