On every trip, there are going to be at least a few bumps in the road, hopefully small ones, that later add to the memory of the trip. I was hoping our car trouble would be our only bump in the road. Today, however, was filled with many small bumps.
Our first bump in the road revolved around breakfast. We had all decided we wanted to leave Lourdes as early as possible this morning so we would have the maximum amount of time to enjoy medieval Carcassonne, France's ultimate walled fortress city. We left Lourdes @ 8:30 with the intention of stopping at a McDonald's for pastry, juice and coffee. I never thought I would voluntarily agree to eating McDonald's food, but their pastries are actually very good and Rich and Becky (our coffee aficionados) think their coffee is some of the best we've found in France. What we didn't realize is that the majority of McDonald's in this country don't open until 10:00. After a couple of futile stops, we gave up on the breakfast idea and instead, ate some of the cookies and candy we had in the car (wonderful, healthy breakfast).
Our second bump in the road occurred due to a detour Becky and I decided we needed to take along the way. We had done some reading about a small town called Albi and thought it would be a worthwhile visit. It also looked like once we left Albi there were secondary roads that would provide a straight shot south to Carcassonne, giving us a chance to see more of rural France. We found a farmer's market in Albi where we bought some fresh fruit (finally, some healthy snacks) after which we toured one of the tallest cathedrals I've ever seen in Europe. We also had one of the best meals on our entire trip at a small garden restaurant near the cathedral.
Our bump in the road started as we headed south toward Carcassonne and encountered the first of several closed roads. I'm not sure how many extra miles we drove as we weaved our way around the French countryside, but we finally found our way to Carcassonne and our B&B at @ 5:15. We still had laundry to do, tour Carcassonne and have dinner (shouldn't be a problem, right?) This was our third bump in the road: the LAUNDRY!
Rich and Jerry dropped us off at the laundromat at 6:00 and headed off to get gas and wash the car. It was a very small laundromat (5 washing machines, 2 dryers), but Becky and I were able to snag a couple of machines. We then sat down to read our books and wait. After @ 45 minutes we realized the machines were still on the wash cycle! To make a long story short, there was some type of problem with the water pressure that was inhibiting the cycle to move past the washing phase. We didn't leave the laundromat with dried clothes until 9:45!
By the time we got to Carcassonne's medieval city center, everything was closed. We did get some wonderful pictures of Carcassonne at night, however. Then, to cap the day, our parking ticket didn't work so we couldn't leave the gated lot. Thank goodness there was still an attendant on duty at 11:00 at night!
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| The Pyrenees Mountains forming the French/Spanish border |
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| St. Cecile Cathedral in Albi |
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| Another view of St. Cecile Cathedral |
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| Enjoying our laundromat dinner - pizza and wine |
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| Carcassonne at night |
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| Another view of the walled city of Carcassonne |
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