Carcassonne to Calais
Trip Start
Feb 10, 2008
1
27
43
Trip End
May 13, 2009
Calais,
France
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Carcassonne looks like a caricature of a fairy-tale palace with it's walls, battlements, towers, etc. It's very crowded because it's mid-summer and crowds of people are attending the festival (Massive Attack is playing in the Arena and I join hundreds of people outside and enjoy a free concert :). This area is called the Languedoc and in the middle ages was famous for its troubadours. In the 1200s it was also the centre of a significant religious group called the Cathars, who were declared heretics by the Catholic Church, and a Crusade was launched against them (the only one internally in Europe), which pretty well wiped them out.
This area is also well-known for Cassoulet and leg of duck confit (slowly cooked in it's own fat), and although the weather was quite hot I did eat the latter dish.
Just outside Carcassonne I came across the Canal du Midi, which connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic. A number of boats were in a lock, and waited while it filled up with water, then quickly untied the ropes and sailed out through the higher level
First view, Carcassonne at night
. Everybody was in bathers or shorts and looked like they were having a great time cruising along the canal.I then drove up into a mountainous area (Black Mountain) before coming out into a beautiful valley, where I drove through a lovely little town surrounded by vineyards called Saint Chinian (Sanch Inhan in the local dialect) and had dinner (Salad with fried cubes of foie gras and apple, and Brochettes of Noix de St Jaques on a yellow sauce & pommes frites) and stayed the night.
Next morning I went to the Maison de Vins and tasted the local wines for breakfast (you have a cleaner palate in the morning :) - white made from chasselas, Rose, reds made from mixtures of Syrah, Carignan, and Mourvedre (I bought a bottle of red which I drank in Rimini about a month ago, excellent), attended the local market, then had lunch at an open air seafood bar of oysters and octopus pie with another glass of wine (the proprietor was very glamorous wearing lots of silver and sunglasses).
This was one of those experiences where everything is so nice and pleasant you don't want to leave, but alas I had to push on as I had to reach Geneva in a few days for my friend Ana's birthday party.
I pushed on to Avignon, which also was having a festival (along the lines of the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, but with the hot sun shining). I couldn't find any accomodation, so I wandered around the festival a bit, toured the Papal Palace (The Papacy moved here for around 70 years in the 1300s), saw the famous Pont d'Avignon, then drove up to Chateauneuf du Pape for the night
Cat on a post, Carcassonne
. I'm sorry to bore you if you don't like wine but I am driving through areas which are well-known to me from labels on bottles and I love seeing these areas, visiting the towns, and tasting the wine. Although, as is said, wine loosens the tongue, I will try and not be more locquacious than usual.
Anyhow, here I am in beautiful Chateauneuf-du-Pape - dinner is:
Salad of avocado, grapefruit, prawns and confit tomatoes
Steamed tilopia (fish) with vegetables sauce
Fennel cream with pineapple sauce
Next morning for breakfast (remember, the palate is cleaner in the morning) I choose a cave (cellar) and go down for a wine-tasting. Unerringly, I have chosen probably the most expensive wines to try - a friendly young man takes me through a half dozen of their vintages, and the wines vary from around 60 to well over 100 euros a bottle. I thank him warmly, climb the steps up to street level without a wobble, then go and buy a Jeroboam (1.5 litres) of 2001 vintage. The day becomes a bit of a blur of driving and wine-tasting (yes, I spit it out, but not always) and I visit a number of other villages nearby and buy a very good bottle of dessert wine called Muscat de Beaume de Venise.
