RoadTrip
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2007
1
3
10
Trip End
Ongoing
Carcassonne,
France
Friday, September 14, 2007
Friday night, we had a TOGA party. Hilarious because most of the European kids had never heard of or been to a toga party. But my American friends were totally down and threw one for us. So we drank and toga'd.
Anyway, talking to Ashlee she mentioned that her and Alberto were going to rent a car and go visit Carcassonne. The nerd that I am, came out, and I decided to go with them.
So early Saturday morning, EARLY after my vodka enduced toga party, four showed up at my door ready to hit up a chateau. Ashlee (American), Alberto (Spanish), Naz (Norway) and Thomas (England) and my bad Canadian self set off in Vichy to rent a car to travel about 500km south to hit up the beach and a castle.
Every car place turned us down
the group (minus Ashlee)
. We finally got to the last one and we had a car for us to rent. We had to get a bigger model since Thomas missed the train to Lyon (where the rest of the international kids were headed) so three of us could fit in the back seat. Luckily we had two Europeans driving with us, since niether Ashlee or I could drive as crazy as the French people. Futhermore, they don't have too many automatics. So we set off.
The French country side was quite nice. It was a really sunny day so all the mountains and fields and small towns looked so cute. It really is from a movie.
We first went to the plage (or beach). It was in Montpellier, which is in the south of France (obvivously) :p)
So we found a good spot and decided to chill on the beach for an hour. It was so nice and then we finally went into the water. It was freezing cold, kind of reminded me of Lake Eeire.
A little while later Ashlee and I decided to head out for a walk. We walked down the beach for about 45 mintues or so, and then all of a sudden, EVERYONE WAS NAKED! People in the water were naked, people were laying on beach naked, and people were just standing there, naked. It was crazy. There was even a naked man, building a sand castle with his kid, naked. CRAZY.
So after that intense moment, we decided it was time to head out to Carcassonne. We drove there, and it was so spectacular. It is a fortified city in the south of France that was built centuries ago. Complete with wall, castle and cathedral
The Med Sea!
. We found a nice little place to eat a delicious dinner. Something very french, crepes. I had a Popeye, which was eggs, ham and spinch in a crepe. And then the dessert, which was probably the best part. Crepe avec nutella...I think that this is one of my favourite things since I moved here.
Then it was time to find a hotel. This was a mission and a half. Everything was complete (full). So we drove and drove and drove and found a little motel on the side of the road around 11pm. It was a little bit creepy but still kind of nice. They made us get 3 rooms since there were 5 of us, and only 2 per room. Ashlee and I in the middle room, and the boys divided on the outsides. It was just really nice to get a hot shower.
That morning the made us such a huge breakfast spread. They literally had everything from quiche, to croissants, to ham, to cheese, milk, coffee and about a million other things. Spectacular. It was actually pretty cheap, it worked out to just under 30 euro a person for the room and the giant breakfast.
It was time to visit the Carcassonne again. The fortified city itself is just a tourist hot spot. Very cute on the inside, many little shops, cafes, restaurants etc. The actual castle you can go inside and walk the walls which was kind of cool. They had information on all the of the various rooms inside the castle and the history of the city, who it was built by, who invaded etc. \
We sat down for a quick drink, grabbed a crepe and decided to go home. It was a kind of a long drive since it was a tight fight in the car we rented.
All in all my first weekend here was such a hit.
