Two 3-Star Sights in an Afternoon

The Millau viaduct is one of the tallest buildings in France, and it is MASSIVE. This was not in our Michelin guide, because it was built in the 2000's, but browsing through the most recent guidebook in bookstores showed that it is now a three star attraction. It was a feat of modern engineering. I wouldn't have gone out of my way to see it, since it also comes with a toll, but it was on our way and Leonard, being a city planner, was very excited about driving through it.

Then we headed to the Chaos de Montpellier-le-Vieux, another three star sight that looked very close to Millau on my map but actually took us two hours to get to because of the mountainous roads.  It is a labyrinth of strangely shaped limestone rocks, and shepherds who would wander here in the past believed that this was a devil city, as they would lose their stray sheep among the rocks. I can definitely see why, because it feels like you are in a vastly different land once you enter this area. Driving and seeing these rocks tower over the mountains was an experience.

La Couvertoirade

La Couvertoirade is a tiny walled city (Population: ~200) on the list of "France's most beautiful villages". 

Carcassonne

Carcassonne is a famous walled city, and every guidebook talked about how it would be crowded with hordes of tourists during the summer. The city itself wasn't too interesting because it was geared towards tourists and was therefore pretty tacky. Because we had gone to Albi and Cordes-sur-ciel earlier that day, we ended up arriving in Carcassonne in the evening, just as the shops were closing down.  It was perfect timing then, because the crowds were dwindling by the time we got there, and we had no interest in going into the overpriced souvenir shops anyway.

The double walls were cool, but then I found out that unlike Peyrepertuse, the walls were rebuilt in the 1800s into what they imagined the town to have looked like in the past. They were fake! We spent the majority of our time after dinner strolling around the walls, trying to figure out which parts of the walls were original and which had been rebuilt.

Cordes-sur-ciel

A beautiful village a short drive away from Albi. The start of my need to drink Coke to combat the sun and heat!

Albi

I am not usually a big fan of churches, because they all look the same to me. I've been to tons of them in Italy, and while impressive on their own, they tend to blur into each other. The Albi Cathedral, on the other hand, is my favourite church ever, hands down. I was in awe the whole time I was inside the building.

It is made almost entirely of brick, and the Michelin guide gave the interior rood screen itself three stars and two pages of description. I had no idea what a rood screen was before I got there, but when I saw it, I knew it was definitely worth the three stars. The wood was so intricately carved that it resembled lace. The interior walls and the ceiling were painted beautifully. It was the longest I had ever been in a cathedral and enjoyed it; in fact, I could have spent longer in there, just looking. It really made an impression on me.

Peyrepertuse

Peyrepertuse was our first three-star Michelin guide attraction, and it was one of my favourite parts of my trip. It is an ancient ruined Cathar castle which used to guard the French-Spanish border, but which then became abandoned when the border was moved south later on. It is set high in the mountains and is within sight of another Cathar castle called Queribus, which unfortunately we didn't have time to visit. These two castles were part of a chain of fortresses and castles in the mountains that were stragetically built so that they could signal to each other (very Lord of the Rings-like).

The nice thing about Peyrepertuse was that there were no tour busses in sight. Getting there involved at least a half hour of windy mountain roads, plus a steep twenty minute hike to get to the lower castle, and then a slippery climb up the smooth stairs cut into the rock to get to the higher castle. It was a lot of work! This was a prime attraction and yet there was no commercialism at all - no tacky postcards or ugly t-shirts at this place. I loved it. It was cool climbing around the fortress, seeing the arrow slits and taking in the gorgeous view. No wonder they built a castle so high up, because one can clearly see any enemies who are on their way!

Here you can see Queribus in the distance, in the upper left corner.

On the Road

Leonard and I used a 1996 Michelin guide during our road trip through France. Although old, it was useful because it listed attractions according to how important they were deemed by the writers, and we were determined to see as many three star attractions as we could. We ended up seeing two or three 3-star sights everyday, with added one or two star bonuses along the way. We referred to this guidebook constantly, since it gave us some very detailed information about history and architectural details.

Along the way, we saw numerous small towns, amazing scenery, and more windy, narrow mountain roads than I've ever seen in such a short period of time. It was beautiful.

And then, of course, there was the massive traffic jam on the highway which made it a seven hour journey back to Barcelona. We had originally optimistically planned on stopping at Girona, a city north of Barcelona, for lunch and a quick walk around the city...then it turned into just lunch...then it turned into lunch at a service stop on the way...then it became a ten minute lunch on the ground on the side of the road at the service stop. We even parked on the side of a roundabout instead of the parking lot the service stop because there were so many people and cars everywhere! This was the least fun day of our whole trip.

Roses

Roses is a beautiful resort town on the Costa Brava, the coastal area between Barcelona and France. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, as I spent the afternoon suntanning on the beach and playing in the waves. Our good mood quickly turned sour at dinnertime though, when we realized that every single restaurant served expensive, touristy food (pizza, fries, etc.). We were even willing to eat cheap and get fast food, but there was nothing open besides the big restaurants that looked like they were there to take all our money. I was starving, and by 9pm, we had to give up and choose a restaurant.

It took 20 minutes for them to give us a menu and another hour to serve us our food. It was past ten at this point. When I got my chicken, one piece was still raw inside. The waiter took it back and I got my replacement chicken 20 minutes later. By then, I didn't even want my chicken anymore and just wanted to get out of that restaurant. - both the food and service were terrible, and it had taken us two hours to eat our awful dinner. What I didn't understand was why everyone else seemed reasonably happy with the food and service. When we looked up the restaurant later on Trip Advisor, we were shocked to find that it was the NUMBER ONE restaurant in that town. Very incomprehensible to me.

If I were to return to Roses, I would stay for the beach but go to another town for the food. Lesson learned.

Montserrat

Montserrat, our first stop on our road trip from Barcelona to France, is famous for its abbey at the top of the mountain. We were originally hesitant of driving there because we were worried about parking, but we lucked out and found the perfect parking spot at the entrance.