Carcassonne.

We are now staying in the French town of Carcassonne. It is an ancient city on a hill surrounded by double walls. The fortified wall is 2 miles long and has 56 watch towers. The new town is on the flat ground below and so Carcassonne’s old town stands out for kilometres around. It is the largest medieval town in Europe and even inspired Walt Disney to design Sleeping Beauty's castle on it. 

Having a rest after we climbed all the steps

This is part of the history of Carcassonne and how it got its name that I copied from the internet.

In 760AD “Pepin the Short” wrested southern France from the Saracens, except for Carcassonne – he just couldn’t breach it. But he figured that eventually, they’d starve within its walls and surrender. But Dame Carcas had other ideas – she fattened up their last pig, and had it thrown over the city’s ramparts. Their enemies figured if they could waste such an animal, they must be well-stocked. Once the enemies retreated, Dame Carcas rang all the bells of the city in celebration. “Carcas sonne” (Dame “Carcas rings” the bells) is where the name of the city came from, or so they say.

In front of the old statue of Dame Carcas

The new statue of Dame Carcas

We stayed outside of the old city and underneath the walls. The walk up to the castle was very, very steep and dad doesn’t know who’d be silly enough to try and take over it. He said that they would probably give up from exhaustion before they had even climbed the hill to the stairs. We also did an audio tour of the castle and learnt how they defended it. Carcassonne was on the crossroads of France to Spain and the Atlantic to the Mediterranean so lots of armies wanted to attack and control it.

 The thing was there were sooooooooooo many traps that no army would even make it into the first room of the castle. First there were the double walls and watch towers that went all the way around the city. Soldiers could spot the enemy coming from miles away and pull up the draw bridge. All the ramparts and walls had arrow slits.  If the enemy got past the ramparts they still had to get past the keep and through the barbican before they got to the castle walls.

Catapult stone balls. When they ran out of
stone missiles they used the enemies heads.

When they managed to get through the walls they would think that they would be straight into the castle, but they weren’t! The inner keep would open up and there would be a semicircle where lots of archers would stand and fire arrows. This was called the barbican.  If they somehow got past the archers there would then be a dry moat to cross and more archers and catapults firing at them. Some of the archers even had fire on their arrows, so to keep the wooden watch towers from burning, they would put wet animal skins around and that would protect them. The enemy would definitely not get in after all this, but there were still many more traps after this.

 They had murder traps where the ceilings of the castle gateways had holes in them and stones and boiling water and tar was dropped on the unsuspecting enemy. A portcullis is a heavy iron door that was suspended over the gatehouse and the ropes holding it up could easily be slashed by a sword and the portcullis would come crashing down with the huge spikes impaling the enemy.  It was really gruesome. There is even a board game called Carcassonne where you can build a castle and battle the enemy.

Charlotte

That night we stayed in the old city to walk around and have dinner. I chose some of the local cuisine. A very hearty dish of cassoulet, a slow-cooked bean casserole with pork sausage and duck. It was very filling but I still had room for a flaming creme brulee for dessert. All very delicious and very French.

There was an English couple sitting next to us in the restaurant and as they left the old lady told Charlotte that the bathroom in the restaurant was haunted.

I was busting and couldn't resist a visit.

So through to the back of the dark restaurant I ventured and then up the creaky stairs and into the Dames.

From inside the cubicle there was a very definite sound of footsteps approaching but never actually passing me. The wall to one side of me at eye level seemed to be oozing blood. I certainly had the creeps but I could talk myself out of it at this stage. Then I heard a scream coming from the other side of the toilet door. It sounded just like Charlotte playing a prank on me so I thought I would get her back and spring the door open on her. I flung the door open and it swung straight back at me. I jumped around the corner to get her but ... No Charlotte.

I was all alone in the dark. As fast as I could I ran back down the stairs where Charlotte, Paul and Maisy were finishing off their desserts. It was definitely not Charlotte I heard but now I have my very own ghost story to tell.

Woooooohoooooo!

Peed My PantsLee