Carcassone & Minervois

Wednesday September 26, 2007
Sorry! Still no pics.
Today was our return to Carcassonne with Tony & Jackie. The day started off promising weather-wise, but by the time we hit the autoroute there were rainbows everywhere, which was not necessarily a good thing. By the time we hit Carcassonne, the skies had started to leak and as we made our way to the centre of town, it started to pour. There seems to be something about Carcassonne that brings on the lousy weather every time we visit. The inclement weather did have the benefit of keeping some of the hordes away from the town.

After doing as much justice to the ancient town as we could, we decided to head out for Minervois country to taste some of their wine. As we hit the Midi Canal, the temp went up a little and the skies turned blue so we had an opportunity to have our pique nique. This narrow tree lined canal has a lot of pleasure craft on it as it winds its way through the French countryside. Try as we may, however, there was no wine tasting to be had in Minervois country. We went through many Minervois villages and lots of Minervois vineyards, but somehow we had avoided the wine country and found no possibilities of testing the terroir. By the time we’d gone through all the possible wine towns, we were in Narbonne and decided to head home. A stop at the Geant store on the edge of Narbonne allowed us the opportunity to purchase some Minervois for our own private tasting back in Fraisse. We also found, after looking long and hard, snails in a can, so when we got back to Fraisse, we finally made our escargots croustade – not a shabby feast. Before we got back to Frasse, however, we finally drove off the road towards a small sign advertising the Via Domitia, a 2nd century BC road that spanned from Beaucaire to the Pyrenees. There was a 50 m stretch of this road uncovered here, complete with its chariot wheel ruts. Finally, back in Fraisse, after our own Minervois tasting, another great meal and lively card games, we called it a day.