Beynac-et-Cazenac, Chateau de Beynac

Owen — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:58:02 +0000

Beynac-et-Cazenac, Chateau de Beynac in the Dordogne
For my birthday we went to La Recreation in the Lot. It is a wonderful restaurant located in the tiny village of Les Arques. There is a museum dedicated to the sculptor Zadkine there.The owner of the restaurant has published a book that seems to be well known among English speakers. I think he is American. The book is called “You Can’t See Paris From Here”.

Of course I must detail the meal at La Recreation. We started with a velouté d’aspèrge, asparagus soup and of course we began with an aperitif, fenelon. Apparently fenelon is a regional speciality, walnut liquour and red wine maybe, I forget. For entrees we tried the Lobster Ravioli and the Scallops wrapped in angel hair pasta. Both of these have been on the menu of La Recreation for 18 years, since the restaurant opened. They came recommended by the waiter. Then for the main course I had Caille Supreme, small wild chicken and Charles had Agneau, lamb. We also had a 1/2 bottle of Pecharment. I first tried Pecharment when I lived in the Dordogne. It is a wine that comes from Bergerac, but a good one, not the typical Bergerac wines. For dessert we had a fondant chocolate and something glacée, I forget exactly. Highly recommended. Visit La Recreation if you get the chance.

After that we drove around the Lot and the Dordogne stopping at Domme and Beynac-et-Cazenac, and Chateau de Beynac. I took many photos of the chateau de Beynac. I will add them in a future post so you can see it. We also took a guided tour so I learned quite a bit about it. Many recent films were also shot at the chateau de Beynac. It is a private chateau completley undergoing renovation by a private family who actually lives there. When we finished we came back to Toulouse in about 2 hours. One of the biggest treats in France is that it is relatively small and you can see a wide variety of landscapes available to you in a short drive.

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Carcassonne, France: Traveling to Carcassonne

Owen — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:15:37 +0000

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Carcassonne is a pristine medieval town located about 45 minutes south of Toulouse. Traveling to Carcassonne is a very easy day trip if you are coming from the Toulouse area. You can take the train or you can drive to Carcassonne. It is best to avoid traveling to Carcassonne during the summer months as it is quite packed with tourists and the narrow medieval streets will be sure to give you a sense of claustrophobia. Read the article and at the end you’ll discover a photo slideshow.

Carcassonne is divided into 2 parts, yes this is a simplification but still somewhat accurate, La Cité and La Bastide St. Louis. La Bastide St Louis is the more conventional downtown part of Carcassonne, although it is very old and has a maze of medieval streets too. La Cité is the walled in fortress.

La Bastide St Louis is situated on the left bank of the River Aude. It was built in 1260 in a checkerboard layout. Here you will find restaurants, cafes, shops, boutiques, and other stores. This part is within the city walls of Carcassonne and has a variety of architectural styles. The city was rebuilt numerous times so if you have an eye for architectural details you can discern during which periods it was rebuilt by the architecture alone. There is also a beautiful Fine Arts Museum and Public Library that are worth seeing. The original city wall has also been rebuilt but some of the original wall remains. The city wall seems more of a suggestion not to enter, it is not really imposing enough to keep intruders out.

La Cité, as in Cité Medieval, lies on the right bank of the River Aude. Work began on this site in the early 1120′s. This is a magnificent example of a medieval walled in fortress. It is featured on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. It has 52 towers, 2 rings of town walls, and 3 km of battlements. It quite simply looks like a fairy tale version of a medieval castle. There is no restriction on access to this part of Carcassonne so you can walk along the footpaths and climb the steps of this immense structure. There are shops and restaurants located inside this set of walls and even approximately 120 people live within these walls. When people travel to Carcassonne, this is what they are expecting to see.

There are so many stories and histories to tell one doesn’t know where to begin. Originally this was Roman territory. La Cité is actually built over an old Roman fortress. In the 13th century this was the stage for the Crusades against the heretics, Les Cathars. It is interesting to note that it was a very diverse city then and many religious groups lived together peacefully, I guess that’s why the Catholic Church wanted to put an end to it.

There are plenty of references to a variety of medieval torture chambers and devices. You can even visit a museum dedicated to the torture devices. With the recent news about the CIA’s continued use of water boarding I can say that we happily skipped the entire torture garden.

There seems to be a wide variety of things to do for everyone. Here are a few links to discover more tips for traveling to Carcassonne. A gallery of photos tells a better story than words, view it below.

http://www.carcassonne-tourisme.com/Carcassonne2.nsf/vuetitre/docpgeintrovisiter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne

Go to Carcassonne, it is unbelievable.

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France Tales » History

Beynac-et-Cazenac, Chateau de Beynac

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Carcassonne, France: Traveling to Carcassonne

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