Carcassonne

In our last post, Talia described our recent trip to Barcelona. It ends with us boarding a train bound for Carcassonne, a town in the southeast of France. (It's roughly halfway between Toulouse and Montpellier, if you know where they are. If not, just imagine a line due south from Paris but stop about 65km from the Spansh border. Or just look it up on a map.) What adventures would await us there?

Something Talia didn't mention about Barcelona is how cheap everything was! It's a major city, but the prices in supermarkets and restaurants compared very favourably to Paris. I suppose the real lesson from this is that it is expensive in Paris, and we've just got used to it...

Anyway, the train ride to Carcassonne was lovely. It was just as the sun was setting, and we had great views of the Pyrenées and the Mediterranean. It was around Maëlys's bedtime, so she was a little grumpy, but we were all still able to enjoy most of the trip.

Water, hills, as viewed from the train from Barcelona.

The only thing that marked our entering France was that the automated announcements switched from Spanish, French, and English to just French. This was strangely comforting, in a way. While Talia is pretty competent in Spanish, I am very weak, and being in Barcelona - while enjoyable - it was very clear that I was in a foreign country.

By contrast, coming to Carcassonne, a place we've never been before, was very much like "coming home". The train station was basically like every other provincial French train station. We made our way to our accommodation (an AirBnB), and spoke only French with the host. We knew all the quirks of the French apartment and the French appliances. That it was all so familiar was surprising, as to a large degree France is still a foreign country to us. But it helped us to realize how much of a home it's become.

The next morning was Sunday, and I ventured out to one of the supermarkets to pick up supplies. (Being "at home" means realizing that not many supermarkets will be open on Sunday, and knowing that those which are are probably only open for the morning.) The town was dead quiet. It was a real contrast from Barcelona, full of people and wide thoroughfares with cars and mopeds. Here, I wandered down some cobbled streets, passing only a couple of people. The other people in the supermarket were tourists too.

One of the main entrances to the walled city.

Carcassonne is most famous for its medieval city. This dates back to Roman times, with fortifications being added over the centuries, to defend against threats from outside (those barbaric Spaniards!) and inside (those dangerous commoners!). After falling into some disrepair, a lot of it was rebuilt in the 1800s in an attempt to restore it to its former glory. As it turns out, a lot of the "restorations" were actually just people imagining what they thought a medieval castle should look like, rather than historically accurate rebuilding, but that seems to be part of the appeal. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Another entrance!

A view over the rooftops. Yes, those are houses - people actually live here.

A view from the ramparts down to the town and countryside below.

A view of the southern end of the city.

As you can probably tell from the pictures, we had cracking weather. It was about 25C (77F) and sunny, with clear skies. Great weather for a holiday!

A window in the Basilica of Saint Nazaire, inside the old city.

You may also be familiar with Carcassonne as the name of a board game. The game, inspired by the real city, involves building cities and roads between them in rural medieval France. We saw it for sale in one of the tourist shops, which I thought was quite appropriate.

The aptly-named "old bridge" over the river Aude.

Naturally, each region of France has its own culinary delicacies. Carcassonne is famous for cassoulet, which is a type of stew consisting of white beans, pork sausage, and duck meat, all cooked in lard for hours. Talia had some for lunch, and didn't need any more food for the day.

When in Rome...

After our trip to the old city, we meandered our way back to our accommodation, which was in the newer part of town. Because there isn't really too much to do in Carcassonne, there was none of the usual "tourist-pressure" I feel of having to go and see everything and maximize the amount of experiences enjoyed. Instead, it was extremely pleasant to have a leisurely time. The next day, we enjoyed a relaxed morning before taking a little boat trip along the canal. In the early evening, we took a local train to neighbouring Narbonne, before boarding the high-speed train bound for Paris. Again, the train ride was excellent. For the first portion, the track mostly hugs the Mediterranean coast, providing excellent views. Then, turning left, it's northward to Paris, through the French countryside. We got home at about 11pm; a sleeping baby and tired parents.

Carcassonne was a lovely break. Of course, it's definitely a tourist town, but that doesn't really detract from the beauty of it. (And we live in Paris anyway, so being around tourists is just part of life...) If we had the time, it would have been great to rent a car and just explore the region, stay for a week or so. The pace of holidaying in rural places is quite different from that of Barcelona, and I'm glad that we managed to fit both of them into this trip. I'm also glad that we did it in this order - the quiet timidity of Carcassonne and the comforting familiarity of France was an excellent sequel to Barcelona. The other way round wouldn't have paced itself quite as well. Roll on our next holiday adventure!

Fontainebleau

Lest our blog become purely baby-related, I wanted to post some stuff about recent travels we have been on. Except... we haven't travelled since the baby arrived. Well, we've made trips around the Paris metropolitan area (which is a pretty big area), but we haven't really been out for more than a few hours or an afternoon or so. Life with babies is complicated!

