Monday morning my dad and I picked up our rental car and headed north out of Barcelona towards France, following the route that runs nearly due north through the Pyrénées, just past the eastern edge of Andorra. The mountain drive was beautiful, passing Montserrat again and then into the real mountains. The adorable tree-lined dirt road picture is the road we took to cross the border into France. There was no change or sign or fence. I did't know we had crossed except for our GPS reading on GoogleMaps. The clouds started to come in after we stopped in the cute little mountain town of Ax-les-Thermes for lunch. Everyone is getting ready for the Tour de France which was going to be riding that exact same route the next day after their rest day in Andorra. There were yellow arrows indicating the route (which would be completely closed to traffic the next day, July 12th).
We made our way to the Caves of Niaux where there are prehistoric cave paintings that were discovered. You can still visit these because they limit the number of people and the time in the caves so as not to damage the temperature and humidity levels, which can affect the paintings. Due to the total lack of light in the cave system (we each had a flashlight) the pictures of the cave drawings are taken from online, not photographed by me. iPhones are good, but not that good. They also sold beer with labels based on the cave art.
After the Caves we made our way to Carcassonne, stopped in the quaint town of Mirepoix. It has not changed since the 13th century, so all these cute houses raised about street level are original with people still living in them. This arcaded market square at the center of town is one of the finest surviving ones in France. We stopped there for a quick peek before continuing on through fields of sunflowers and grape vines to Carcassonne.
So Carcassonne has an important history as a strategic Roman castle/fortified town but nowadays its the Cité Medieval de Carcassonne, that is well-known. It's a medieval fortress and small village within two different sets of fortified walls, sitting atop a hill overlooking lower Carcassonne, the somewhat more recent city that grew up around it once the need for a fortified castle ended. So we got to stay within the walls in the Hotel de la Cité, though not in the original fortress itself because it is uninhabitable. But it's pretty cool with little winding roads and original buildings and stonework. You can see where they had to strengthen different parts and add more stones to restore it in the later centuries but a lot of it is original. You can see afternoon photos from when we arrived (it was pretty chilly and overcast) as well as evening photos after the fortress was lit up. We were too late to enter the fortress but planned to do so the next morning. We did find an amazing dessert that was described to us as "rolled ice cream". We chose flavors: speculoos crumble and salted caramel. Then on a "cold plate" (like the opposite of what you'd make a crepe on) she put the speculoos crumble poured what looked like melted vanilla ice cream (so probably vanilla creme anglaise) and moved it around to cool it off. Then she spread it really thin and scraped it in rows (see in pic). Each of these she put into a little cup and poured salted caramel sauce on top. It was fantastic. Super light but really tasty.
Tuesday morning we headed over to the fortress after breakfast and wandered through for awhile (first 3 pictures). We had already explored most of the little streets the night before but also poked our heads into a few of the now-open shops before getting back to our car and heading to our next town, Nîmes. The drive to get to Nîmes was smooth but the actual layout of the town center is a nightmare!!! ALL the streets are one-way (I repeat ALL) and none of them seem to understand what a right angle is. Oh and about 80% of them are under construction so that when you are following the proper route all of a sudden its completely blocked so you don't really have any options. It took us 2 hours to drive to Nîmes and 30min to drive down every one way street in an attempt to get closer to our hotel, since the recommended map route continuously told us to go the way that was blocked, no matter where we were. After lots of turns and driving down a few streets that we think were for buses only (no one stopped us), we got within a block of the hotel, so my dad pulled the car to the side and went to check in and find out where the heck to park. Fortunately it was very close by and underground. But my recommendation is don't drive in Nîmes. Just don't. Now that we've cleared that up...lots of cool Roman architecture. We are literally across the street from a Roman amphitheater/arena. It was already closed due to some local "rock" band but we can go check it out in the morning. (We heard the band later in the evening...maybe a high school wannabe rock band...it was definitely not Santana.) We also checked out La Maison Carrée (old Roman forum), the Temple of Diana in the Garden of Fountains, and the Tour Magne (tower overlooking the city). Back towards the city center were the Porte Auguste (old gate from the ancient wall, named after Caesar Augustus) and the Cathedrale Saint-Castor (similar in style to the Notre Dame of Paris). We stopped for dinner at one of the street cafes and had some very nice rosé wine (my dad was unsure until he tried it and agreed that it was very good). On the way back to the hotel we passed the lit up amphitheater/arena and got to listen to some of the questionable music.
