Etap Hotel Carcassonne Salvaza

I have many favourite sayings. One of them goes something like this; "everyone brings joy to this house, some by coming, some by leaving." Of course there is the flip-side to that. Some places I'm happy to see, some places I'm happy to leave. I suppose, as a traveler, leaving should always bring joy. I mean, if you're not moving anywhere, then you're not really traveling are you? Of course leaving some places bring more joy than others.

I have been known, on ...

I can't complain about my tasks here at Tabithas. When I first arrived we spent a couple days working on the driveway, patching holes in the gravel, and pouring cement gutters to prevent too much water running down and forming grooves. The driveway is long, and seriously rutted in sections, a lot of work remains. Something ...

Animals. This place is filled with animals. The goats roam free, grazing where they please. Sweetie the dog, constantly close by, a sucker for attention. The cats spend their days eating, napping and cleaning themselves; but I guess that's what cats do. I've never understood the appeal myself. A rooster and four hens; egg layers that have all but ceased to lay eggs, destined for the oven soon, I suppose.

But no animal deserves more ...

I've come from the land of pig, olives and tomatoes, and landed right in the middle of wine country. The scenery here is dominated by perfectly straight rows of grape vines, climbing their way up the rolling foot hills of the Pyrenees. With strong influences from both the Atlantic and Mediterranean, the area allows for slow even ripening of the grapes.

When I was in Carcassone I was approached by some sort of religious missionary (I didn't really care to ask him ...

... dog, Donald the duck, and cats, that may or may not have names.

Our task for the afternoon is installing a new wood stove. It must have something to do with the time of year that I volunteer on farms, but this is the third wood stove that I've been involved in installing. Each one has been a unique experience; In Spain I used a jackhammer with Martin to blast a hole in his stone wall for the chimney which was fun. The stove we're installing today is like none-other ...

... 8211; doh! Still, I’d walked part of it, and I was free to walk between the walls and on parts of the outer walls where it lets you.

Just went through the streets of the city for a bit, it’s very easy to walk around the whole lot in like 10 minutes or so. Most of the buildings are now either one of three things, a restaurant/café, a hotel or a gift shop, but there was one exception – I saw a sign pointing towards torture… it turned out to be a museum on the ...

... over winter, still a few tourists around though. Carcassonne is a medieval walled town with an intact castle. It's very "king Arthur", to give you an idea. The walled town is beautiful with loads of cafe's restaurants and shops. It also has a quite sizeble fantastic Basilica. Stunning stained glass windows. We did the whole tour in the castle. It was quite scary all the on top. You can tell by the photo's that I really had my doubts...... We ...

... we got away, we headed for Carcassone (where Ian was hoping to visit a massive Medieval castle) and found ourselves a campsite. It was great to hear that Cadel was still in Yellow! We got up and had a cooked breaky on the camp stoves, then headed to Chateau de Carcassone. It was a massive fortified city really (like the ones you see in the musketeer movies!), with some 52 defensive towers. We had a good couple of hours ...

... where defenders could drop rocks and weapons on the attackers. Then attackers had to run 50 feet in full view of archers to get to the first floor. The hoardings were wooden covers that defenders could shoot arrows and throw stones in full cover. Carcassonne was run by lords, not by the French king. Lord Trencavel of Carcassonne tolerated Cathars, people who were considered heretics by the Pope. When Pope Innocent III ...

... de mètres plus loin se tient un marché maraîcher : c'est décidé, on dînera aux fruits. Au cybercafé, avec ses prix cyberchers (1 Euro le quart d'heure), on écrit rapidement deux ou trois messages, et on constate que les autres, Ariane, Mélodie et Pierre-Luc, ne nous ont pas écrit. Tant pis, espérons qu'ils vont bien et qu'ils trippent fort. On se dirige lentement vers la magnifique ville fortifiée qui surplombe le reste de ...