Carcassonne
We’re always looking for ways to break up a long drive, or interesting sites along our journey to a new destination. Driving from Toulouse to the Languedoc region we saw “Carcassonne” on the map. Now I have to be honest – what brought us here was a shared reminiscence of playing Carcassonne, the board game. After digging it out of the closet to play another round, we decided we had to go.
Driving by, we admired the medieval city atop a hill. The double ramparts surrounding the city with their pointed turrets make it look surreal – like a place with this surreal architecture would only exist in cartoons.
We stayed no more than a couple of hours, aware that many describe the interior of the Cite de Carcassonne as a tourist trap (over 2 million people visit a year). Plus it was hot, and the desolate landscape inside the medieval town made it feel even hotter.
Languedoc-Roussillon
Regardless we enjoyed our brief visit, and continued to our last destination: Château Les Carrasses in the region of Languedoc-Roussillon. We spent nearly a week at this dreamy winery in the middle of nowhere, with a pool, restaurant, and some trails through the vineyards to fill our last few slow-moving days with.
The area was beautiful, the hotel quiet, and we enjoyed the peacefulness of our surroundings. We often had the pool to ourselves with our daughter, and realized that these are the benefits of traveling off-season!
