Day 1: LLORET DE MAR - CASTILLO QUÉRIBUS - CASTILLO PEYREPERTUSE - CASTILLO ARQUES - CARCASSONE
Saturday, April 9, 2011
6.45 in the morning: Ringggggggg, ringgggggggg ... What do you think if we change the time and sleep 10 more minutes? This is how our weekend of getaway to France, pointing more, to the South of France, we are going to the Cathar and Carcassonne castles.
In the end we left half an hour later than the scheduled departure time, but hey, total, we are getting away!
We left after breakfast, about 8 in the morning to our first destination and first of Cathar castles, Queribus Castle.
This Cathar castle is located in the Languedoc region, in the town of Cucugnan.
It took us about 2 and a quarter hours to arrive and we paid about 10 euros for the highway.
As soon as we enter France, we feel again what it is like to drive at 120 km / hour. Moreover, we can reach 130! We have left for 110 hours that we have been imposed, without making it too clear what it will be for!
Of the whole route, the best section is the last quarter of an hour, where we go up a mountain, where almost all the time we see the profile of the Cathar Castle.
Is awesome. We only ask if the climb will be very hard or on the contrary it will not be as much as we have read.
Before arriving we stopped a couple of times, to take some photos with a tripod
This time I have behaved well and I have remembered to take all the pieces.
We arrived at the parking lot and began to see quite a lot of people dressed in summer totally.
That's when we realize that the car's thermometer is 32 degrees !!!
Can not be!!! What I come with high boots and almost, almost, dressed in winter!
We can't do anything anymore, so there's nothing left but to leave the jacket in the car and get on our way to the castle.
Surely more than one is still remembering "the guiri of boots."
The profile that we see from the parking lot leaves us with our mouths open, so the views from above have to be print.
Queribus Castle. Weekend in the Cathar Castles and Carcassonne
We pass by the ticket office and offer us a passport that for 2 euros more than the original ticket (5.50 '- euros), will be making us a discount of one euro in all the Cathar castles and abbeys that we visit. So in the end we take it (we plan to do the rest of the route again) and with all the documentation, we get going ...
The climb starts strong, luckily there are some shadows and it is still mid-morning, so the sun does not squeeze too much.
- Carcassonne's best Spanish tours here
The slope is quite steep, but we do it quite well, all you have to be careful is with some stones, which are quite slippery.
Before reaching the end and in one of the sections a little more "complicated", they have a rope that serves as a railing, but be careful!
It takes us less than 15 minutes to get to the top, occasionally stopping to take a picture.
The landscapes are spectacular, we can see the Canigou in the distance, looking out, with enough snow.
We began to get lost in every corner of the castle, trying to get an idea of what it would be like at the time it was "alive."
We are there 1 hour and peak, which we fly away.
Queribus Castle
It is not necessary to look for any corner to take photos, they seem to go out looking for you, because we do not stop taking snapshots during the whole time we are there.
We look at the clock and decide that it is time to go to our second point to visit.
The descent becomes even harder than the climb, since you have to look much better where you put your feet !!
In the end we arrived at the parking lot safe and sound, but not without having sweat our thing.
As always we have crossed the road with children who are jumping despite the rise and with older people, who look like children because of the agility they have.
After this Peyrepertuse Castle awaits us another of the Cathar castles, which we have already seen profile and hide from Queribus.
From the distance it is confused with the rock itself, it is not known where the castle begins and where the stone begins. The same shape, the same color ...
If from below it impresses, the closer you get, the more scandalized. Outline the landscape perfectly.
Peyrepertuse Castle.Weekend in the Cathar Castles and Carcassonne
We decided that before eating we will make this visit. So after hydrating a little, we go for the ticket that will get us to the heart of this fortress.
We pay 6 euros per person (for carrying the passport we have discounted 1 euro per person) and we are on our way.
The first section runs through the entire slope of the mountain and gradually ascends, all this in the middle of lush vegetation that makes the climb a bit more bearable. But just a little…
After 10 minutes going up, I think I see "the goal" farther and farther.
This is already being noticed in the legs and I begin to have to stop more than is strictly necessary. They begin to weigh me to the eyelashes and as I always find myself in these situations, I think that from Monday I get in shape!
After a good time or rather, a good climb, we see the entrance to the impressive Cathar Castle: We have already arrived!!
We began to investigate and discovered that we still have to climb more to reach the Chapel of St. George. So I decide to stay in the part where we have arrived and let Roger continue to that part that is further away.
After resting for a while, I begin to look closely at what I have around.
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Is awesome. You can't stop marveling every time you think where it was built and especially when you imagine what life could be like behind those walls.
Roger is in the other area of the Castle for half an hour, while I take the opportunity to "explore" the central part.
