Carcassonne is known for its medieval walled city within which is also a cathedral. Yes, that does sound a bit like Avila, but at one time these things were as common as fleas on a mongrel. We can imagine the congestion inside when, prior to a siege, all of the folks who lived and farmed outside walls piled inside to escape the enemy. A time before Porta-Pottys, too. Now those days are long in the past and many shops and eateries populate the interior. Pam again bought a plastic placemat. This and the one from Lourdes add to an already sizeable collection at home. When company comes for dinner in the future we will replace their placemats after every course, not just the dishes and in the process explain how and where we bought one.
Our other goal here was to visit a thermal mineral spa of which there are several in the region. The first one we tried, about 45 minutes driving time south of Carcassonne was Alet les Bains. Its web site said its pools opened May 1 to the public. Our drive into the boonies brought us to a small, ancient looking village seemingly populated by two sullen looking men and an old lady on a porch. Finding the spa had us taking a wrong turn down a service road at the dead end of which we came to the lower of two pools, made out of poured concrete now gone mangy. A man in hip waders was using a long handled broom to seemingly scrub boogers of some type from the bottom and side walls. A nearby woman had a pile of wet laundry and was actually doing said laundry in the thermal water. We tiptoed our Peugeot out of there gag reflex in active mode and then skedaddled back to the "main" road. We later learned that the Alet spa opens on June 21. We're sure it's really spiffy once the long brush and laundry get packed out of site.
The good news is that our secondary target a few kilometres south was just the thing. Rennes les Bains is a modern facility and well organized. The mineral water comes out of the ground at 115 degrees F, with the temperature stepped down some for comfort. The place is further in the woods than Alet les Bains but seemed a different world from there. We spent about an hour and a half soaking in the pool with a complement of like minded people. We chatted with an expatriate English lady from Stratford-on-Avon, she and her husband having retired and moved to the area 12 years ago. Apparently they got a housing deal they couldn't pass up. Anyway, refreshed by all those minerals we had a pleasant drive back to Carcassonne with the weather continuing to behave perfectly.
Stayed overnight May 6 & 7 at Campanile Carcassonne Est La Cite. Nice modern basic hotel.
No comments:
Post a Comment