The histoire thus far

Aaaaah a bottle of red wine and a roaring fire (plus a troubador musician for good measure), and I am one happy girl.

Tonight I find myself in Carcassonne (as per my earlier and shorter post), and this comes after a rather hectic few days. First we were in Bordeaux and there we enjoyed Spartan but comfortable accommodation. We kept ourselves occupied doing a walking tour of the City (very beautiful as it turns out) and then did a 5 hour winery tour which absolutely sucked. If we did an equivalent tour in Adelaide we would have been returned to our accommodation smashed. In Bordeaux, however, we were treated to three glasses of very average wine over that 5 hour period. Crap. Still, it was so cold back in the town, we were hard pressed to think of what else we would have done had we stayed behind.

So we left that town and trained it to Lourdes. After 5 hours waiting in the station after missing our train; we got to Lourdes, checked in at the coldest and most rude hotel in town (naturally) which included icicles in the toilet bowl and all, and pretty much went to sleep. We woke the next day and went to the Grotto, frolicked in the freezing holy water and then explored the ghost town. Guidebooks dont tell you that Lourdes virtually closes down between Christmas and Easter so there was nothing to do and even less to see.

But we got a decent chance to catch up on sleep, and now we find ourselves in Carcassonne for one night, before heading to Vincent Van Gogh's inspirational town of Arles.

Will write more from there.