France by Bicycle | PART 18: CARCASSONNE

We begin this chapter as tourists, discovering the many splendors of Carcassonne, one of the best preserved medieval sites in all of Europe. This fabulous walled city is a must-see, a true visit back in time and another of France’s many UNESCO heritage sites. The following day our route takes us along bucolic country roads, following the Canal du Midi from time to time and through more gorgeous southern French landscapes of vineyards, wine chateaus, olive groves, and lovely villages. Bicycle touring through France is everything they say it is and more. Along the way, we admire a 1960s era Citroën, which, if you’ve been noticing, we tend to admire a lot. Julianna gets invited to sit inside, which makes her day. We then follow the canal along a dusty trail, turning off to our bed and breakfast in Ouveillan, just off the canal. The guesthouse turns out to be one of the finest we’ve stayed in, very well appointed, warm, and run by the loveliest host. We are so blessed!

Music:

Accordion and Glockenspiel Comedy – JK Productions
Pond Five
081716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-com
a href=”https://www.pond5.com/royalty-free-music/item/81716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-comedy-short-version”Stock Music/a provided by JK_Production, from a href=“https://www.pond5.com/”Pond5/a

Into The Moment – Deskant
Epidemic Sound

Dragon Call – Deskant
Epidemic Sound

Fountain Of Belief – Hampus Naeselius
Epidemic Sound

Kite In The Sky – Magnus Ludvigsson
Epidemic Sound

Silver Waves – Track Tribe
YouTube Audio Library

Ocean Breeze – Timothy Infinite
Epidemic Sound

morning it’s beautiful it’s sunny it’s October we’re in southern France life couldn’t get better [Music] thank you [Music] it’s a rest day we’re climbing up to the top of Carcassonne which was named fascinatingly after the carcass of the pig which was thrown over the walls to make Charlemagne’s Army believe that they had plenty of food and they would lift The Siege fascinating story it worked and it supposedly worked anyway good morning so we set off for the old city and soon found herself slipping into a medieval fantasy world doesn’t it [Music] hear it later there waiting for our Castle a protein Rich local dish beans and Duck and pork sausage so that should take care of us for the rest of the day for the week can’t wait number one there number two here yes sausage so there we go there’s uh there’s our Castle today Juliana has just a duck leg wing and I’ve got the pork sausage [Music] wait for me to burn my mouth Yes exactly wow some bread and a very hungry bee when one is traveling through France there are countless castles that commands one’s attention the country is chock full of sights from the Middle Ages all with an interesting story to tell but Carcassonne is possibly the granddaddy of them all it’s been settled since the late Stone Age was occupied by the Romans until the demise of the empire was the capital of the visigoth kingdom in the 5th Century it was lovingly restored by Viola Duke in the mid-1800s who also restored Notre Dame monsa Michelle and several other French medieval landmarks [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh my God [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] we wandered through the Old Town explored the castle buildings room by room and walked along the Old Town walls we also found ourselves wondering what those strange concentric circles were marked on its walls turned out a Swiss artist was asked to contribute an artwork to commemorate its 20 years as a UNESCO heritage site he installed fluorescent yellow aluminum circles in the manner you see here thankfully they were removed supposedly with no damage to the structure but one can see the stains left over from the project unbelievable [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we explored the town until the sun was low in the sky and we found a fine place for dinner before leaving the wild Fortress for our BNB french onion soup you can just call onion salad necessarily they claim to it we don’t usually do the tourist thing but Carcassonne was outstanding [Music] thank you [Music] good morning this is my morning view while I have my coffee or do I feel like a person yeah it’s a beautiful morning it’s going to be a gorgeous day I have about 81 today sunny I hate leaving this place it’s just so magical leaving Carcassonne on a beautiful sunny morning babe good morning Kirk his own way out there past the little industrial Zone here once you leave the center of the city it looks like any other city but boy it sure is beautiful once you get up there we had a great couple of days well a great day a couple of nights which were awesome beautiful views and uh just a really nice little Excursion into the Medieval World all right good morning beautiful it’s sunny it’s October we’re in southern France life couldn’t get better oh my God you know I don’t think it could but never now we’ll see how today goes we are kind of somewhat abandoning the canal do midi as it’s pretty rough commute wants to put us on a highway we’re going to be on the highway in a couple minutes probably and then we’ll be done with that and it looks like it’ll be mostly some Canal but mostly country roads it’s a bit of a challenge trying to figure out how to get through this section we’ll let you know how it goes and if it’s all good you can follow our lead or construct your own should be a very interesting day we’re heading down to the Mediterranean who will be very close by the end of the day so good morning baby how you feeling good really loaded up on carbs for sure yes and peanut butter I don’t think I want to see another coffee lay for a while yes that’s for sure those are good but a bull will last you for a very long time yeah they leave an impact yeah all right time to climb and a nice little pull off here but pretty little spot I think we’re gonna have a really nice day looks like we’re going through Vineyards all day long so yeah looking good [Music] at this point we’ve been on the road for a little over a month and riding for some 850 miles give or take still it seemed that every day we would wake up and find a landscape more beautiful than the one before this is getting really pretty isn’t it and even though all of our riding had been right here in France one country one culture each Village still seemed unique and fascinating The Vineyards we have seen how many hundreds of Vineyards still brought a sense of awe and Delight with their verdant Rose converging on the horizon and their Bounty still awakened our senses every