Sleeping in another time

As many times as I have visited Carcassonne www.carcassonne.culture.fr over the years, I never tire of its walls, château, cassoulet or feeling of being in another time (if you ignore the tourists in shorts). This time visiting with a friend, we stayed over safe within the ramparts, something I always wanted to do, but never got the chance. Both of us got up in the night to admire the towers of the château visible out our window.

The next morning we visited the château. I had been there years before because I used it as the scene for a character’s wedding. I had also used the area near the well to burn a couple of heretics in the same novel. The quality of the tour has increased including an audio in English. When I was there before I went through with a French-speaking guide who did his best to make me understand. At the time my French was limited to a few polite words and a couple of less polite ones. One of the new exhibits included a film which was made up of all the movies shot in Carcassonne, some modern, some, old including Costner's Robin Hood. http://www.centralia.ctc.edu/~vfreund/FrenchResources/Frenchslides/LanguedocRoussillon/Carcassone/Carcassonne.html

For all the memories from there including my daughter toting the little girl I like to think of as my French Daughter, to folk singers serenading us by a fire, to other good meals, to research for a book, this was another memory from a memorable place.