Wednesday was another long traveling day. We packed up and said goodbye to Burnside Cottage leaving the village of Gunnerside in the glorious Yorkshire Dales and headed out in our trusty red Kia towards London Town. We reached the A1 (M1) and pointed the steering wheel South. The distance to London Heathrow Airport is about 235 miles and the traffic was rush hour all the way. The number of lorries (semi-trailer trucks) puts I-80 at home to shame. Three or four lanes most of the way.
We reached the National Car Rental return spot Near Heathrow airport, turned in the car in a surprisingly quick and easy manner and then loaded our 6 pieces of luggage into the van for a trip to the airport to grab a cab for the next portion of our journey. Our plan was to taxi into London, hop on the Eurostar train through the Chunnel to Paris and then drop three of our suitcases at a “Left Luggage” store before boarding the high speed TGV train to Bordeaux, our eventual destination for the day in southwest France.
Best laid plans always go awry. Brexit has caused a massive delay at the Chunnel station; all luggage has to be scanned, all passengers have to go through not only TSA style walk through devices but then through passport exit control from the UK, step into the next line for passport control into the EU, and then onto the train. Wrestling our 6 pieces of luggage onto the train was a feat, however due to our first class seats, there was plenty of room in our coach for all the luggage. The ride was smooth, the meal and wine included were very tasty. So far, so good.
Arrival in Paris at the Gare du Nord station was on time. We wrangled the luggage out the door and into the taxi line which had at least 200 people with all their luggage. Finally, at 2:30 we crawled into a taxi for the run to Montparnasse station to catch our TGV. Traffic was horrendous and it took nearly 45 minutes to reach the station. Our train left at 3:06 - we missed it, nor did we have a chance to drop our luggage. We stood in another line for nearly 30 minutes to get our tickets reassigned. We were able to catch a 4:06 train, but our 1st class tickets were altered to 2nd class. No meal and little luggage space for our plethora of crap! We managed to tuck it all in, and polished off the bag of chips and bottle of water we were carrying in our backpack. Arrival in Bordeaux at 6:25 and we pushed our luggage over the cobblestone streets the four blocks to our home for the next two nights - Hotel Particular., exhausted, sweaty and glad to be at the end of a very long day.
We and our bags climbed the 25 steps to our 1st floor room in this lovely remodeled apartment home. The room is really a small apartment and the bottle of wine we had packed in our carry-on suitcase was most welcome and we settled in for some crackers, wine, and a bit of reading before tumbling into bed.
Friday morning we arose refreshed and showered to head out and explore this city which neither of us had ever visited. It is a large and very old city, famous for its weather and its wine. The city is a much smaller version of Paris, filled in the old town area of walking streets with shops, sidewalk cafes and lots of people, although fewer dogs and children than in England. The weather was spotty, one moment clear and sparkling, the next a torrential downpour - the latter gave us ample excuse to pop under umbrella covered cafes for a coffee, an omelette and croissant, or a sandwich and glass of wine. Plenty of people watching available.
We paid to take the tram in to the Place de La Bourse which is the entrance to the old city. Since we had not had breakfast, we traveled a block or two and settled in for one of the many things the French do better than we do - the Omelette. Perfectly done with cheese and ham (no champignons however) and moist. Mark felt they were skippy with the ham but Deb, as usual, disagreed. The first deluge started while we were at this restaurant and it was a doozy. Within 10 minutes, here came blue skies and sunshine for our 2 mile walk along the Unesco historic tour and saw many old sights in the city. Unfortunately, Deb has pictures but most will have to be unamed because we left the map in the car!
We did see the the 15th century Tour Pey-Bergland, a free-standing belfry for the Cathedrale Saint-Andre, with it’s golden 19th century madonna on top and the Gros Cloche, a huge clock in one of the many gates the old town. Our favorite was the Water Mirror which reflected the entire Bourse. Suffice it to say, it was an absolutely beautiful town with great weather until….
We sat down for lunch at what seemed like a nice place and it wasn’t terrible. Every time we try to speak French, they either shake their head in denial or start speaking English right away. Luckily, this was the latter so Mark was able to order his Croquet Monsieur and Deb had a big pile of Frites. Wine was also consumed and when the 2nd downpour started, we ordered another glass. Then within minutes, the sun was out again and we were back on the road. By 4pm, we had about had it and hopped on the Tram to get back to our hotel. We didn’t have tickets but we noticed that no one was showing theirs anyway, so we just hitch-hiked to the train station, bought a couple of fromage en baguette sandwiches and went back to our lovely mini apartment to eat, read, shower and relax.
Saturday is another travel day. Deb replied to about 50 emails from clients in the morning and then we headed to the train station, Gare St. Jean, for the Hertz office. Easier said than done. We logged at least a mile around the train station before we found it. then another 45 minutes to negotiate the paperwork, although the staff was very nice. We drove back to our Hotel Particular to load our bags as we had, presciently, not drug them over the cobbles again. Since we missed our left luggage appointment thursday, we negotiated with our landlord, Julien, to leave our three bags for pick-up next week on our way back, much to our relief.
We departed Hotel Particular at 11:50 but then spent nearly 45 minutes getting lost in the construction zones and byways of Bordeaux. We finally made it to the A2, another divided, limited access highway and directed the DS (we have no idea of the brand of vehicle) to our destination of Carcassonne. We arrived around 4:00 PM to our “Guest House” and our rooms on the second floor (what we would call the third floor) and we’re thankful for leaving our three larger bags behind. The Guest House is a charming building built in the 1850’s and houses four apartments. We have a rooftop view of the castle and a very, very modern bathroom. We opened a bottle of wine and planned our strategy for the evening, glad to be over with another strenuous travel day.
Following our rest-up we went down the steps and out to explore the city of Carcassonne. The city, occupied since Neolithic times, is located in the plain of Aude, along the historic trade routes between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It was occupied by the Romans until the fifth century. The medieval Citadel overlooking the city is magnificently preserved and spectacular looking at night. We wandered the old town walking area, looking in shops and trying to find a place to eat. As is was a Saturday night and none of the restaurants opened until 7:30 we were discouraged. We finally walked by one interesting looking place, Le Bistro D’Alice (Alice’s Restaurant) and so logged onto their website to make a reservation. We found another cafe to have a glass of wine and kill some time until our reservation time and then walked back to D’Alice for our seating.
Dinner was marvelous; as Carcassone is reputedly the birthplace of Cassoulet, this is what Mark ordered. Deb went for the Lapin, roasted with frites. We accompanied this with a bottle of Minervois red wine and wandered home a little tipsy and very satisfied with our discovered meal. We climbed up one more flight of steps beyond our room for a nighttime view of the skyline and then down to cozy into our little room for the night.