But, earlier in July, we took a day trip to Fontainebleau, a town about 50km south of Paris. I had been planning to write about our trip, but I never got round to it! Let's do that now.

Fontainebleau is a popular tourist destination for Parisians, mainly due to the nearby Forêt de Fontainebleau (Fontainebleau forest), but also for the Château de Fontainebleau, regarded as one of France's most magnificent. The forest is pretty big, 280 square kilometres; that's approximately the same size as Edinburgh, Exmoor national park, or the borough of Queens in New York; it's just under 10% the size of Rhode Island. The forest is popular for hiking, cycling, horse riding, and rock climbing.

It took us maybe an hour to get there by train, and then a 10 minute bus ride from the train station to the town centre. Apparently it's a popular site with Chinese tourists, and there were signs in Chinese at the train station explaining how to use the buses. For us, since the trains and bus system are all in the "Paris region" transport system, we were able to use our monthly transport passes to travel. A day trip for free! Doesn't get much better than that.

The chateau de Fontainebleau.

The castle has been successively expanded over the centuries by its different owners, which has lead to a multitude of different architectural styles for the different wings. I'll let you judge whether this has a positive or negative effect on the overall appearance:

A view of part of the castle from a distance.

The château is surrounded by extensive gardens, including a lake. You can visit the inside of the castle (apparently the tour is well-regarded), but the weather was so nice we opted to remain outside and stroll the gardens.

Such tasteful decorations in the castle grounds. (Oui, c'est un chien qui faire un pipi.)

Some people relaxing with a picnic by the lakeside.

Another view of the castle from one of the tree-lined promenades.

We didn't venture out into the forest (there was too much to see at the castle, and Talia, being pregnant, only had so much walking energy for the day). Perhaps we will be able to revisit soon and have another exploration, this time with baby in tow!

On the road to Rouen

(Title of this post shamelessly stolen from the Supergrass album of the same name. And yeah, we took the train, so it's not even that accurate.)

Last weekend, we took a short trip to Rouen - we left Paris on Friday afternoon and came back on Sunday afternoon. Rouen is a small city northwest of Paris, about 75 minutes by train. It's the capital of Normandy and is principally famous as having several medieval cathedrals and also as being the place where Joan of Arc was tried and executed. For us, it was a chance to get out of the hustle and bustle of Paris and have a relaxing weekend. For Talia in particular, it was her first time exploring France outside of the Île-de-France region.

The journey begins.

I didn't know that much about Joan of Arc before going to Rouen, so here's a rough approximation of my knowledge. The background to the story is the Hundred Year's War between France and England, which despite the name, did not last for a hundred years (it was 116 years), and was not a war (it was a series of disconnected skirmishes and battles). During this period, the English crown was trying to assert authority over (parts of) France, while (parts of) the French royal family were fighting to oppose it. Joan of Arc was a peasant girl who had a number of religious visions showing a united France, and rose to prominence in leading successful attacks in several decisive battles. (To do this, she wore men's clothes, which was regarded with a mixture of shock and bemusement.) After a while, she was captured by the English (well, allies of the English in any case), and eventually put to death (by burning) for heresy. Given that Joan quickly became an icon of French culture, a symbol of fighting for freedom against an oppressive force*, the town that was responsible for putting her to death has been, at time, a little embarrassed of its status.

[* This is part of the myth-making that I don't really understand. It wasn't as if France was under the cruel yoke of a dictator and they were fighting for freedom and democracy. This was a war to determine which unelected hereditary leader was "rightfully" the leader of France. Not particularly noble in either case.]

Nevertheless, there are a number of Joan-related activities that you can do. Principally, you can visit the 13th-century fort where she was imprisoned.

The fort where Joan of Arc was held prior to her execution.

Rouen recently made most (all?) of their public museums free of charge. Consequently, we had the following exchange at the entrance to the fort:

Man: Entry is free. Well, except for the English. You're not English are you?
Talia: No, I'm American, and he is Scottish.
Man: Ah! American! Well, you liberated us, so you can go in. And Scottish? My grandmother was Scottish, so you're good too.

(Of course, he was ignoring the fact that the Scots fought on the side of the French in the Hundred Years War, including the fact that several Scottish soldiers fought alongside Joan of Arc during the siege of Orléans.)

Once inside, there was a good selection of historical information and Jean-related paraphernalia. One exhibit featured an amusing Franglish translation:

Her "eldbows"; she is "hearing the voices"; "made in biscuit".

The statuette in question. Looks delicious!

This post would be remiss if I neglected to include pictures of the grand churches and cathedrals. It felt like you couldn't go a few paces without bumping into another huge church or medieval tower.

The trip achieved its goal of being a relaxing (yet cultured) weekend away. There are many more regions of France to explore, so hopefully this will be the first of many such excursions!

