Who would spend 5 hours riding on a train at 180 mph to get to a place named Carcassonne? It sounds French for "a dead body".
It all started on Tuesday in French class. They gave us a surprise test to determine our progress. Ron decided that it would be a really good idea to get out of town immediately. Ron doesn’t fear failure, he runs from it.
We always have Wednesday off, so it made sense in the moment. Carcassonne is a small town in the south of France, with an amazing walled city and castle. With nothing but our small back packs, we boarded a high-speed train at the Paris Gare de Lyon station, and headed south. I had torn out a few pages from an old Rick Steve’s travel book, and we studied the small map of Carcassonne on the train. It was late at night when we arrived in the tiny medieval city - what could go wrong?!
We somehow managed to locate our Bed & Breakfast, the Florentine. The inn keeper left us a code to get in. After climbing up a small 13th century spiral stair case that would have made a great set for a horror movie, we opened the door to the most amazing sight through our window, a massive walled fortress completely lit up against the black night.
Yes, it was worth it, and we would do it again.
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