Carcassonne & Skiing on Ventoux

This past week the kids had a week off of school and we took our tiny rental car over to the South West of France to see Carcassonne. Perhaps you have the board game? I had 'visit a castle' on my to do list for our time in France and this seemed to fit the bill. We stayed in a small, cheap apartment in a great location and spent our time there biking and exploring the castle & town. As wikipedia puts it:

"Carcassonne, a hilltop town in southern France’s Languedoc area, is famous for its medieval citadel, La CitΓ©, with numerous watchtowers and double-walled fortifications.  The first walls were built in Gallo-Roman times, with major additions made in the 13th and 14th centuries". (Gallo-Roman times was between the 1st to 5th centuries!)


Seeing this beautiful sight during the day, sunset and by night was magical. The photos don't do it justice. The kids had a blast exploring the ramparts and testing out the stinging power of the stinging nettles (Just kidding, this part was not fun).  One evening we ate at a restaurant within the old town where we all enjoyed some French escargots. One morning we rented bikes in town and headed down the Canal du Midi.

The direction that I had hoped to go was sadly closed due to flooding that happened last week. We went as far as we could in the time we had allotted and that we thought E's legs could hold out for. I was hoping to see the canal filled with more boats but malheureusement the flooding kept the boats at bay.

Here are a few photos of our time in Carcassonne. 







Magical :) 



So breathtaking at sunset




Jeff scared the pigeons so I could get a bird flying photo. Thanks hunny!







 Canal du Midi bike ride

 Biking through town. These kids really surpassed our expectations of how they would handle traffic and biking in a town. 

 We finally found some bars! Monkey bars were just a few metres away and Elena made sure to show off for all of the guys doing their workout haha. So happy to find bars!





 Sunny & calm waters

 Skipping rocks

Ready to roll!





One of the locks we passed on the ride



On our drive home from Carassonne we stopped at an African Safari type animal park where you drive through half of it in your car with animals walking around, and the second half you do on foot. It was great to see bears, lions, rhinos and many other beautiful animals in a more natural habitat. My favourite was les flamandes rose ;) 




Ventoux Skiing

Sunday morning we were feeling lazy and ended up not getting out of bed until 9. Thankfully there are some nearby options! We decided to zip up to Station du mont Serein (Located on the North side of the famous Mt.Ventoux). We knew they had some rope tows open for skiing and also some sledding options. 

I had packed snow pants and ski gloves all the way to France and there was no way I was bringing them all here and not using them.  When we got there we saw the conditions (there was some snow!) and decided to rent us all gear and pay the €10 per lift pass to try skiing on this sunny Sunday in France.  We geared up to try it out and quickly realized that we aren't used to rope tows (tire fesse)at all! Even I bit the dust twice trying to get up.. it was fairly embarrassing.  After we all(except Jeff I think!) had a few good falls we thoroughly enjoyed the little runs and allowed the boys to go at their own speed as we could see the top well enough. It was nice to give them a little freedom. 

Call us crazy but because of the gorgeously warm weather we decided to get a little wild. I thought it might be funny to do a run in a bikini top and L wanted to do a run shirtless. Yes...we were definitely the crazy Canadians! 
Here are some pics from the day :) 










The view from the wine & beer spot :-p



Her smile was bright and her legs were strong! This little gal of ours has grown in so many ways during our trip so far. 



Pourquoi pas? 

Comments

  1. Well you did it! :). Might as well, making memories!!!

    ReplyDelete

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