This is a long-promised birthday present, actually, to our good friend Chris, who organises our annual trip to Cesky Krumlov, in the Czech Rep., every year, and we have had the hardest time getting a few days when we can all have the time off at the same time...that is Adam and I, Chris, and his good friend Neil and his wife Tina, who are also chipping in...

The five of us are leaving on Wednesday morning for Stansted Airport, our flight is at 11.25 am, and we will arrive in Carcassonne around 2.30pm....we stay for three days or so, and return on Saturday afternoon...

What fun !!

This is one of the oldest, walled-castle, fortified cities in the South of France...here's a map to show you exactly where it is, in relation to the Mediterranean coastline, and also, the northern border of the Spanish province of Aragon...( where Katherine came from, before marrying Henry VIII !! )



Carcassonne is just to the left of Perpignon down at the bottom of the map...as you can see, right next to Aragon itself !!

This is the Languedoc region, one of France's finest wine-growing regions, so, as you can imagine, we'll be doing justice to the local produce with enthusiastic gusto !!


The town itself, from inside the city walls, looks largely like this :-



and from the outside, it looks largely like this :-


How utterly romantic !!
 
Our hotel is actually a small B & B, rather like a typical French country maison de famille, and it looks like this :-



Good courtyard garden, to sit out and have a glass of vin blanc... I am loving this place already !!

At night the whole city is lit up with floodlights, like this :-



The whole idea for this short break, was to go and play our game of "Carcassonne", actually in the real city of the same name - how geekily cool is that ?!!
It's like playing " Quo Vadis" in Rome, or "Pompeii" in Pompeii...

( Blimey - how many Roman-themed board games do we own ?!! )

The game of "Carcassonne" is one of the most popular tile-laying board games of modern times, and it looks like this :-


The original game is the blue box, and all the rest are variations ...all marvellous fun and definitely worth playing !!

We return on Saturday, and so, you can all expect a good account of our travels in this marvellous part of the world, along with lots of pics, I hope, on Sunday !!

See you then...