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  • Day 31

    Food porn and exploring Carcassonne

    September 23, 2017 in France ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We'd arrived in the dark, so the next morning was our first chance to look around. The hotel is on a quiet street, and it is only a ten-minute walk up the hill to the Cité Médiévale. This UNESCO-protected site sits high above Carcassonne, and its walls dominate the skyline. Since the pre-Roman period, a fortified settlement has existed on the hill where Carcassonne now stands. In its present form it is an outstanding example of a medieval fortified town, with its massive defences encircling the castle and the surrounding buildings, its streets and its fine Gothic cathedral. Carcassonne is also of exceptional importance because of the lengthy restoration campaign undertaken by Viollet-le-Duc, one of the founders of the modern science of conservation.

    Meanwhile down below, on the banks of the Aude River, there is the old town of Carcassonne with its narrow streets interesting architecture. By comparison it is almost new, merely dating back to the Middle Ages, and that's where our hotel is located. In the shadow of its smaller but more famous sibling, the ‘La Cité’ citadel. Known as the ‘Bastide Saint Louis’, it features typically French bars, shops, cafés and restaurants,

    We thought that we'd start out by doing the walk up to the Cité Médiévale. When we got there things were fairly quiet, and Brian was able to take plenty of photos while relatively unimpeded by massive tour groups and narcissistic individuals taking selfies while posing in front of the spectacularly beautiful views. Cité Médiévale is amazing in that no matter where you turn there's a new and photogenic perspective of the place. As the morning progressed, the crowds really started arriving in droves and the place filled up with tourists, Brian still managed some shots which shouldn't require too much PhotoShopping to eliminate all the tourists, though it was challenging at times.

    Like so many of the tourist hotspots we'd visited over the past couple of weeks Cité Médiévale is full of souvenir shops, food shops and restaurants by the dozens, all designed to part the hordes of passing tourists from their euros, dollars, pounds or whatever. In amongst all the cheap plastic garbage and the unashamedly kitsch items there are many quality souvenirs, but they tend to be very expensive at these places. In terms of the food shops there and elsewhere in France, it doesn't matter whether one is looking at boulangeries, lolly shops or patisseries (Brian's downfall) the food is always presented beautifully and it's of high quality. Buy something as simple as a ham and cheese baguette and it will come from a display where everything is laid out with geometric neatness and is irresistibly inviting. One can't help but want to buy it - and a few other items at the same time. When you receive it, it is usually packaged beautifully. The same goes for the patisseries, where you just stand there salivating while deciding which of the many different items on display you should buy. Unlike the cakes in Australia which generally look better than they taste, we found that the French cakes and pastries not only look good but taste fantastic as well. Then there are the sweet shops, which generally also sell small biscuits in a range of flavours. Everything is packaged and displayed beautifully and it is hard to resist the temptation to buy nearly everything in sight. Food porn, indeed.

    We then took a step forward in time, relatively speaking, and browsed the shops and narrow streets of the old town. Again, highly photogenic and very interesting. There are two beautiful squares, Place Carnot which is in the centre of town and filled with old shops, and Square Gambetta which is much more open and modern. Both are very appealing. Three mornings a week there's a produce market in Place Carnot, and we reached the square an hour or so before the stall-holders were packing up. While it was quite a bit smaller than its counterpart in Lyon, everything still looked beautiful and very tempting - more food porn. We noticed some posters stating that the following day, which was a Sunday, there was going to be an annual so-called Gourmet Market in the square and we decided that we must get to that.

    Speaking of food, as we have been, we were determined to try the feature dish of the area, cassouelet. The one we had for dinner contained duck, and fantastic it was too. We really like this place.
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