To Italy and Back: A Day Trip

We decided to test out the hire car the day before our big trip to Italy and Back. It was a beautiful sunny day and we headed to Carcassonne .

Montolieu
From there we stopped at Montolieu which is a small village that has revitalised itself by building a book industry and is known as the Village of Books. There are about 15 bookshops mostly specialising in second hand and antiquarian books. Book binders, paper makers

and calligraphers were encouraged to set up shop here. There is also a strong arts and crafts industry.

Alas all the books were written in French and we arrived at lunch time so everything was closed so no books for us. We lunched near the bridge just outside the town.

Saissac
We continued on through the Montagne Noire to Saissac. There is another Cathar fortification here so we were able to tick off another monument. The village was beautiful built on the side of a steep hill - very difficult to raid. Chateau de Saissac has been restored very sympathetically.

Castelnaudary
Finally we stopped at Castelnaudary, only 40 km from Limoux. It is one of the main ports on the Canal du Midi and more famously is the home of the regional dish Cassolet – a hearty dish made with white beans, duck and Toulouse sausage. It has a Game of Thrones

history with lots of sieges, battles and blood shed and was known as Sostomagus by the Romans – another useless fact but I like that name. It is a vibrant market town.

Next: To Italy and Back – Limoux to Gruisson