After a rushed morning (Alan was coaching) we headed off to the airport to travel to Carcassonne. As usual Angela was stopped by customs, the contents of her bag scrutinised and then swabbed! The flight was fairly uneventful apart from the lack of water to make hot drinks, the man opposite Angela avidly reading his bible then disappearing to the toilet regularly with his bags and an extremely bumpy landing. Carcassonne is probably the smallest airport in the world. You can be in the queue for passport control and reach over to reclaim your case from the carousel (which many people were doing)

We had opted for a chamber d'hote, which was surprisingly jolie and in the shadow of the medieval city. It was by now early evening so we took a gentle stroll to see what was there.

Although full of tourist shops it is a remarkably pretty place with lots of restaurants and bars too. Angela had worried that we would struggle to find a restaurant to eat in on a Saturday night, so had made a reservation, but with so many to choose from it wouldn't be a problem. We headed out of the city to have dinner in a recommended restaurant that turned out to be next door to our b&b.

It turns out that Angela, despite having last studied French in 1984 was fairly good at understanding what was being said! We even managed to ascertain that we were only 2 hours drive from Spain.

The owners daughter (approx 6 years old) was helping clear plates and enjoying 'working'. Angela asked the owner for a piece of paper and set about making her an origami flower (thank you Gareth for this skill). It nearly became a disaster as the daughter studiously observed and Angela realised that after a couple of glasses of wine she couldn't remember how to do it! Muscle memory kicked in and the day was saved.

Finally we took a stroll under the stars, across the ancient bridge, then headed off for a much needed night's sleep.