We took a day trip to Carcassonne - a medieval fortified city south of Toulouse, almost to the border of Spain.
When we first started out, I thought we were going to see a traditional castle, but a "fortified city" is a whole set of buildings surrounded by two sets of walls with lots of towers and ramparts that were used for protection. Most of the interior buildings have been turned into restaurants and souvenir shops, and even a few hotels (you could stay overnight inside the walls at the Best Western).
This is a view from the top of one of the ramparts. We could see the Pyrenees mountains in the distance on the right - the tops were still covered in snow. The center structure is one of the towers. You can see several towers interspersed along the walls. The building on the left (far distance) is the Basilica of St Nazaire & St Celse. It was really nicely restored, but much smaller than most of the churches in Paris.
Using the train system in Europe is an adventure (to say the least). It's extremely efficient, but because of that, it's also somewhat stressful. There's no time allotment for you to make an error. We bought a RailPass to use to travel around France this week. From Paris to Toulouse, we had reservations for a definite train with specific seat assignments. That train was crazy, because they don't post the platform number until 20 minutes before you are supposed to get on, but once they do, everyone runs like a bat out of hell for the train and tries to cram on (many people are carrying enough luggage, you'd think they are moving away from home). The local trains operate a bit differently. You just pick out one of the trains and get on, just like we might ride the MetroLink at home. Sometimes the conductor comes around and checks your pass, and sometimes he doesn't. The stressful part about the whole thing is making sure you're getting onto the right train, because there sure isn't anyone around to ask.
