On the second day of week nine, we left the very busy campsite at A L’Hombre Des Microcouliers in Trebes and parked Eileen just outside the walls of the medieval city of Carcassonne.
We each paid our €8.50 to go inside the castle and ramparts and discovered that although there has always been a castle, or fort, on the site, this current one, using much of what remained, is actually a 19Cth mock up of what it might have looked like in the 13Cth. It’s still brilliant, lovely to stroll around and I don’t think Walt Disney could have done it much better.
We stayed in the old city for a really nice lunch, which included an entrée of slices of goat’s cheese on slices of French stick which is then lightly baked and placed on a bed of mixed leaves. I’m definitely going to whip this one up at home, so simple, but so delicious. After a bit more of a stroll, we drove Eileen further west in search of gas and a supermarket to restock our now rather depleted fridge. We also splashed out on a large ground sheet as we’re finding that the campsites since Ainhoa don’t seem to have much grass and it’s not that pleasant putting the chairs and table out on the gravel.
When we finally arrived at the Les Berges du Canal campsite in Villeneuve les Béziers it was getting quite late, the temperature was still well over 30˚C and also incredibly windy. We picked a plot, but then could not get the electricity to work (reversed polarity). We switched to another site which looked like it had a newer power point, but still no luck. So with no electricity, we couldn’t use the fan to cool us down….dang!On top of that, we discovered that one of the supports on the bike rack had broken, so that’s something that will need fixing sooner, rather than later. Finally we dropped everything and wandered over to the cabins on the campsite, located no.16 and said hi to our old friends, Bill & Lynne, who have been staying here for three months. We had a drink and a quick chat, but they were really tired from a day preparing to move into their house on Saturday and Rodney and I were both really tired from the heat and the long drive, after a morning being tourists. So a late shower and bed seemed like the best option and we made plans for Friday.
Two huge loads of washing, some more fiddling with the electricity, a bit of a clean up and then Rodney taped up the bike rack; hopefully it will hold until we get back to England and can order a new part and hopefully we won’t need to buy a whole new bike rack. This was all followed by a quick lunch and then we hooped on the bikes and cycled off towards Béziers.
We haven’t cycled since prior to my fall off the bed and my arm and shoulder weren’t too happy (we won’t mention the knees), so we didn’t get all the way in to the old part of the city.
We cooled off with a swim in the pool at the campsite and then got frocked up for pre-dinner drinks on our tarpaulin carpet. We had to sit out there because Bill is too tall to fit inside Eileen and it really was rather too warm with four of us inside !!! For dinner we all strolled to a local restaurant on the other side of the Canal du Midi, in the main village square. After a three-course meal and three litres of wine and endless catch-up chatting, the staff started packing up around us. Taking the hint, we finally left the restaurant at 11pm to stroll back to the campsite.
This morning we wandered over to their cabin where Bill was nursing a hangover and the last of their belongings were being packed in to their hire car. It now seems rathr sad that they’ve been at this campsite for three months and we’ve arrived just as they leave. Ah well, we’ll have a lazy day today and head off tomorrow down to the Mediterranean coast for a few nights. First of all though, I’ll cook the mushrooms on toast for breakfast.