So now it's party time and I head for the tiny village of Lucinges near Geneva. Lucinges doesn't actually appear on my French map so I stop in at a petrol station and browse through a local map and try and memorise enough of the directions to find it, which fortunately I do. Ana has recently moved to Lucinges (from Leysin in Switzerland) to live with her partner Eric and she is pregnant and is having an international birthday party - virtually all the guests are from other countries - Spain, Switzerland, Germany, etc, and me representing Australia
Images in a window, Carcassonne
. The party is fantastic - it starts raining but we quickly put up a tarpaulin while a gigantic paella is cooked and the party continues on until late, and we spread ourselves all over the rooms, couches, and even the balcony to sleep. I meet lots of new people and it's really wonderful how Ana has kept up her relationships with everybody through her various moves, and how people have driven and flown here from great distances for her party. On one of the days I head off with a new friend Mercedes to have a look around the area and we end up having a swim in Lake Annecy (a bit cool), dinner, then get lost late at night for several hours trying to get back to Lucinges. After this very enjoyable interlude I head off again, towards England. I drive north to the Lorraine region of France and stay in an interesting range of places:
Epinal, where I have a meal of:
Terrine de foie gras layered with figs and served with small cubes of jelly and a fruit chutney. Poached rabbit stuffed with minced veal and mushrooms. Dessert - mirabelle (golden plum) tart.
I drink a Pinot Gris 2005 (Ingersheim, Haut Rhin) rich, voluptuous and a bit sweet - perfect with foie gras but too much for the rabbit.
Nancy
My god-daughter is called Nancy, so I have a bit of fun sending an email with the subject heading: to Nancy from Nancy (yes I know it's juvenile humour but I have mentioned before I'm a bit superficial). I visit the Musee des beaux-arts, then eat at a restaurant called Les Cesars - Foie gras - small slice, incredibly rich and delicious, Noix de Coquilles et Saumon in yellow sauce
View of Carcassonne
. Again I drink Pinot Gris 2005 - it's perfect with foie gras, cheese & some desserts, but not good match with main course.Then drive to Metz - I know you're going to be appalled at me drinking half a bottle of wine then barreling down the freeway at 140kmh, but there you go, I did it.
Metz is a very interesting city - it's the capital of Lorraine, was an important Gallo-Roman city, then alternated between French and German control until it finally remained French after WW2.
I stayed in a beautiful hotel in the medieval quarter, right opposite the fabulous Saint-Etienne Catedral. It has one of the most important collection of stained glass windows in Europe, including a number of windows by Marc Chagall.
Can you guess what I ate? - Quiche Lorraine (at a restaurant called Strapontin), then local sausages with a smooth fine texture, with lentils and mashed potatoes, then finished up with Mirabelle liqueur.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg is a tiny country with half a million population and is the only Grand Duchy in the worls, ie ruled by a Grand Duke. It's another one of these tiny, odd European countries I have visited such as San Marino, Andorra, and Monaco - the only one I have left to visit is Lichtenstein. It has taken a different path to most of the others in that it hosts many administrative units of the EU. I spend a few hours there looking at the Palace of the Grand dukes, Viaduct, Europe Square, European Parliament but I don't have time to look through the Bock casemates - what is left of the original fortifications of the city - 3 fortified rings with 24 forts, and 23kms of tunnels, stairs, and galleries that sheltered thousands of soldiers
Battlements, Carcassonne
. Mons (Belgium)
Mons has a huge plaza called the Grand Place, and yes, there are restaurants offering that staple of Belgian beer restaurants worldwide, moules with frites (a pile of mussels on top of fries - how I hate that word, making them all soggy - sorry, I didn't have the stomach to try them), but the place is full of kebab, pizza, French and even a Danish restaurant. The actual city is quite attractive in a north European kind of way, especially the town hall.
I push on back into France for the culmination of this part of my trip and reach Calais around midday. I drive down towards the water and come across what looks like a beach from a distance but actually is a concrete road on quite a slant that goes all the way into the water. I can only guess it may have been built around the time of WW2. On my way back into town I make a brief visit to the cathedral and a kindly lady takes me around and explains its architectural and artistic features, explaining that it is the only church outside of England that is designed in a Tudor style.
Down at the port I go through British customs, where I am put through the usual 20 questions, and the woman officer asks me how I am supporting myself while travelling, and I lie to her and cheekily say I'm quite well off, and she smiles and lets me through, no doubt thinking that I'm another brash Australian.
