Carcassonne, France

It's been over two months ago since I went to France, but here is the blog post better late than never:

December 4, 2009 I got on the earliest bus out of Harold's Cross that was headed to the airport so I could meet Casey and Abby so we could head to Carcassonne, France. The airport we flew into was quite small and none of us had bothered to look up how we would get transportation from the airport into the town. When we stepped outside it was raining and luckily there was a bus right outside waiting. For €5 each we were able to take the 10 minute bus ride in. The bus driver informed us that he would be stopping at the train station and he would then take those of us staying to respective hotels. Abby, Casey and I were in the back of the bus so when we got to the station they nominated me, as I had the guesthouse information, to go up and tell him the address. Coincidentally there was a woman from Ireland who was taking a weekend holiday as well and she was staying in the Millet Guesthouse too. The bus driver pointed us in the right direction and we got off and wandered down some pretty deserted streets. A bit of wandering and trying to figure out the numbering on the doors led us to the right place.

Mei and Richard greeted us when we rang the doorbell and then ushered us up to the second floor. We entered the dining area and they seated us around a table to finalize our payments. It was then that we learned our friend's name, Angie. John and Mae also gave us maps of the area along with suggestions for things to do. After dropping off our bags and freshening up a bit we decided to start our short trek toward the castle. Being a small out of the way town, not a whole lot was going on even though it was a Friday night. We would find a lot more people in the area Sunday who made day trips to visit. We checked out some shops and settled for a small French pub within the castle walls for dinner that night. Casey and Abby both had French Onion Soup, which Abby let me try and it was delicious. I had a ham and cheese baguette which was really good too. We celebrated our girls night with sangria and stories for about 5 hours. We finished the night off with cake and a hefty tip for our waiter for having one of his tables occupied the entire night. We did make sure periodically that we weren't holding anyone up but there were always free tables. The walk back was a bit rainy but we had fun with it, dancing and whatnot which made it go a lot faster than the walk up to the castle.

Saturday we got on a train to Montpellier. It was really nice to see some of the French countryside and a train was the best way to do it. We obviously stuck out because a couple of French girls about our age asked us where we were from and what in the world were we doing in that part of France. We just laughed and told them we were traveling and exploring, I'm sure they thought we were crazy. It's really no different from when I ask people why they have come to Franklin or Clarion, but we tend to take the places we live in and know for granted whereas those visiting are able to see it through brand new eyes. There was a Christmas market going on in town so we perused the stands before going to the Musée Fabre. They had a fantastic exhibit of work done by Jean Raoux, a Montpellier artist who influenced the history of French art in the XVIIIth century. I was able to gather most of what I needed from the explanations in French that were posted on the wall. The language barrier in and of itself made me really wish that our language programs in elementary and secondary school were better or even existent for that matter. If I can manage it, I'm definitely picking up a language, probably Spanish, while I'm still in school. After the museum we grabbed sandwiches on baguettes and I even got a delicious raspberry tart. We explored the city a bit more before catching our train back to Carcassonne.

Sunday we decided to head back up to the castle. We spent the day perusing shops and dodging other tourists. There was a band that walked around to different areas of the castle and they seriously played all day. They must have been exhausted, but they had quite a following audience. Alongside them were a couple of men on stilts and a couple of other men puppeteering giant sized puppets. That evening we ate at a restaurant which wasn’t very busy and the owner spoke very little English. What he did say to us dealt a lot with American movie stars which was quite an entertaining way to have someone relate to us. After dinner we were exhausted so we turned in for an early night. At that point I was itching to just get back to Dublin. I was quite excited on Monday when we headed for the airport with Angie. The flight was just over two hours but it felt like forever. When we touched down at Dublin Airport I got this overwhelming feeling that I was home. I was so excited I could barely contain myself. I waited for the 16A bus back into Harold’s Cross and I revelled in the fact that I could call this country, that had been foreign a mere three months before, home.