Day 3.
Our third day started with another charming breakfast at the hotel, and the weather was a bit breezier and cooler today. Still got my shorts on and got my legs out though, obvs! We had a mooch around town after breakfast, and this place really comes alive in the daytime especially on a Saturday it seems. It was really bustly and there was a brill market at the Place Carnot (scene of the burnt cassoulet crime!). It was a fruit and veg market with a couple of cheese and meat stalls thrown in for good measure, and it was the most trad French scene you could imagine! With an accordion player on the corner to boot! It was really vibrant and really cool. We then wandered further around La Bastide, and went off piste a bit to the northeast part of the town - not much to report there, as it's mainly residential, but it was good to see a different part of Carcassonne. Our meanderings brought us back to the centre of town again, and on a whim we went to the art museum on the Rue de Verdun. It was free entry and looked from the outset like it would be a modest collection, but actually the Musée de Beaux Arts was huuuuge! It went on and on, with some impressive and important works. I can't remember the name of a single one, but I promise you they were! There were some modern pieces that were a bit s***, (like "Study in Yellow" which was actually RED, "Trois pommes" which only featured TWO APPLES. Ridic...) but each to their own! The main classical bit of the gallery was much more interesting for me. And it was air conditioned - BONUS!
On our wanderings earlier we had picked up tickets for a boat trip on the canal, and we had just enough time to squeeze in a lunch before the 3 o'clock departure. The first restaurant we tried was closing lunch service just as we arrived - argh! So we hurried to a place we had passed a couple of times called Bistrot d'Alice. They had a table, and we were seated quite quickly, but then the service, whilst very bouncy and smiley, was just a bit too slow for our purposes. My lateness anxiety kicked in a bit, and legs a-jangling we wolfed down the lunch (which was v tasty!) and then ran up to the canal at the top end of the town, all the while with the Countdown theme tune playing in my head...
We got there at 14:59! However the thoroughly miserable woman in charge reprimanded us, muttering that we should have boarded 10 minutes prior. Whatevs! We got our seats on the little boat and went on a very sedate cruise up the Canal du Midi. The trip lasted about 1h45, and took us through two locks and afforded some great views of the medieval city in the background. It was narrated by the multilingual Helen who gave us little snipettes of info in three languages as we went. It was built in the seventeenth century by Royal commission to link the Atlantic and the Mediterranean seas, and is now a UNESCO world heritage site. The scenery was very lovely, and it was a gentle way to spend the afternoon. So gentle I nodded off a bit...but it was deffo worth it!
The canal tour made me feel very lethargic, so we headed back to the hotel for some lazy time. I managed to catch some early evening rays, and took a dip in the rather lush pool. Our choice for dinner this evening was on the next street over from our hotel called Le 104, which was again recommended by the hotel owner. Andrew fancied a good veggie place to eat, and he suggested this restaurant to us as a vegetarian/vegan friendly restaurant. There were, like, two veggie things on the menu and the rest pretty meaty - this is France after all - so we ended up having burgers! Yum yum yum. (In fact I had half of Andrew's too, as he couldn't finish his and he's a feeder. Double yum!) I also had some scrummy organic beer called Ginette. The best a man can get...
Which all made for a satisfying end to the day. No cheese today though! Quel dommage. I'm sure I can make up for that tomorrow. Tomorrow brings a trip to a haunted house! Woooo! See you then xx