Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Day 7 Argeles-Gazost to Lumieres, Provence

An early start today for a 6 hour bus ride across to Provence. A few of the group had a quick ride to stretch the legs before we left.




On the way we stopped at Carcassonne for a couple of hours around lunchtime. Carcassonne is a fortified medieval city with the city wall dividing the old city and the new, and is a world heritage site. It is situated at the top of a hill and the lanes are actual city streets full of tourists, locals and cars. 

It was incredibly hot in the old city but we managed to find a cafe in a shady spot to our enjoy one of the local dishes for lunch, chèvre chaud salade (warm goats cheese on toast drizzled with honey, served with salad). It was too hot for the other local dish, cassoulet. 

The cathedral is beautiful and was a sanctuary from the busyness and heat of the streets. Built in the thirteenth century, It has stunning stained glass windows with gothic architecture featuring  vaulted ceilings. 

Provence is more stunning than I expected. Everywhere you look has amazing scenery. Our hotel, Hotel de Notre Dame des Lumieres is a refurbished monastery with a beautiful pool which our group used each day to cool off and a bonus if air conditioning in the rooms. The wifi service however did not cope with the volume our tech savvy group tried to pump through the network.

Au Revoir
Sharon

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