Antiquite

This post comes to you from a 12th century fortress. We're in Carcassonne! See photo and video below. Last night we wandered the ancient walls. We ate at a really atmospheric old restaurant. Even the food seemed medieval. The specialty here is Cassoulet, one of France's National Dishes. It consists of beans simmered with pork, mutton, goose or duck, large sausages, shallots and tomatoes. They serve it bubbling.

Arles and Avignon were great, too. The city set up easels where Van Gogh painted specific canvases. We found 6 so far. Some are sad because the building doesn't exist anymore. This is also the town where he went crazy, threatened to cut of Gaughin's ear, then cut off his own instead. The photo below shows the courtyard of the mental institution he went to after this incident.

Have had several near-misses with train travel. Yesterday the car my ticket was for-16-wasnt there. Only 15 and 17. What are the chances? Off to Lyon we go we go...