Steph's update

I would recommend a visit to Lagrasse, a couple of days or a week, it's easy to get into the rhythm of the place. A week was great, time for long walks but also time to sit and ponder, eat good food and relax. Lazy nature lovers got to sit on the terrace and watch trout and even a small otter going about its business in and out of the water and through the reeds. We watched tourists wander along the other bank.
A group of about twenty older (even older than us) cyclists, clad in lycra (some not very cyclists shaped!) pedalled through town one day, stopped for lunch and pedalled on, I was most impressed.
Our hosts and the people staying upstairs were great company for a couple of nights of  sitting on the terrace and sharing a story or two over wine and snacks, watching the sun go down.
Yesterday we moved on. Our little car (and its driver) took to the motorway with glee. No more slow, winding roads or narrow village streets to negotiate, or signposts to check, or cyclists or avoid. Just straight double lanes. We managed a steady pace of about 115 to 120 kilometres an hour which was much too slow for just about every other vehicle but we did manage to overtake a truck and a caravan and duck back in before another car zoomed by. Getting back to the airport and leaving the car turned out to be easy.
View out our window.

Yesterday's rain and loud storm last night cleared to a beautiful day so we headed up to La Cité Médiéval. We are glad this wasn't the first castle we visited because it made all the others look rather ordinary. It started as a Roman fort, was built onto in Medieval times and Carcassonne academics (see, they do come in handy) had the foresight to organise a restoration of it in the 19th century. This took 50 years.

We were impressed - the awe factor is relative to the number of photos we take - and we seemed to take heaps but promise not to bore everyone with them. I wonder who will have the insight to save our heritage, surely we must have somethings that will inspire people in 800 years time.
We walked back down through the city, had a cool drink, climbed those 3 flights of stairs and are now sitting deciding what we will do for dinner. Perhaps a meal out and an early night.