evening in short we were well over halfway through our French Adventure but nowhere near finished we couldn’t wait to see what the next week’s held for us look at all that beautiful scenery boy oh boy we’re saving the best for last it looks like gorgeous just gotta love this sunny country [Music] the water towers look like castles [Music] love these beautiful landscapes in the Rolling Hills and I love the downhills I’ve never met a downhill I didn’t like what a downhill that I actually didn’t earn good point you should see the view behind us a nice little uphill here [Music] and then I kept seeing this thing way up here but see look at this country we’re going through the hills give you this incredible perspective and beautiful landscapes it’s awesome and it’s changing all the time it’s always a different view you know I love it and I love these downhills nice little uphill above the Valley now the valley on the other side too looks like we might have hit the top but we don’t have to climb over that let’s see I don’t think so though I love these beautiful cypress trees love them love the canal the little towns postcard everywhere you look it’s just so pretty for those of you who haven’t done anything like this this kind of tour is money and time well spent there are those who think the idea of going off to a new country just to ride your bike is a waste of time and effort why go through all that when you can just ride here at home but Juliana’s right to me there is nothing better you can do for yourself than to see the world and to meet its people Nothing brings me joy like riding in a far away land gorgeous just gorgeous olives and grapes all there for you loving this day [Music] look at that that is so gorgeous loving this day [Music] isn’t this kind of day that you just live for these kind of riding days yes it’s the best that’s [Music] thank you and there’s the olive Groves [Music] you want to stop at the top of the hill [Music] well what do you know we’re back to the canal thank you [Music] bonjour what awesome doors they have here cool walls great roads saw wine isn’t it the big wine chateau cooperative well let’s find a shady spot there’s a little park and somebody’s in the uh we could sit at the bench is there a bench perfect wow it’s made it under that bridge lovely lunch at a park bench right next to the canal de midi and we are back on the canal there it is so we’ll see how this Trail is right now it’s a little little loose Gravelly but seems fine boy it’s so Mediterranean climate here you get these uh nice Cedar smells and everything oh it’s great it’s warm it’s beautiful look at all these beautiful Pines I don’t know what they are they smell like ponderosas in Colorado if you find yourself wanting to ride the canal to MIDI but you worry about having to get off the trail and under the road don’t the country roads here are so quiet the drivers are so respectful hardly tell when you’re on the trail and when you’re on the road taking the side roads instead of the canal still very bumpy not at all great for touring maybe it’d be okay for mountain biking if that’s your thing the boy sure is pretty country [Music] [Music] foreign wow foreign [Music] look at all those grapevines that got fried looks like really drying out down here [Music] kind of weave your way left I think [Music] across the bridge [Music] and left [Music] some days are just better than others some days you feel the wind in your sails the sun on your back and Perfection all around you none of us have that many days on this Earth I believe it’s important to spend as many of them filling your cup as much as humanly possible [Music] Vineyard Vineyard and more Vineyard well I have to give it to kamut they found a really good route along parts of the canal dumidy through The Vineyards as well it’s been a great route all day long hats off kamut another good job [Music] Trail still I think it’s gonna keep dropping us in on the canal humidity from time to time it’s a little rough but it’s fine as long as we don’t end up with those stretches where the asphalt is just full of potholes and you can’t get any speed up at all some nice old architecture I mean this canal was put together like in the 1660s this is the oldest thing is incredible and there’s some great old artifacts along here slam a wall with this earring it’s so awesome that’s great foreign about maybe eight miles outside of Oberlin looks like finally we’ve got some new Trail they finally have a stretch here on the other side of the canal after we cross that bridge and this looks authentically new and designed for cycles and you got brand new trees planted here so I wonder if they’re actually slowly working on bringing this canal to MIDI Trail up to speed as it is very little of it is rideable for anything other than mountain biking are really roughing hit kind of thing new picnic table nicely done all right [Music] that’ll jingle your panniers [Music] one of those water towers that looks like a castle tower and the bottom right Citron all right so nice thank you foreign through here you can really tell the canal do midi is famous for the Boating it’s not famous for the biking but it’s famous for the Boating there are so many people here all of tourists on boat great well our booking.com option fell through sent us a message saying you know what time are you checking in and just as a reminder we don’t provide towels or Sheets if we look back at the original posting and they didn’t mention anything about towels and sheets and we got another room for about twice the price in town so we’ve got about another four miles to go along the rocky but lovely Canal the movie let’s hope they have a restaurant in town thank you finally I was watched back there trying to get through the bridge and you could tell they’re going way too fast and I’m looking at the guy and he’s just scrambling at the wheel trying to correct it it just slams into the side of the canal [Music] foreign [Music] and at the end of another fabulous day we rolled into the village of oberlawn a couple of Miles off the canal our first room we booked in town had fallen through but on our second swing we hit a home run with Maison [Music] an incredible BNB with fabulous ground well-appointed rooms and run by the loveliest host and lovely little garden space out here so nice look how gorgeous this is oh and there’s the pool what a lovely little pool excellent little hotel here little bed and breakfast we made ourselves at home and found a fine dinner and explored the town and then headed for bed the most comfortable bed Juliana had found on our entire trip bonjour [Music]