Perpignan to Carcassonne

Here we are on Le Petit Train de Perpignan. I thought it was for children but the earliest train was full of school children while ours was adult tourists. Mostly French. I know that because only nonFrench people were given headphones to plug into the tape player. French blared from speakers in the train. It was difficult to take pictures because you're riding on narrow streets and pedestrian sidewalks with buildings in both sides.

Dali was here. He loved Perpignan 

There is only one section of the walled city left. The rest was torn down in 1906 to expand the city. They saved the part that had houses built into the walls.

Even though there are 10 tour trains a day, many people waved and yelled Hola or Bonjour as we went by. Many people in this region speak both Catalan and French. The children's choices for languages on the train were only those two.

There's a lot of construction in the old town. I'm guessing they're trying to attract tourists.

Most hotels close reception from around 1 to 4, I guess for siesta, so when we went to collect our luggage, there was no one to call us a cab. After trying to hail a few, we decided to have a drink at a brassiere and ask them to call us a cab. The guy had to call twice to get us a cab within 45 minutes. He said they were all busy.

Getting the car was a comedy of errors.  I had ordered a compact, like a Citreon C4 but when we finally found it (there are 3 floors of cars, each with row 9 where ours was ) it turned out to be a huge Peugeot which is bad, of course, because we're going to small towns.

Many people,  even in the tourist areas, speak little to no English.  Nicole knew that so she's been studying for a couple of months.  She's doing really well, both speaking and understanding.  I can't understand a word anyone says. She is also doing a great job driving despite the fact there seems to be a roundabout every few minutes. So far, they've all been one lane so you don't have to worry about moving into the inside lane. 

We're driving back roads on this trip. The views along the coast and into wine country are incredible. We made it to Carcassonne later than we hoped so we didn't walk to the town until 7. 

Nicole in Carcassonne 

It's become very touristy so there's not much to do within the city itself--all the beautiful buildings are now restaurants and ice cream parlors but it's still impressive. Lots of people bring their dogs and there doggie waste bins all around.  We had an inexpensive 3 course meal.  I chose best; duck gizzard salad, cassoulet and creme brulee.  Nicole's steak was too tough to eat.

Warm duck gizzard salad

We're moving on to Arles today, provided I can book a condo that has laundry. Otherwise,  we'll just stay here and wash clothes in the river.