Europe: Let's Do This. : Carcassonne: Just turn right at the castle.

Hard right at the castle entrance

We arrived by train late in the evening in Carcassonne in France. Our Google map directions seemed pretty straight forward . . . until a “hard right” onto Notre Dame got us lost. Maren thought I had lost my mind when I turned us directly into the city’s massive stone ramparts. (She didn't know our hotel was located in the walled-in (i.e., old-timey) part of town.)

We wandered around stone walls and stone gates, still no sign of our hotel, Le Logis des Remparts. We eventually wandered back out of the stone mayhem and asked for directions at a new-timey hotel nearby (kudos for having the game Carcassonne in the lobby!). The front desk assistant unveiled to us a map of La Cite; the walled-in city of Carcassonne. Everything was clear and we returned to the castle city to find our hotel. The owner was kind enough to leave us a note and key to our room, which itself was located up some also very old-timey spiral wooden and stone steps.

By the time we went looking for dinner, nearly everything was closed. We had read that things close earlier in France. We spotted a bar/tattoo place, and a guy leaving the joint told me, “Mange bon!” meaning good eats, so we went in. All they were serving was a cheeseburger and fries but luckily it was the best burger we have had in Europe, and probably one of the top in America. Also on the way back to the hotel we stopped into a gas station and found curry flavored potato chips, which did not disappoint.

They next morning we toured the main castle and the north ramparts, which included some old roman towers. It was really impressive and Maren let me spend a lot of time staring, taking pictures and imagining shooting invaders with a crossbow.

Next up: Lyon for our last nights in France, then it’s onward through Switzerland to Germany.