Day 3: Castles in the sky

Day 3 started off with a visit to the chateau in Carcassonne (it was closed by the time I arrived the evening before). The opening time was later than it was listed online, so I did the short tour instead of the long. The short really isn't all that worth it, so I guess if you have the time, go for the long. Next stop was the Fort de Salses, an impressive looking fort near the coast. Lots of towers and moats. Didn't go in, unfortunately, because I arrived just as their mid-day closing started, so I had to skip the inside because I didn't want to wait 2 hours for them to reopen.


Next stop was Chateau Queribus, one of the Cathare castles. It's perched waay up on top of a little rock with a really nice view of the area in all directions. From there, the next stop was Chateau Peyrepertuse, an even more massive castle perched even more precariously on a peak. Peyrepertuse is just ruins now, but it must have been a really imposing site in its time.


Of course, more really good roads. There don't seem to be any fast & easy ways of getting from place to place in this part of the world, and I'm lucky if I manage more than 60km in an hour. Today, the roads were narrower and more croweded, so most of the time it was slow going. Note to the french, please don't drive down the center of the road unless you know nothing is coming. It's so annoying to be on the right verge going around a blind corner and come across someone taking up most of your half of the road.

From there, it was on to Andorra. Climbing up the mountains through France, I could see snow in the ditches, and see snowy peaks ahead. The interesting thing on the drive up into Andorra, was the sheer volume of traffic coming the other way (ski resorts had just closed) and the fact that there were dozens of fender benders in what seemed to be miles of stationary traffic. I don't understand how they could manage that. The cause of the backup, I think, was customs checks on the French side of the border. What happened to the european common market? The next thing I noticed was just how steep Pas de la Casa (where I stayed) is. It's mainly just a bunch of zigzag streets going up a cliff. Too bad parking was at the bottom and my hotel at the top. The town seems to be not that interesting, just like any ski town, lots of ski shops, bars, skiiers wandering blindly across streets. The final interesting thing I noticed on arrival, was that this seemed to be the town of the walking wounded. Everyone I saw was either limping or on crutches. What's up with that? Is this a sign that the snow is really treacherous? We'll find out.


Pics from the Cathares region are here.