About a week or so ago I left Nice, and its beautiful beaches, to travel to Agen, and its beautiful countrysides, via a short stay in Carcassone. I took the train from Nice to Montpellier where I missed my next train, due to the delay of my first train, but managed to rearrange my ticket and got on the next train to Carcassone where my Mum and Pedro were waiting for me.
When I arrived we drove through Carcassone, which we would visit more in-depth the next day and continued on to Malvies, a small village in the country where we were going to reside for the, following two nights. Upon arrival in the village we had a very difficult time trying to find the hotel, as it turns out that it was actually somebody's second house that they were renting out. Thankfully, a nosey old woman stuck her head out the door and asked what we were doing, and with my broken French we found our way to the 'hotel.'
It was a very old house with a patio outside, swimming pool, and enough space for us to spread our things all around. The owner's were a bit peculiar though. The woman, who was originally from Canada and had moved to England when she was young, was a very friendly yet aggressive woman who pointed out very quickly that if we broke anything or did anything wrong than we would be paying for it. She even went as far as to mention that she had my VISA number on file! All-in-all it was a pleasant stay though.
The first (and only) full day that we were there we went in to Carcassone to see one of the most well-kept and well-preserved castles in the region. There are bits and pieces of ancient walls all around the south of France which they proudly call castles, and any village with a bit of old wall around it is called a Bastide. The castle, and surrounding walled village where people still live, in Carcassone was very impressive indeed and we spent the majority of the day walking around. Unfortunately my camera was either stolen or lost in Nice, and so I was unable to take any photos of the structure, but luckily my mum had her camera so we weren't completely at loss.
It is fascinating to see so much history spewed about everywhere. You can't help but envy the richness and antiquity of all the small, and large, buildings, of the bridges, and of the cobble-stone pavements. Of course you have the McDonalds and H&Ms mixed in with it all, but even they have been designed in a very respectful way. Well perhaps not the McDonalds, but the street stores have been.
The day after we were back in the car and on the Dunes, a small village near Agen where my Grandpa and his wife have a beautiful house (with pool!)
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