Destinations

Castle Dreams

Driving in southern France between Toulouse and Beziers; the stretch of the autoroute carves itself into the middle of vineyards and quaint villages; you will see nothing but yellow hills covered with sunflowers and lines of grape vines bursting forth full of life. Until you round up over a hill and wham: A gigantic sprawling castle—straight from a fairytale smacks into your vision. “Castle, castle, castle” I scream and ask my husband to slow down to a snail’s pace from his harrowing 160kpm.

For our wedding, I had wanted to get married in a castle —name a little girl that doesn’t dream of that? Here I was marrying in France and there were these magnificent castles everywhere. That is the cité, my husband explained, it was rented for the Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood movie. “Oh, we don’t have a movie budget,” I said. Now, Tony Parker and Eva, they could perhaps afford to rent out a place like that, and in fact they are July 7^th in a fabulous castle just south of Paris. But I think (and hope) my husband prefers me over a “Desperate Housewife.” We did find a castle to get married in, one that was free, it just happened our local courthouse was a castle from the 12^th century!

The fortified city of Carcassone, a UNESCO world heritage site is a large castle complex complete with hotels, restaurants and tons of souvenir stands. Plenty of history is in these walls, Cathars were terminated here in Occitan country and lead to this region being annexing into France. As you wander the narrow cobble stone streets you can almost hear the horse hooves of knights riding up to the Episcopal Palace, where nowadays a sumptuous top class hotel exists. Although, the cité itself is a bit touristy: you can bring home Cathar Crosses and Templar plastic swords, but also perhaps some of the best photos ever of fireworks if you happen to be there on July 14^th—France’s Independence day.

Along the far wall of the cité, nestled up next to the historic landmark of the Gothic Basilica of Saint-Nazaire, the hotel de la Cité is set in its own glorious gardens. The pool has a view over castle walls, turrets and towers, square cut hedges, and Cyprus trees swaying in the gentle Languedoc wind. Stained-glass windows in the rooms afford spectacular romantic views over solid stone walls from the 13^th century and into the valleys in the distance. The best place to see the sunset perched atop the castles walls is over a bottle of chilled Corbieres wine in their one star Michelin star restaurant, La Barbacane whose interior is that of a would-be-castle, immense fireplace, high backed chairs, silver candelabras, wood paneling, gold painted fleur de lis and coats of arms of past families of the region’s rich history.