Carcassonne to Perpignan the long way.

We were not impressed with Carcassonne I suppose it is not our cup of tea and we had such a build up to seeing the old city and the castle. The town, old and new is somewhat seedy and it is obvious the economy is suffering. IWithin the walls of the old city were shop after shop selling cheap souvenirs to the crowds. With that we were excited to leave Carcassonne and explore the region on the way to Perpignan.

First destination Limoux. This is a prosperous city with lots of wine money, in fact on the way to Perpignan we went through a nu ber of villages that appear to be supported by wine in one way or another. Our next stop was Rennes-les-Bains. This is a very lovely little village which attracts lots of tourists during the season as evidenced by the many gites and little hotels. The attraction is primarily the hot springs, but it seems to also be attractive because of nearby climbing, biking, hiking, and I suspect fishing! Check it out here. We stopped in at Maison Christina and had cafe'. A nice little place with rooms and a cafe.

We continued on our drive following a scenic route indicated on our Michlin map heading to les Gorges de Galamus. The country is beautiful, lush, green, grape vines, fruit trees, and cattle. We drove into and out of a valley and I commented that we must have just seen the gorge. Oh no! The gorge was ahead. As we got closer to the gorge the road got twistier and narrower and rockier and more beautiful but then we got to the narrow section of the george with the road cut into the walls of the gorge. White knuckle driving time.

Not much wider than one car in spots.

Our next challenge ended up figuring out how to return the rental car. First, some of the roads leading into Perpignan have been recently rerouted and Madeline did not know about it. Then, I had programmed Madeline to take us to the Avis office. But it had moved. We found the new one but no one was there. Oh crap! Then I looked at the contract and it appeared our return address was in the train station parking garage. It took us a while to find it and the Avis office. We had also i tended to fill the car with gas before turning it in, however we could not find a gas station in Perpignan. Where do these people buy gas? Our half empty tank is now going to cost us €80. A other oh crap!

We did get the car returned and walked to the hotel, about 1/2 mile. We are an an Ibis Hotel. Not fancy, but cheap and adequate. Our planned di ner spot was closed, in fact many resaurants here are closed on Lundi! We had tapas, not great but the server, from Ireland was nice. Back to the hotel and ready to get out of here early tomorrow on the train to Barcelona and then on to Sitges. We are ready to relax in Sitges and visit Barcelona.

This one is for Lee