{"id":734,"date":"2012-06-23T14:15:17","date_gmt":"2012-06-23T13:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=734"},"modified":"2025-11-23T05:54:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T05:54:34","slug":"down-south-with-the-thomsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2012\/06\/23\/down-south-with-the-thomsons\/","title":{"rendered":"Down South With The Thomsons"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the second day of week\u00a0nine, we left the very busy campsite at A L\u2019Hombre Des Microcouliers in Trebes and parked Eileen just outside the walls of the medieval city of Carcassonne.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Carcassonne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We each paid our \u20ac8.50 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\u2019s still brilliant, lovely to stroll around and I don\u2019t think Walt Disney could have done it much better.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Carcassonne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We stayed in the old city for a really nice lunch, which included an entr\u00e9e of slices of goat\u2019s cheese on slices of French stick which is then lightly baked and placed on a bed of mixed leaves.\u00a0 I\u2019m definitely going to whip this one up at home, so simple, but so delicious.\u00a0 After a bit more of a stroll, we drove Eileen further west in search of gas and a supermarket to restock our now\u00a0rather depleted fridge.\u00a0 We also splashed out on a large ground sheet as we\u2019re finding that the campsites since Ainhoa don\u2019t seem to have much grass and it\u2019s not that pleasant putting the chairs and table out on the gravel.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Carcassonne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

When we finally arrived at the Les Berges du Canal campsite in Villeneuve les B\u00e9ziers it was getting quite late, the temperature was still well over 30\u02daC and also incredibly windy. We picked a plot, but then\u00a0could not get the electricity to work (reversed polarity).\u00a0 We switched to another site which looked like it had a newer power point, but still no luck.\u00a0 So with no electricity, we couldn\u2019t 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\u00a0that’s something that will need fixing sooner, rather than later.\u00a0 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\u00a0three months.\u00a0 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\u00a0both really tired from the heat and the long drive, after a morning being tourists.\u00a0 So a late shower and bed seemed like the best option and we made plans for Friday.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t need to buy a whole new bike rack.\u00a0\u00a0 This was all followed by a quick lunch and then we hooped on the bikes and cycled off towards B\u00e9ziers.<\/p>\n

\"\"
On the Canal du Midi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t cycled since prior to my fall off the bed and my arm and shoulder weren\u2019t too happy (we won\u2019t mention the knees), so we didn\u2019t get all the way in to the old part of the city.<\/p>\n

\"\"
As close as we got to B\u00e9ziers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 We had to sit out there because Bill is too tall to fit inside Eileen and it really was rather too warm with\u00a0four of us inside !!!\u00a0 For dinner we all strolled to a local restaurant on the other side of the Canal du Midi, in the main village square.\u00a0 After a\u00a0three-course meal and\u00a0three litres of wine and\u00a0endless catch-up chatting,\u00a0the staff started packing up around us. Taking the hint,\u00a0we finally left the restaurant at 11pm to stroll back to the campsite.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Lynne and Bill in Villeneuve les B\u00e9ziers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 It now seems rathr sad that they\u2019ve been at this campsite for\u00a0three months and we\u2019ve arrived just as they leave.\u00a0 Ah well, we\u2019ll have a lazy day today and head off tomorrow down to the Mediterranean coast for a few nights.\u00a0 First of all though, I\u2019ll cook the mushrooms on toast for breakfast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the second day of week\u00a0nine, we left the very busy campsite at A L\u2019Hombre Des Microcouliers in Trebes and parked Eileen just outside the walls of the medieval city of Carcassonne.   We each paid our \u20ac8.50 to go inside the castle and ramparts and discovered that although there has always been a castle, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8161,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions\/8161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}