Cycling around Carcassone

We wanted to investigate the canal du midi which goes through Carcassone but goes from Toulouse to near Montpelier on the sea.

It was constructed in the 1600s so was very early for a canal - and actually got used quite a bit before steam trains superceded them,

We left the campsite and stayed on the River Aude bike path past vines and farms until we came to a big bridge where we crossed the river into the town.

There was some very arty graffiti underneath.

We then went up through the Bastide town to the top side to find the canal.

It was a narrow path so we had to stop if a cyclist came from the other direction to get past.

It was nice and shady under the trees.

After a few kms the canal comes very close to the Aude River where we wanted to loop back on. We had to go on a busy road to cross the River and get back on the other side which took us around an empty racetrack. It led to a nice riverbank path that ended up at the old bridge into the Bastide.

After finding a baguette for lunch we saw the stormy clouds and headed back along the River to the campsite. After a refreshing swim we had a late lunch and then a bit of a rest while the thunder and lighting passed - but we luckily didn’t get much rain.

Later after dinner the campsite had a medieval knights performance that we checked out. Initially it was for kiddies to go up and learn to fight with wooden swords.

Then it got more interesting with fire twirling.

It was well done - a few were very good.

But it was not as entertaining as brother in law Lance who used to do this regularly at big events and would set fire to his shorts or hair - sorry Lance!

The whole group got into some sort of fire twirling to end the show. It was then straight to bed!!