Carcassonne, France

Today was a whirlwind of driving and sites, shopping and food, rich history and beautiful views.

First we drove to Samatan for the famous Monday Market. Here one could purchase anything from clothing to live chickens, bolts of vinyl to fresh cheeses. Artisanal pottery to cheap plastic statues. Mom and I spent 2 hours wandering the streets of the village (and making a few purchases).

Back on the road, we headed to Carcassonne, the one site I really wanted to see after reading Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. It's a midieval village that was recontructed in the 19th century to preserve its heritage. It's probably the best preserved midieval village in all the world.

The town was originally the site of a Roman foritification in the 4th century. It was "modernized" in the 1200's by the king of France. The town that surrounds the castle has has a population of 120 and great shops, restaurants and artisanal products, not just the touristy crap that several other sites we've seen have. Mom and I took a tour of the castle and wished the audio guide gave more history and less design information. It was still worth it to be able to wander the battlements and great halls and imagine life in the 13th century.

After Carcassonne, we decided to drive a bit and find a small town to have dinner. There were plenty to choose from! The first place we stopped looked like everything was closed. It was a Monday night and we wondered if we'd find anything open. Then I remembered that cousin David had a web page on his computer open to a village called St. Sulpice sur Leze, which was on our way home. I suggested we find that and see if anything was open. While our GPS (fondly named Jives) wouldn't take us to the town, we did eventually find it. We hadn't seen anything else open in any other town so we walked into the first restaurant that was open and got a table.

Little did we know we had just stumbled on one of the true gems of innovative French cuisine. With things like fois gras glace topped filet mignon and proscuitto canolli, it was divine! When we came home we told David about our discovery and he was so excited because he had just eaten there for the first time himself...the night before!