CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@oCDo Of you ever return here: look up Domaine de Pradines. A really fantastically wide open camping on the Causses south of this gorge.

Cité de Carcassonne is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed as an outstanding example of a medieval fortified town (1). First fortified in the Gallo-Roman period ~3rd–4th C. CE, it underwent extensive restorations in the 19th C. Set upon a hill overlooking the modern urban sprawl, the compact site is protected by ~3km of double walls & 52 defensive towers (2); it’s 19 € pp to walk the ramparts/ visit the restored château, but free to walk between the rows (without climbing on the outer battlements). The enclosed town is very touristy, filled with trinket shops & eateries, but also offers some architectural curiosities (3). Later, at nearby Trèbes, we walked alongside Canal du Midi, a ~360km network of navigable waterways linking the Atlantic (via Garonne) to the Mediterranean using locks, aqueducts, bridges & reservoirs. The canal is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, created through the vision of Pierre-Paul Riquet during 1667–94. The Trèbes Orbiel aqueduct (4) was designed by Vauban in 1688 & the town’s staircase lock dates from ~1674. #france #occitanie #europe #travel #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife #unesco

Upon leaving Château de Peyrepertuse bound for Carcassonne we took the D14, a narrow winding backroad between hills cloaked in forest & meadows, intermittently punctuated with small villages. One such village is Bugarach, on the outskirts of which is a 700m path to Pont Romain, a single-arch stone bridge across a limestone basin on the Roman road linking the village to Rennes-les-Bains (1). Although the original was probably Gallo-Roman, it was destroyed in 1992 by flooding but faithfully restored the following year. What caught our eye was the trailside orchids, 3 of which were new to us. All native, first up is Neotinea ustulata | the burnt-tip orchid, which can be found up to 2,400m elevation in the mountains of central & southern Europe (2). The aptly-named Serapias lingua | tongue orchid is found throughout the Mediterranean (3). Ophrys scolopax | the woodcock orchid is recognisably a bee orchid given its morphology (4); it can be found in both the Mediterranean & Middle East. We also re-identified Orchis mascula | the early-purple orchid. #france #occitanie #europe #travel #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife ️ #roman #bloomScrolling