Peyrepertuse Castle.Weekend in the Cathar Castles and Carcassonne
After meeting again, we looked at the clock and it is 1:30 pm, so we decided that it is best to start down and go find a place to eat.
But not before returning to take a walk around that part of the castle that Roger has not seen yet.
We begin the descent, in which we invest 15 minutes or so. I almost prefer the climb… going down I find myself less agile and much more duckling in the movements!
When we get to the car, the heat begins to take its toll and seeing the time and especially the distance to any restaurant, we decide that it is best to have an impromptu picnic, with the “material” we have in the car for breakfast the next day (We have booked in an apartment that does not have breakfast and we carry supplies of house, so as not to have to get up to look for a bakery)
The truth is that we cannot have better views, this is priceless, so we enjoyed the sandwich, as if we were in the best restaurant in the world.
After the meal, we decided that it would not be bad to lie down for a little while in the car.
The early bird and the castles are taking their toll!
But in the car we endure less than 15 minutes ... it seems that we are in full August!
Given the temperatures we decided to go to see the Castle of Arques, we put the Garmin in motion and it indicates that in half an hour we will be at destination.
As usual, we start to get on secondary roads, which make us go through some impressive places, but at the same time "kills" us with so many curves, more to Roger than to me, who spent half the way giving heads.
After more than 50 minutes, we arrive in Arques and we will make a detour to take some photos.
Arques Castle.Weekend in the Cathar Castles and Carcassonne
We retrace our steps, since we like the views that we have from far away (along the road from where we came from).
After this visit, we doubt whether to make another castle or go directly to what will be our “bedroom” today, the Adonis La Barbacane Residence.
In the end, the second option wins, so from here we go directly to Carcassonne.
One of the strengths of our trip to the Cathar castles !!
After an hour we enter the city and as soon as we can see through the windows of the car La Cité de Carcassonne, we remain with our mouths open.
It looks like a story, a theme park, made to recreate a story of princes and princesses.
We go directly to the apartment we have booked, the Adonis La Barbacane Residence, 5 minutes walk from La Cité de Carcassonne and we rest for half an hour, before starting up again.
CarcassonneWeekend in the Cathar Castles and Carcassonne
We arrived at one of the entrances in less than 5 minutes and not before going back up another hill !!! It is seen that today we did not escape the sport !!
The first thing we do is buy a couple of ice cream from those giants and sit fresh. This gives us the necessary strength to continue the rest of the day.
Carcassonne
There we began to imagine what it is Carcassonne. Narrow streets, all surrounded by walls and towers that are as impressive up close as from the distance.
A coming and going of tourists and that we are not even in high season!
After giving us this whim and watching the afternoon in front of the Cathedral, we began to wander.
We do not have any planned planning and the afternoon we want to dedicate ourselves to getting lost in this wonder.
Carcassonne
We are amazed at the amount of people we see, but at the same time it is not overwhelming.
A great option to know the history of the city is to book this free tour of Carcassonne Free! or this visit with a guide in Spanish.
We enter the Cathedral and there we rest for a while, admiring the magnificent rosettes.
As always we feel the cool that characterizes these sites.
More practical information to prepare your trip to Carcassonne
- 10 essential places to see in Carcassonne
We also enter some stores, where at the moment we see nothing that catches our attention to buy.
What really catches our attention is a shop full of chocolate “bricks”. Mmm ... our eyes go behind the glass!
It's almost 7 in the afternoon and we are at the main entrance, so from there we decided to skirt La Cité de Carcassonne from its walls, to get back to the door where we had entered in the afternoon.
This takes us half an hour, where we meet very few people and enjoy the late afternoon.
We get lost again in the streets and decide that it is time to stop on a terrace and have a drink.
We stop on a terrace, where we rest for a little less than an hour, with a beer and a coke. All for 6 euros !! Nothing expensive for what we expected in a place like this.
Start to make a dent in fatigue and we decided that it is time to find a place to have dinner.
Without looking for it, we find the famous square full of restaurants, so without thinking too much, we directly sit in one that we see that there is quite a variety of dishes.
Roger eats cassoulet avec canard and I end up with a pizza.
In the restaurants of the square there is no more a soul, everything is to burst and that is not more than 9 at night!
After dinner we set off to the apartment not before stopping several times, to go making some photos of La Cité de Carcassonne illuminated
CarcassonneWeekend in the Cathar Castles and Carcassonne
Is she prettier with natural light or with the dim light with which she is illuminated at night?
I don't know what to answer ... I think I keep the two images of this impressive city.
We return to the Adonis La Barbacane Residence thinking that it has been a full day, where we have discovered much more than we expected when we planned this getaway.
Day 2CARCASSONE - LAGRASSE - FONTFROIDE ABBEY - LLORET DE MAR
