Crook in Limoux

This is the Aire we are staying at in Limoux.  It is very quiet, it is very close to the centre of town, it sits on a river and it is free, also with free services!

We went for another walk about later yesterday afternoon but this time we crossed the river to check out the other side of the town ... 

... it is basically the residential area of Limouux. 

This is the museum of the piano! 

The railway station is a strange affair ...

It handles about 5 trains a day.  I say train ... it consists of one carriage!

Here is my train spotting crew ... patiently waiting !

There is the Aire, on the banks of the river Aude ...

This morning I woke up feeling very peculiar ... I couldn't focus my eyes and felt nauseous, the result being I spent most of the day in bed.  Elaine looked after me well ... she fed and watered me, made me take evil tasting herbs and 'candled' my ears while I was trying to sleep!!

Apart from being my nursemaid, Elaine also went on a couple of walks with the dogs and finished off her latest creation ...

She made this complete thing out of various flotsam and jetsam she has found on her travels.

What a clever girl she is ...

Tonight I am feeling a lot better, so we will be on track for more travels tomorrow!

Onto Limoux

We had a lovely relaxing weekend at Fanjeaux, where we also caught up on a few chores!  Elaine hand- washed the clothes whilst I hand washed the van ...

The Aire was virtually deserted at midday but by nightfall it was packed to capacity, with more and more motorhomes turning up as the night went on!  A cyclist arrived and asked if he could pitch his tent in front of our van.  I gave him a cold beer and we had a good chat ... he was a young American with French parents.  He had been spending some time in France catching up with his relos and now he was cycling across France on his vintage Italian racing pushbike!  (Unfortunately I forgot to take any pics.)

But I did get one of the clean van before the crowds arrived ...

We also had a few more strolls around the lovely hilltop village of Fanjeaux ...

And sat for a while at the lookout - looking out ...

Such a fascinating place ...

Our intention today was to move onto another Aire about 25 ks away, once again it sounded like another interesting village. 

However, when we arrived there the Aire and the village had been overrun by Pikeys and their caravans so there was no room at the inn!

We drove on for about 50 ks until we reached the small town of Limoux, which had a large free aire right in the middle of town.

We parked up next to our twin, however we are the 'Braidbar'-Rapido motorhome and are much more shiny than our French neighbour!

We strolled into the centre of the town along the riverbank ...

Taking a few pics on the way ...

We sat in the square for a while drinking coffee and people-watching.  

It is very quiet as most of the shops are closed on Mondays ... 

Once again it is a lovely spot.  

We are really enjoying our time in France - I can't emphasize enough what a lovely country it is, in all respects.

The chiens love it too and get plenty of fusses wherever they go ...

The temperature is in the mid 20s, so it is perfect for strolling around ...

Loved this church, sandwiched between two buildings ...

On a very sad note we were shocked to hear of the passing of Mo from NB Balmaha, their blog was one of the first we started following many years ago.

We met them in person in March 2014, in Stone, and had a very funny night out with them in the pub.  We regarded them as narrowboat royalty, and rightly so!  You can read about our meeting here.

Our thoughts are with Ness and family at this sad time xx

Fanjeaux

 We left the aire at Carcassonne this morning.  As it was a 'pay by the hour aire' (after 8am) we left at about 9 am and thought we would find somewhere near the actual City to park up and have a look ... but it wasn't to be as it was just too busy.  We pulled up for a cuppa along side the Canal du Midi and got the maps out to try and find a little village to spend the weekend!

A lot of the French roads are tree-lined like this one but you have to be careful not to run off the road as it would be 'goodnight Irene'!

We only drove for about 15 minutes when we spotted today's destination ... an interesting looking village on a hill ...

The village is called Fanjeaux ...

As a bonus it also had an Aire to stop in and as an added bonus it is free (and has services)!

The war memorial was interesting ... a cock sat on the top and on all four corners were shells!

Once again it is a lovely little, medieval village which we checked out this arvo ...

The old market barn ...

Now matter how small the village the church is always impressive ...

We love walking around these villages - every turn is a wow moment ...

The view wasn't too bad either ...

Here is the old girl - very happy to be up in the hills again ...

 The boys and I are loving it too ... 

An especially happy Sammie ...

In the distance we could see the Spanish Pyrenees ...

Arty shot ...

Another lovely day and another great find ...

Finished off with a nice drink at the local pub, which also doubles up as a Newsagent (as you do!) ...

We will stay put tomorrow and take in the ambience!

Manly Ferry To Carcassonne

Our destination today was Carcassonne, but before that we stopped off at Trebes to check out the Canal Du Midi.

We first spotted the canal a few ks outside of Trebes ...

And the first boat we spotted ... a narrowboat!  This was NB Amethyst ...

There is a staircase lock just outside of the village.  Three boats were waiting to go up but they had to wait until the lock keeper had finished his lunch at 13.30 ...

He was 10 minutes late, but it seems that in France having a nice lunch is more important than work!  As an aside, the worst time to drive in France is lunchtime when they all drive like lunatics to get home for lunch! 

The third boat had an unfortunate name! 

Watching the lock keeper at work was amusing and I use the term 'work' very loosely.  Basically, he operates the lock by remote controls around his neck.  He stood at 20 metres away from the lock the whole time, chatting to his mate.  He didn't check on the boats once!  If a boat had gotten hung up then it would have been bad luck.  He shut the gates without checking the boats were fully in the lock ... pretty crappy I reckon compared with the lockies on the Thames ...

Even though the water rushes in far faster than any lock I have seen in the UK the boats don't appear to get buffeted at all ...

Trebas was a lovely little town but they have closed down the Aire, so we moved on to Carcassonne only 12 minutes up the road. 

The Aire at Carcasonne is a huge motorhome/coach park ... 

It's in a good spot though as the walled city of Carcassonne is only a 5 minute walk up the road.  It did take us a lot longer than that though as Elaine has a sore toe....she dropped a bottle of mustard on it last night!

It is, as expected, a very impressive city ...

Apparently the Romans installed this ram to keep out the Visigoths! 

No prom poses today, she can't walk! 

OK now this is a strange one for you ... as we were sitting scoffing ice creams a lady tourist from Calgary asked if we could pose with masks of her son and daughter ... so she feels like they are on holiday with her!!  'Kin nuts but we did it with a smile, plus her daughter back in Canada loves little dogs!  She obviously took one with her own camera to send the shot to them, but we asked her to take a shot with our camera as well, just for a laugh ...

Back to the Cite as they call it here ...

We went into the church.  It said 'no dogs' but we believe that out little dogs are equal creations in the eyes of our Lord, so basically 'piss off we are taking them in'!

The stained glass was mightily impressive ...

It is a most impressive sight and we are so glad we have changed tack and headed inland for a while ...

The Cite looks most impressive by night, not that I would know as I am sitting here typing the blog up, so I nicked a pic off the web ...

Finally, back by popular demand (Andy!), is the extremely low-tech-where-we-are-now-map, along with fluffy pen ...