September 2024

The second leg of our trip, after a week in Ireland, was my beloved France.  We flew from Dublin to Toulouse–Blagnac Airport, and picked up our Peugeot 2008 which was fully carplay ready – an absolute must – got all the downloaded maps loaded, and away we went on our 800-mile road trip through the South of France! We headed out on the A61 toward the town of Beziers for our first night in France.

I didn’t realize we’d be passing by the medieval city Carcassonne on the way, which we’d visited 35 years earlier when my parents lived in Toulouse – it was still there! 

Every 15 kilometers or so on the highway, we kept seeing road exit signs like “Aire de Belvedere de la Cite”, and “Aire de Corbières Sud” –  it was always “Aire de” with a different name.  Turns out they were roadside rest stops! And they were incredibly nice, with gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores “Casino”, and bathrooms with electronic soap-water-air images in the mirror – so high tech.

Arriving in the ancient city of Beziers, the oldest city in France.  In the 12th century it was a Cathar stronghold, which was burned to the ground and its 20,000 residents killed after Pope Abbot of Cîteaux, declared, “Slaughter them all!”  

We stayed the night at Hotel La Prison – the shorter building to the lower left of the Cathedral of Saint Nazaire on the hill.   The prison building originates from the 12th century, and prisoners were guillotined there in the early 1900’s.

So we spent the night in jail, managed to avoid the communal showers since the former cells were nicely remodeled with private bathrooms – actually had our best night of sleep there – and were glad to walk right out in the morning…