carcassonne

we stayed last night in the medieval walled city of carcasonne. they old town (la cite) is an excellent example of a medieval stronghold, with a moat, crennellations, barbicans, huge gates, and three walls. the interior fortess was Nottingham castle in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner. if you have seen the movie, you have seen most of Carcassonne.

despite the rain and general dreariness of the evening, we had a nice cozy meal of beef and duck stew, a local specialty. to be honest, Carcassonne was a bit of a disappointment. although the medieval influence is strong here, and tourism is its only industry, we found it a bit tacky, and in general, odd. there are a lot of "spiritual" shops full of magic crystals and buddhas. the church has beeb decommissioned by the catholic church because it lacked a congregation and they moved the diocese to the new town. the only museums we saw were about the inquisition or medieval torture.....we are happy to be leaving this place.

the town may have been creepy, but our hotel was gorgeous, and had a huge bath tub, which helped ease the coldness of the rain.

today is our first wedding anniversary, and we will hopefully get to dip our toes in the mediteranean sea on our way to Provence. anthony and stacy have booked us a place for the night, and keep telling us that we'll be camping in tents. i am sure we'll have a great time ;-)

jason brought a beautiful watch for me from a cute shop in crossroads as an anniversary present. he also wrote up some great "coupons" for future use to cover the traditional gift of paper for the first anniversary. i am so lucky to have such a thoughtful husband. especially since i seem to have forgotten his card at home, and my plan of buying him a cool medieval map or book has turned out to be more difficult than I expected. sigh. so we are on the lookout today for something special...and hopefully in english!

I love my husband!