Care­ful where you point that! Medieval joust­ing in Car­cas­sonne, France

I just posted a new gallery on Flickr of some shots from our recent week­end away to Car­cas­sonne in the South West of France.

I had been through Car­cas­sonne Air­port sev­eral times en route to Mont­pe­lier for work, but had never vis­ited the city. After read­ing Kate Mosse’s “Labyrinth”, it was high on my list of places to visit. It has a lot of his­tory, hav­ing being the cen­tre of the Cathar reli­gion, and it is blessed with the weather!

Some travel details:

1. We flew Shan­non Car­cas­sonne with Ryanair out on a Sat­ur­day and back on the fol­low­ing Mon­day. This went as smooth as ice. Many com­plain about Ryanair, but I find them fan­tas­tic, and long may they have a huge pres­ence at Shan­non Air­port.
2. If you are only vis­it­ing Car­cas­sonne and not the sur­round­ing coun­try­side, there is no need to worry about rent­ing a car. Indeed, I have found that to be a trial at the air­port there in the past. There is a bus just out­side the tiny arrivals hall which does a cir­cuit of the city and all the main hotels for €5 a head. Just let him know where you are going when you get on board.
3. We stayed at the Mer­cure Hotel, which is less than 100m from one of the main entrances to the medieval Château Com­tal. As it was our wed­ding anniver­sary get­away, I ordered a bot­tle of Cham­pagne, which the Hotel duly obliged. They were nearly embar­rassed when let­ting me know the price… Let’s put it this way, I couldn’t buy in an off-license at home what they thought was expen­sive for Room Ser­vice in a Hotel in France.
4. We spent most of our time ambling around the Château Com­tal, and took in the Medieval Joust­ing. That was great for pho­tos, so don’t miss it.

On to the photos: