Having survived the eBike trip along the canals and said goodbye to our guide, Norbert, and our travel companions, Randy and Deb, we settled into our hotel.
The next morning we left our luggage in storage and trundled up the hill to the medieval Cité of Carcassonne. It is truly awe-inspiring. Every corner reveals a different angle on the fortifications, and the little town inside is lovely too. We took the tour through the château and around the inner ramparts with an audio guide. The place is layered with history from Roman times through the 1800s, and the views — both inside and out — are spectacular. Lunch was at Le St Jean, recommended by the hotel desk. Afterward we visited the cathedral, also very impressive, with beautiful stained glass windows.
Back down in town, crossing the river upstream from the Pont Vieux, we moved over to our AirBnB a few blocks away. Dinner was at a local crêperie, Le Blé Noir.
The following day we wandered around the lower, modern town — the exterior of the Église Saint-Vincent and the interior of the Cathédrale Saint-Michel. We’d picked up cheeses, salad greens, and a bottle of wine at the market and supermarket, plus a baguette at the fancy boulangerie (the outrageous price of €1), and had a very fine lunch in. Dinner was at a place by the river, Le Verre d’un…
Our last day called for one more visit to the Cité. It was just as impressive the second time around. Then we retrieved our bags from the AirBnB and headed to the airport for the RyanAir flight back to Porto. All went smoothly, and we’d rented a car for the final leg to Lisbon. The one snag: the rideshare pickup area at Lisbon airport has an enormous queue. A first-world problem, but a slow one.
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