Toussaint Vacation

First, on a completely unrelated subject, I would like to note my sincere objection to the movie Beowulf. It's being really heavily advertised in France right now, especially Paris. It's hard not to walk through a metro or train station without being inundated by photos and promos of the film. I remember reading the poem (or at least the Cliffs' Notes version) in high school and thinking it was stupid then. Now they've animated it and turned it into something "sexy". And can we talk about the Sparta ripoff in the trailer when he says "Je suis Beowulf!" Translation: "I am Beowulf." Watch the trailer, it's at the very end and if you don't think the tone and enunciation aren't exactly the same as the "This is Sparta!" line, then perhaps you need to watch it again...

Now on to what this entry is really about. I just got home from my Toussaint mini-vacation! I went to Carcassonne, in the south of France. Not really on the coast, closer to the Pyrenees, but it's known for being one of the best-preserved walled-cities in all of Europe. I stayed in the old walled city at the youth hostel. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling to Carcassonne. All ages are welcome, it's clean, nice, and very centrally located for all things touristy, except the train station.
My train arrived at 5:30 am after a very restless night's ride. Since I wasn't allowed to check into the hostel until 15:00 I dropped off my bags and began exploring the old city. And here are some photos from that exploration:
Some of the towers. There are Roman towers and some from later times. The area of Carcassonne has been inhabited since Neolithic times and has gone a million reincarnations. Before the idea of a state existed it was popular because it is near several rivers, not too far from the Mediterranean and it's a good stopping off point before crossing the Pyrenees.

That's Madame Carcas. She guards the bridge. Legend has it that she is responsible for the name of the city as it is today. She was the ruler when Charlemagne was attacking the city. She trickily made it appear that the city had enough food to last a long seige, when in fact the citizens were starving. After Charlemagne saw the excess food and began to retreat, Madame Carcas sounded trumpets to declare her victory. The soldiers began to say "Carcas sounds!", which in French is "Carcas sonne!" and hence the town became known as Carcassonne. In reality the name is probably derived from the Roman name for the fort there, but it's a nice story!

Here's the drawbridge to enter the city. There's only two ways to get into the city today. The entire city lies at the top of a rather large hill (my legs were not particularly pleased to discover this fact) so it's hard enough to reach, but then you have to circle the entire wall to enter. There are two walls, the exterior and interior. This is the Porte Narbonne. The bridge goes over the moat and it the simplest way to enter the city. Otherwise you have to hike down into the moat then back up to the outer wall entrance. Moats are really a strange thing. For some reason, Americans have this idea of a water-filled ditch with crocodiles and piranhas or something. In fact, they were usually just large ditches. It made it harder for your enemy to get to the fortress walls. They couldn't just roll up with ladders and climb on in if there was a huge ditch surrounding your castle.

Ok, so I was thinking that it would be nice and warm. And according to accuweather.com and people who arrived the weekend before I did, it was. Unfortunately Carcassonne gets two different winds, the names of which escape me right now. One is warm and moist from the Mediterranean. The other is cold, wicked, fast, and brutal out of the mountains. From my makeshift hat, can you guess which type of wind I had an encounter with? Yes. My entire vacation was vandalized by chilly wind. *anger*

There's the area between the two walls. The outer wall is there on the right, and the inner wall is on the left. I walked around the entire city between the two.

A view of the actual castle within the walls. And some more views of the fortress walls...

There's vineyards all over the Languedoc region, where Carcassonne is located. I didn't get to try any wine, but I did trespass onto a vineyard to get this shot of the city!
And finally, a great view of the city from the Pont Vieux, the pedestrian bridge to get to the city. On day two of my vacation I went to Lastours to see some Cathar ruins. Where is Lastours? Who are the Cathars? What kinds of ruins did they leave behind? Well that is all for another post. Stay tuned!