Thornock Happenings 2016: France Trip Post # 3

May 16 – Carcassonne – Friday

Friday was our first day trip! We decided to get up early again. It’s nice and peaceful around the port in the morning, and when we get going early we can do a lot more during the day. Especially since everything closes so dang early!

We got some pain au chocolat (croissant with chocolate in the middle) for breakfast again and used the train station’s internet. Then we waited for our train for like an hour. It left at 8:30 for Carcassonne!!

First Class, baby! We bought our rail france tickets on a day that they were doing a promotion. First class was 20% off, which made it cheaper than 2^nd class. Traveling in luxury! Really, we just got a little bit bigger seat.

Our train got into Carcassonne around 11:30. There were lots of stops along the way. We went to find the tourist office to get a map or bus information, but the office was closed. Why? We have no idea. Then we went back to the train station to see if they had one, but none of them were free so we just looked at a large map on a board and figured we’d find our way. I had to use the bathroom now, so we decided I better go before we left the train station. We had to pay 30 cents for it. I used it, and then Spencer decided he’d just use it after me because we didn’t have another 30 cents in change. Lucky for him, I saw that it said it self cleans after each use, so I said I better leave my foot in the door so it doesn’t close all the way. After he came out and the door closed we heard some sprayers go off inside. Hahaha. We laughed about how terrible it would have been if we had let the door close with him in there.

After that, we started walking toward the Old City, but the walk goes through a lot of shops. We stopped to buy a baguette to go with our babybel cheese and crackers that we brought with us.

It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the Old City. It’s really beautiful.

There were lots of people and cool shops lining the streets. There was a big cathedral, and lots of hills. We explored for a couple of hours and bought some souvenirs.

The city was a fortress, so there’s a city wall going around the whole thing with archer slots and lookout towers.

Spencer talked with one of the shop owners about Marseille soap, which is apparently famous, so we see it being sold in quite a few shops. Even all the way in Carcassonne.

There was a museum about medieval torture, but I think it would have made me sad and/or be really gruesome, so we passed on that. After we saw everything we wanted to see in the Old City, we went back to the new part of Carcassonne. We stopped by a pastry and chocolate shop on our way back. The chocolates were like 50 dollars a pound, so we got a pastry instead. We walked to a park to eat it and the oranges we had packed for lunch. At one point a piece of Spencer’s orange peel blew away in the wind and a pigeon though he was throwing food. Soon enough, there were at least 10 pigeons making their way toward us. Spencer hates pigeons. Haha.

Our reservations were for the 8:30 train going back, but by the time we had seen everything we wanted to see it was only a little after 4. Better to have more time than feel rushed. We checked to see if we could change our reservations, but all the trains were full because it was a Friday. So we sat by the river and watched the boats go through the locks.

We listed to The Count of Monte Cristo for a while, and I fell asleep on the grass. Spencer woke me up when the hour-long chapter had ended. Apparently I missed the most important 30 minutes of the book so far! I had no idea that I fell asleep. He summarized the parts of the chapter that I missed while we walked along the river for a while. We did a lot of walking that day! We sat down on a bench for a while to watch some ducks and look at all the boats along the river. Then we went to find some dinner.

We ended up getting a kebab pizza. It was alright, but the meat on it was strange. I would probably have picked one with tomatoes and mozzarella or something if I had known. After we ate, we went back to the station to wait for our train and to buy a drink called Yop to share. It was basically a drinkable yogurt. Pretty good.

Our train left at 8:30 and we both fell asleep almost immediately. I woke up about 2 and a half hours later and dozed on and off for the last 30 minutes. It was almost midnight by the time we got back to Marseille, so we just went right home and collapsed into bed. It was a long day, but Carcassonne was beautiful and fun.