Saint-Germain-en-Laye

Paris is very big, and there's lots to explore. According to Julián Carax, a character in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's novel The Shadow of the Wind, "one can't see Paris in two days, or in two months, or even in two years". There's too much!

Even so, it can be nice to get out of the city once in a while and explore the rest of France. After considering several options, last weekend we decided to take a day trip to Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This is a small town in the Île-de-France region and accessible by commuter train from Paris. Saint-Germain-en-Laye's main claims to fame are its fabulous chateau and grounds, and the fact that many royals made it their residence. Louis XIV, France's favourite king, was born there, and the chateau was also home to James the VII of Scotland and II of England (the same king) after he was exiled from Britain for being too Catholic.

"Louis XIV was born here". Apparently this is a big deal.

Most of the town is seated on a hill, so you can get a good view of the Paris region, including the skyscrapers that constitute the business district (la défense) and the Eiffel tower.

The Eiffel tower is that little blip in the distance beside the hill on the right.

The gates to the chateau.

Inside the chateau, naturally, is a large archaeology museum, with displays from the palaeolithic to the Roman era. It particularly focused on French archaeology, with displays of neanderthal burials, cave paintings from the south of France, and Gaulish settlements.

A neolithic carving - this one was barely bigger than a fingertip.

A bronze-age Zodiac calendar.

The museum was fascinating, really a lot of information in there. About a third of the exhibits were translated into English, and the rest we slowly puzzled over. When we were ready to leave, we just hopped on the commuter train and were home in 45 minutes! It was very pleasant to find this town. It was far enough from Paris that it didn't feel like Paris (being on the hill and being able to see far helped with that, I think), but also close enough that a spontaneous day trip was not full of travelling. Perhaps we'll take more day trips in the future.

Belgium!

More catching up to do. Here are some pictures from our recent trip to Ghent, Belgium. Cindy, a friend from Columbus, lives there, and four others were also visiting, so it was like a big reunion. Our visit overlapped with the filming of a new Adrien Brody movie, so there were several extras wandering around in medieval garb. It really added to the ambiance!

An extra wearing plate armor! Rory is at the left of the picture, completely unarmored.

A load of extras waiting around for direction.

You can't see it here, but this guy was actually checking his mobile phone. Somewhat incongruous.

The movie set was inside Gravensteen, Ghent's 12th-century castle. There were several people shepherding the tourists around the movie set and into the other parts of the castle.

A view of Ghent from the top of the castle.

A reconstructed guillotine. (The blade is original!) This was in the Museum of Judicial Instruments, which is inside the castle.

The side of the castle, where you can see some of the older, unreconstructed portions.

A view of the castle's highest parapets. We had great weather!

Rory and I at the top of the castle.

There is more to Ghent than the castle, though! It's a lovely town with a collection of churches and gentle canals. It feels a little like a less touristy, more normal version of Bruges (which we visited last December).

One of the larger canals.

Alyssa, Dave, Rory, Rachel, and James.

The back of the church of Saint Michael.

The altar inside the church of Saint Nicholas.

At dinner! Rachel, Rory, me, James, Dave, and Alyssa. Not pictured: Cindy.

Rory and I outside of Gravensteen.

We had only spent three days in Paris before we hopped on the train to Ghent. For a small town, introverted person like me, Ghent felt like the perfect antidote to the hustle and bustle of Paris. I wish we could take a trip to another country every weekend, but sadly academia doesn't pay that well. I'll just have to explore the green spaces in Paris and find my own little nooks to relax in.

Photos of Scotland

We're a little bit behind with posting photos, so here are some highlights from our two weeks in Scotland!

Rory and Jeff at Doune Castle, where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed

Doune Castle

The Scottish Highlands at Glencoe

Glencoe

Rory posing at Glencoe

Incredible sunset at Morar, a remote village on the west coast

Our hotel at Morar. Its address: Morar Hotel, Morar, Scotland. There was only one road in the town.

We took a ferry to the Isle of Mull, where we stayed at the Tobermory Hotel

Tobermory

We drove from Mull on the west coast all the way to St Andrews on the east coast in about 5 hours. Rory's grandparents live in St Andrews and we celebrated his grandma's 88th birthday there. This is from the top of the cathedral tower overlooking St Andrews.

The Castle at St Andrews

Highland cow hat (obviously)

We spent a week in Glasgow while Rory attended a linguistics conference. I took a bus tour one day and stopped at the Botanic Gardens and a number of other places. It was fun!

My first time on a double decker open-top bus

Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow Cathedral

The Glasgow Necropolis is a cemetery that sits atop a hill behind the Cathedral. It's impressive to walk around. And I randomly met a woman there who not only was attending the same linguistics conference, but had also lived in Columbus and was also traveling to Paris by train on the same day as us. 

This video is from the linguistics conference ceilidh (Scottish dance). 90% of the participants had no idea how to do these dances and they still had fun!