More of the Nîmes amphitheater/arena on the next blog, as well as Provence: Aigues-Mortes, Arles and into Avignon. Bon nuit!
We made our way to the Caves of Niaux where there are prehistoric cave paintings that were discovered. You can still visit these because they limit the number of people and the time in the caves so as not to damage the temperature and humidity levels, which can affect the paintings. Due to the total lack of light in the cave system (we each had a flashlight) the pictures of the cave drawings are taken from online, not photographed by me. iPhones are good, but not that good. They also sold beer with labels based on the cave art.
After the Caves we made our way to Carcassonne, stopped in the quaint town of Mirepoix. It has not changed since the 13th century, so all these cute houses raised about street level are original with people still living in them. This arcaded market square at the center of town is one of the finest surviving ones in France. We stopped there for a quick peek before continuing on through fields of sunflowers and grape vines to Carcassonne.
So Carcassonne has an important history as a strategic Roman castle/fortified town but nowadays its the Cité Medieval de Carcassonne, that is well-known. It's a medieval fortress and small village within two different sets of fortified walls, sitting atop a hill overlooking lower Carcassonne, the somewhat more recent city that grew up around it once the need for a fortified castle ended. So we got to stay within the walls in the Hotel de la Cité, though not in the original fortress itself because it is uninhabitable. But it's pretty cool with little winding roads and original buildings and stonework. You can see where they had to strengthen different parts and add more stones to restore it in the later centuries but a lot of it is original. You can see afternoon photos from when we arrived (it was pretty chilly and overcast) as well as evening photos after the fortress was lit up. We were too late to enter the fortress but planned to do so the next morning. We did find an amazing dessert that was described to us as "rolled ice cream". We chose flavors: speculoos crumble and salted caramel. Then on a "cold plate" (like the opposite of what you'd make a crepe on) she put the speculoos crumble poured what looked like melted vanilla ice cream (so probably vanilla creme anglaise) and moved it around to cool it off. Then she spread it really thin and scraped it in rows (see in pic). Each of these she put into a little cup and poured salted caramel sauce on top. It was fantastic. Super light but really tasty.
Tuesday morning we headed over to the fortress after breakfast and wandered through for awhile (first 3 pictures). We had already explored most of the little streets the night before but also poked our heads into a few of the now-open shops before getting back to our car and heading to our next town, Nîmes. The drive to get to Nîmes was smooth but the actual layout of the town center is a nightmare!!! ALL the streets are one-way (I repeat ALL) and none of them seem to understand what a right angle is. Oh and about 80% of them are under construction so that when you are following the proper route all of a sudden its completely blocked so you don't really have any options. It took us 2 hours to drive to Nîmes and 30min to drive down every one way street in an attempt to get closer to our hotel, since the recommended map route continuously told us to go the way that was blocked, no matter where we were. After lots of turns and driving down a few streets that we think were for buses only (no one stopped us), we got within a block of the hotel, so my dad pulled the car to the side and went to check in and find out where the heck to park. Fortunately it was very close by and underground. But my recommendation is don't drive in Nîmes. Just don't. Now that we've cleared that up...lots of cool Roman architecture. We are literally across the street from a Roman amphitheater/arena. It was already closed due to some local "rock" band but we can go check it out in the morning. (We heard the band later in the evening...maybe a high school wannabe rock band...it was definitely not Santana.) We also checked out La Maison Carrée (old Roman forum), the Temple of Diana in the Garden of Fountains, and the Tour Magne (tower overlooking the city). Back towards the city center were the Porte Auguste (old gate from the ancient wall, named after Caesar Augustus) and the Cathedrale Saint-Castor (similar in style to the Notre Dame of Paris). We stopped for dinner at one of the street cafes and had some very nice rosé wine (my dad was unsure until he tried it and agreed that it was very good). On the way back to the hotel we passed the lit up amphitheater/arena and got to listen to some of the questionable music.
More of the Nîmes amphitheater/arena on the next blog, as well as Provence: Aigues-Mortes, Arles and into Avignon. Bon nuit!
Your photos and blog are outstanding, Lisa! I'm experiencing everything as if I were there. How did you like the experience of seeing the cave paintings? Pretty neat, aren't they? The Pyrenees look so green and picturesque. The photos of Carcassonne and Nimes are fabulous!
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