I haven’t written a blog for the last few days because we haven’t done very much of note. We had a couple of lazy days hanging around “home” – one of the days helping Cecily and the twins to pack up and leave. What a sad day that was! Packing up at the end of holiday is miserable at any time, but to add to angst, first Cecily returned her hire car to discover there were scratches on the bonnet and they would make her pay for it, then Blaise got really sick. We didn’t want them to go as we knew the house would feel so empty without them. When Chris returned from the airport having dropped them off, we had a very quiet dinner by the pool.

Chris and I were full of resolve to hit Carcassonne early the next morning, but Nick and Michael started to complain of feeling sick, so we left them at home and went to St Julia for lunch instead (yes I realise that makes us sound like terrible parents but they really didn’t seem very sick to us!). St Julia is another tiny medieval village about 5kms away and it is very pretty (but I still love St Felix the best!). The restaurant was packed, (mainly with gay couples as far as I could ascertain, which gave us great expectations of the quality of the fare), but they found us a small table, and we had the menu du jour. Chris and I have decided that lunch time menu du jour is a great way to go – it usually includes at least 3 courses, you usually get no say in what is served so you end up eating a range of local, seasonal dishes that you would never have ordered for yourself, and it is nearly always delicious! The meal was very pleasant, not least because there were only two people vying for each other’s attention, and we spent the rest of the day swimming in the pool and reading books.

This morning felt like ground hog day, but we actually made it out of the door by 9.30 a hit the road for Carcassonne. On the way there I tried to engage the children by telling them some of the interesting stories that surround the castle. For instance, it was originally built by the Celts in 500BC, but when the Romans came to town, around 100AD, they built their fort right on top of it. Carcassonne used to be in the southern point of France so it was the scene of many battles and saw several changes of owners over the centuries, including the Moors around 800AD. There is a legend that Lady Carcass, the wife of the Moorish king who lived in the castle, won a battle against the attacking Francs, using only her wits. Her husband had been fatally wounded in battle and the people within the castle were beginning to starve. She responded by getting one of the last remaining pigs, feeding it up on grains and then throwing the fattened pig off the castle ramparts at the attackers. Her message was clear – “We have so much food within the castle that we could stay here comfortably for months yet”. The Franks turned around and went home.

Then of course, Carcassonne was the scene of a potentially huge siege in 1204 AD when the Crusaders were hunting the Cathars. For some reason that is not clear, Roger Trencevel, the nobleman of the castle, surrendered and ended up being thrown in the dungeons of his own castle where he died 3 years later.

So the castle has seen some amazing events and we were all really looking forward to seeing it, but as we crossed the river into the heart of Carcassonne ,we were unprepared for how big it was! It was restored in the 1800s and it is really an amazing sight.

We crossed the draw bridge and Michael was especially fascinated to learn about all of the techniques that were used to keep intruders out of the castle (see his blog) including moats, drawbridges and murder holes! Inside of the first set of castle walls (there are three) is a living town full of shops, restaurants and even hotels. We went on a guided tour within the heart of the castle and learnt some more about its design and history. It is an amazing and impressive place and both boys loved it!