Day 14 (Thursday, September 10, 2009)
After eating breakfast, I settled my bill with Le Petit Versailles and sadly went on my way. I had immensely enjoyed my stay at Le Petit Versailles and my time in the Dordogne region. It was by far my favorite area of France, and one that I will come back to again in the future, probably renting a house for at least a week.
Today was another long day of driving, with my final destination being the medieval town of Carcassonne. Along the way, I stopped off in two other towns.
The first was
Cahors, which is well-known for Pont Valentré, a fortified medieval bridge that was built in 1308 to prevent the English from entering Cahors. Before visiting the bridge, I walked around the city, enjoying the cool morning temperatures and the narrow back-alley streets. While I wasn’t overly impressed with the city itself, I did find it pleasant, but definitely not a must-see place for most visitors. However, I did immensely enjoy photographing the beautiful bridge and taking a leisurely stroll across it. I learned that up until just a few years ago, the bridge was open to car traffic, which must have been such a shame. I was very glad to see that it is now a completely pedestrian friendly bridge.
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| Cahors |
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| Cahors |
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| Cahors |
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| Cahors |
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| Cahors |
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| Cahors |
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| Cahors |
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| Cahors |
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| Pont Valentre Bridge. |
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| Pont Valentre Bridge. |
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| Walking across Pont Valentre Bridge. |
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| Pont Valentre Bridge. |
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| Pont Valentre Bridge. |
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| Pont Valentre Bridge. |
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| Pont Valentre Bridge. |
From Cahors, I drove another 90 minutes before reaching the town of
Albi. Prior to my trip, I knew absolutely nothing of the city nor had I even ever heard its name. While completing research, I had read that the city was a good stopover on the way from the Dordogne to Carcassonne, so I went ahead and planned a two hour visit. Upon arrival in the city, I was pleasantly surprised with its visual beauty. Albi was absolutely gorgeous, with its red bricked buildings shining brightly under the sun and reflecting perfectly upon the Tarn River. The town immediately reminded me of Siena, Italy because of all of the red-colored buildings.
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| Blue shuttered windows in Albi. |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
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| Colorful Albi. |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
After parking the car in an underground garage, I walked through the very clean and quaint streets towards Place Sainte Cecile. Within this massive pedestrian-friendly square was located the town’s two most important sights;
Sainte-Cecile Cathedral and the
Toulouse-Lautrec Museum.
My first stop was the museum, which is home to over 1,000 works by Albi-born artist Toulouse-Lautrec. While I do not tend to be a fan of art museums, both of my guidebooks spoke high praises of the museum, so I hoped and assumed it would be worth my time. After paying the entrance fee of 5.50 Euro, I walked into the main gallery. Although I was unfamiliar with Toulouse-Lautrec, I found it nice that the museum offered explanation sheets (in multiple languages) in each of the rooms, describing a few of the paintings on display. I found it disappointing however that there were only a few galleries of paintings to view, so I did not find it worth the 5.50 Euro entry fee. I guess that just means that I must not appreciate art enough!
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| Exterior of Toulouse-Lautrec Museum. |
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| Exterior of Toulouse-Lautrec Museum. |
Next, I walked over to
Sainte-Cecile Cathedral, first enjoying its gorgeous and very massive exterior. As I walked inside, I said "wow" out loud. The interior was unlike anything I had ever seen prior in a church; aside from being absolutely huge, it was immensely colorful with nearly every square inch being painted with detailed color. The cathedral was originally constructed between 1282 to 1480 in the Southern Gothic Style. I read that the ceiling, which was absolutely stunning with its deep blue and gold hues, has not been restored nor touched in 500 years; quite an amazing feat, especially in Europe!
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| Exterior of Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Exterior of Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Stairs leading up to Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Colorful interior of Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Ceiling of Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Exterior of Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
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| Exterior of Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. |
After visiting the church, I headed towards
Pont Vieux (old bridge) where there was a great view of the city for me to photograph. As soon as the river, bridge, and skyline came into my view, I became giddy with excitement. The view was absolutely phenomenal, with the gorgeous red bricked buildings reflecting beautifully upon the water. Although it was scorching hot outside at this point, I spent quite a bit of time out on the bridge, taking my time to photograph the scene.
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| Gorgeous Albi. |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
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| Albi |
Afterward, I headed back into town, stopping at a grocery store to purchase some food, and then drove out of town. I was very sad to leave; I had immediately fallen in love with Albi and regretted not having known more about it prior to my visit. Otherwise, I would have planned at least an overnight stop as I would have loved to see the city lit-up at night.
I continued along, driving for another 90 minutes upon the windy back-roads of France. I finally arrived in
Carcassonne around 19:00; perfect timing considering there were very few tour buses parked outside the medieval walls. Prior to visiting the city however, I went and checked into
Hotel Espace Cite, which was located just a short walk away from the city walls.
After dropping my things off, I made a quick getaway for the city as the sunlight was quickly waning. Instead of immediately walking within the medieval walls, I decided to partially walk around the exterior of the walled fortress city in order to take some photographs while the sun was still out. The fortress of Carcassonne is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Although there has been signs of a settlement in the area since 3500 BC, the actual medieval fortification was built during the 13th century, and is in amazingly good condition, thanks to a massive restoration that occurred back in 1853.
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| Medieval walls of Carcassonne. |
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| Medieval walls of Carcassonne. |
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| Medieval walls of Carcassonne. |
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| Medieval walls of Carcassonne. |
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| Medieval walls of Carcassonne. |
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| Medieval walls of Carcassonne. |
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| Medieval walls of Carcassonne. |
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| Medieval walls of Carcassonne. |
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| One of the entrances to Carcassonne. |
I had assumed that Carcassonne would be just as touristy as Mont St. Michele. However, although it was definitely filled with tourists, its massive size and relatively obscure location from any nearby major city made it much more comfortable to walk around and explore. There was lots of tacky tourists shops, but much to my surprise, there was also quite a substantial number of restaurants.
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| Carcassonne |
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| Church in Carcassonne. |
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| Cute building in Carcassonne. |
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| Carcassonne |
I decided to go ahead and eat dinner that night (even though I had been planning against it) as I had really wanted to try the famous dish of the area; cassoulet. I settled on a restaurant called
La Girouette, due to its inexpensive thee course menu for 12 Euro per person. In addition to the cassoulet as my main dish, I ordered a pate of pork as an appetizer, and cherry cake for dessert. I wasn’t expecting anything too gourmet or fancy, based on the price, but I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of food. Everything I ate was simple, although quite delicious. I ended up feeling way too full, as is usually the case with those three course menus. However, when a single entrée is only 1 or 2 Euro less than an entire three course menu, it's really difficult to pass up!
After dinner, I walked back to the hotel through the dimly-lit streets of Carcassonne. I had wanted to take some night shots of the medieval walls since they were illuminated by many lights. However, I didn't happen to have my tripod on me, so very few of the shots turned out. In hindsight, I should have driven the car a few streets away in order to get a better overall shot of the entire fortress. If you plan to stay the night in or near Carcassonne, make sure to do this!
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| Carcassonne lit-up at night. |
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| Carcassonne lit-up at night. |
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| Carcassonne lit-up at night. |
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| Carcassonne lit-up at night. |
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