Marseille as a Finale

Carcassonne at night was certainly a treat, but all good things must come to an end and this morning we made our way to our final destination, Marseille. We showed up at the hotel early as usual, so wandered across country to Martigues, a quaint little pleasure boat port. According to some research, there was some good food to be had here and in looking for a parking spot we chanced upon this spot.

They had a patio set up right on the water and as the day was pristine, we enjoyed al fresco dining without too much aggravation from smokers. Dawn had sea bream on a wonderful bed of minced vegetables - she finally got her seafood on the water - while I had a hamburger - actually steak burger - topped with a nice slab of freshly seared foie gras - best burger ever!

Martigues was certainly a nice send off, as this trip concludes with a flight home via Montreal tomorrow.

It's been quite a trip and we thoroughly enjoyed all four aspects of the holiday - London, threeish weeks in Provence centred at Cairanne, four days in the Auvergne and a week's journey to Basque country. But, we are happy to be heading home and it will be nice to reconnect with family and friends. So, this is it for another version of my travelogue. La Vie est belle!!

Carcassonne

As the nymph of Pau bid us farewell this morning, we made our way in the shadow of the Pyrenees to Carcassonne, medieval city of the Cathars. Like we needed to come here for probably our 7th or 8th time! This is Disneyland South - so perfect it should be Disney and yet it isn't.

We thought we had chosen a hotel, the Aragon, with good proximity to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. As it turned out, the location was not shabby.

We snapped the obligatory photos and then we took a walk about before settling down for lunch at l'Escargot. Anyone want to guess what I had for lunch?

Then it was off for a walk to find our restaurant we had reserved for dinner and maybe some more photos.

It was fun to see school children on an excursion and wonder how they felt about this place with so much history, much of it not very good. As a quick reminder about how the Catholic Church felt about the Cathars, they slaughtered just about every one of them, man, woman and child, possibly as many as one million.

Dinner, after yet more unnecessary photos - to follow - was at Comte Roger.

Our dinner was a 42 E prix fixe of which I am saving the photos - but it was a great meal. Dawn had a fish flan, cassoulet and chocolate mountain while I had foie gras - surprise - veal and a deconstructed creme brûlée. Two thumbs up!! Then, for the first time in our Carcassonne visits, I got some night photos.

This continues to be a very special place!

Pau

We are now in Pau for two nights. The Tour de France is a big event for Pau and comes through here every year. Evidence of this year's race is still evident on the road coming into Pau. Next year they are here for four stages and apparently our hotel is already fully booked. We have found Pau to be every bit as beautiful as the Tour de France made it out to be.

Back to last night. After discussing dinner options with our hotel manager, we headed to see a bit of the city. We sat down for another drink at a bar on the Boulevard des Pyrenees, where today some spectacular views were to be had. The unfortunate part was that everyone - mostly young people - at every table around us was smoking. We just aren't used to that anymore in Canada, but the reality here is, if you want to eat al fresco in France, you'd better be ready to tolerate the smokers since they are no longer allowed indoors.

Since we didn't get any seafood in our drive yesterday along the coast, we headed to the best seafood restaurant in Pau, les Dauphins.

We were not disappointed. Dawn had a seafood extravaganza which included salmon, giant gambas and one large scallop in a wonderful cream sauce, while I had baked hake in an equally decadent sauce as part of their 3 course menu. I finished with an eau de vie served from the gigantic bottles shown below.

Today it was off to explore more of the city. The old town is not very large and is totally walkable.

Parking is tight, like everywhere in France and there are always idiots like the owner of this high end BMW who will park anywhere they like, including in disabled spots.

We are parked legitimately under Clemenceau Square shown below with the fountains and umbrellas, a short walk from the hotel.

Because the old city is on a hill, there is a free funicular servicing the lower town. It operates from the Boulevard des Pyrenees which today offered some fine views of the Pyrenees.

We did the guided tour of the Chateau de Pau - in French - but they kindly provided us with a fine page of site descriptions in English. The Chateau, birthplace and home of King Henry IV of France, was begun in the 1300's and went from impregnable citadel to palace for the King and his beloved wife Marguerite d'Angouleme. It was totally restored in the mid 1800's and became a museum in 1929. Avoiding destruction from both the Revolution and two world wars, it is a wonderful showplace of the fifteenth century.

For lunch, since we didn't get to the Alsace on this trip, we chose the Relais d'Alsace and their flammekuchen and gesier salad. Before dinner, we took another walk in another part of the old town and discovered yet another water feature. This city certainly has the market cornered on fountains.

Then it was time for dinner at Chez Olive, specializing in local fare - nothing like just hopping from meal to meal.

This place was right across the street from last night's la Dauphin and had considerably different fare. Here, local dishes were the speciality, so we tried to take advantage of that. Dawn talked me out of lamb's brains, so my starter was a soup called garbure with cabbage and duck, while Dawn began with a trout flan with gambas.

We both followed with their poule au pot, which is basically a chicken stew with vegetable and cabbage farci.

This was hearty down home cooking, which was finished with an Ile Flottante, which they called eggs in the snow, roughly translated. Both of our evening restaurants were in the shadow of the chateau, a mere 5 minute walk from our hotel and every restaurant along the route was packed to capacity. I guess it's true that French women do not cook, nor do their men. We turned in early contemplating the next leg of our journey to the east and sorry to leave Pau.