Another day of unsettled weather and we set out from the car park in coats and equipped with the brolly. We followed a walking tour around Albi, taking a rare opportunity to do some shopping, not that we bought much! The walk along the Tarn gave a very good view of the old town and we walked over the old bridge that once had buildings along its length. The area is famous for 'pastel' (woade) that produces a lovely blue dye and this provided the basis for much of the trade and wealth of the town. Mills on the Tarn were connected with the industry and was good to see that the site of the old Chapitre Mill has been reused for hydroelectric power and provides 9 million kilowatt hours annually, enough to supply the needs of 8,000 people.
We drove on south to Carcassonne, somewhere that we had noted as a 'must' on our itinerary. We had already seen a few walled mediaeval towns but that didn't prepare us for Carcassonne. We arrived in the pouring rain and dark to see the floodlit town – it looked beautiful. Once again, there were no open campsites in the area, so we chose to stay at the camperstop in the centre. This camperstop was shown as 'parking only' without services but it turned out to have fresh water, dumping facilities and toilets. The Camperstop Europe book only has very brief details of each site, so this entry did not explain that the site was only 100m from the castle walls – what a fantastic position!
Photos: Albi Old Bridge (Chapitre Mill at left end) and Old Town; Carcassonne walls at night from camperstop.
No comments:
Post a Comment