We toured the medieval walled city of Carcassonne. It appears to be perfectly repaired in every way. It was much larger than I thought it would be. Carcassonne was protected by a moat, then an outer wall, then an inner wall. The castle was inside the city and was pretty well fortified just on its own.

The strange yellow markings are plastic stripes. They were placed on the wall by an artist in honor of some UNESCO event. They look hopelessly out of place, except from just one spot between the two walls.

Of course a city this impressive would have a cathedral. This church is still actively in use, but it lost it’s cathedral status in modern times.

When we were done at Carcassonne, we went to tour Toulouse. This time most of the driving was done on France’s excellent A-highways (interstates). Our little Renault did amazingly well tooling down the road at 130 KPH (about 80 MPH). We didn’t do a lot of touristing in Toulouse. Mostly, we didn’t want to spend a second night in that incredibly expensive hotel. We spent the night in a place similar to a Residence Inn. It’s downtown, which means parking is a mess. But we have two huge rooms. One has the bath and bedroom. The other has the living room, kitchen, and dining area. The two rooms are separated by a door, which makes it easier for Danita to catch a little more sleep after I get up.