PARWICH.ORG

I’ve been toying with whether or not to put this blog on our website because it really is beyond our area, but hey if you don’t want to read it just keep scrolling.  If however you fancy a few days away keep reading.

We have just come back from a long weekend in Carcassonne in Southern France.  The reason I am sharing our trip with you is because it was fabulous, easy and refreshing and you might fancy doing the same trip.  We are incredibly lucky having the choice of three good airports so close by.  On Friday we flew from East Midlands and at 5.30am you sail pretty quickly down the A50, so it only took 50 minutes.  If you pre-book your parking 24 hours in advance it is cheaper, we were in Carpark 7 and there are constant shuttle buses, so it took us 15 minutes from parking to walking through security.  We’d booked our tickets online with RyanAir, which means that you check in online & print out your own boarding cards and miss the queues as long as you only have carry on luggage.  For three nights Ben didn’t have much so the one bag held all my bits (except the travel plug which I forget – help no straightening tongs!).   We picked up one of the cheap flights which regularly appear, £57pp inclusive.  Carcassonne is in southern France, fairly close to the Spanish border.  It is a fascinating place of two halves, the Roman/Medieval walled city which looks like something out of a Disney movie and the 18th/19th century city within the bastide.  Two days are plenty to explore these two areas, but we added on an additional night so that we could hire bikes & cycle along the Canal du Midi & through some of the lovely french countryside & villages.  In the summer they have lots of concerts on from classical to jazz & opera to pop, top names appear like Diana Ross, ZZ Top etc.

Our B&B was an excellent choice, with only three ensuite rooms and situated midway between the two cities, a 10 minute stroll either way.  Getting to & from the airport is easy, either a bus that meets every flight & drops off throughout the city for 5E per person (45 minutes) or a taxi for 13Euros (15 minutes).  Our host spoke fluent English having worked for Laura Ashley for 20 years & this designer influence was obvious.  The accommodation was real value for money 70E/£55 a night for the room & breakfast.  She recommended us to several different restaurants and this is a real advantage when staying in an unknown place.  We gorged ourselves for 3 nights and in the one restaurant the food came pretty high on my all time favourite meals (fresh scallops with pan-fried foie gras, a massive fillet steak with asparagus & dauphinoise potatoes) – presentation & quality were outstanding & the price compared with England was refreshing. 

The one thing you have to remember with flying, certainly with Ryanair is that you are only allowed to take liquids (face cream, toothpaste, lipstick, suncream etc) in bottles of less than 100ml.  We ran foul of this on our return when I wanted to bring a range of cheeses home.  The more ripe ones, brie’s etc were confiscated, not because they might stink the cabin out but because they are soft and we could have concealed potential ‘bomb’ making equipment in the middle!