This trip was a return to Carcassonne after visiting five years ago. On that holiday, our visit coincided (unwittingly) with the Arctic Monkeys playing in the little amphitheatre at the castle as part of the Festival de Carcassonne. With tickets still available, we were treated to probably one of the best gigs of our lives. Two nights later we watched Smashing Pumpkins and the two concerts cemented our opinion of Carcassonne as the best live music venue in the world!
Since then, we’ve kept an eye on the festival programme but never been tempted by the bands on offer. However, we’d mentioned the experience to two of our friends, Guy & Lianne, who were keen to visit that area, and when Angus & Julia Stone and Alt J were announced as guests we decided to go ahead and make the return trip.
We also coincided nicely with Bastille Day, so got to see a repeat of the amazing fire works display, and with the World Cup final, which France went on to win. The latter created quite an amazing experience in the castle area of Carcassonne itself as we pretty much had the place to ourselves for the ninety minutes of the match whilst people were glued to TV’s.
On the day of the Angus & Julia Stone gig (also the day of the World Cup final) we decide to eat in the old town and go straight onto the concert, but given what else is going on, we probably need to book somewhere, so in the morning we trek around Carcassonne to find a suitable place, but none of the myriad restaurants quite fit the bill. Finally, we plump for one more out of desperation than desire. Beck turns out her best French and opts to book the table under our friends’ surname, Wood, rather than McIntyre, the latter possibly being more challenging to understand. Still it’s a fail as the maitre’d hears Rudge and it’s too hot and complicated to explain the mistake. Thus, we become the famille Rudge for the night.
In fact, we needn’t have bothered. On our return, they have no record of any booking, in our real or fake name. But the restaurant is hardly full so we settle in for a meal. The food is decidedly average, still it’s near to the festival so it meets our immediate needs.
Towards the end of the meal, we realise we have left the printed tickets at the apartment. Guy heads off with Mathilde, their two year old, with the dual task of finding out if the concert will allow us to use e-tickets and to try and get her to sleep before the music starts.
We arrive at the venue to find no sign of Guy, having told the person on the entrance that all four of us were now in and they could therefore tick off all our tickets. Guy rocks up around twenty minutes later and we have to send Ben back to the gate to plead for entry! Duly reunited we settle in to watch the music. First up is Camille, a French singer, who steals the show with her energy and backing team. The audience engagement is brilliant and we wonder if Angus and Julia Stone will live up to the bar she has set. Of course, they do and their atmospheric folk is perfectly offset by both the venue and the far away rumble of a thunder storm which slowly approaches over the course of their set.
As if on cue to clear the auditorium, the heavens open just as the set finishes. First one drop or two, and then the rain is torrential. Huge hailstones hit our backs and we are drenched to our underwear in a matter on minutes. We find a friendly bar to shelter in but unfortunately, they have neither coffee nor Bailey’s (the two things we were craving) so instead Guy returns with the next best thing … Jaeger bombs!! We pretend we are on a ski hill and down them, by which point the rain has eased and we can trundle ourselves and the buggy home, stopping off en route to take pics of the circular art installation on the castle walls and to hatch plans of walking the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route, which starts from a small church just by our apartment. Clearly the Jaeger’s have taken their toll!!
Next up, two nights later, are Alt J. The two bands could not be further apart in style, but the venue rises to the occasion again, providing a brilliant contrast to their electronica. We walk home talking about who would be our dream bands to play the venue. Obviously, the Killers are top of the list but they are almost certainly too big. Bloc Party would also be fantastic to see there. If the concert bookers are reading this – our requests have been made!
We finish up the trip by cycling along the Canal du Midi to revisit our favourite restaurant from our last visit – it doesn’t disappoint and, on our very last day, head to Lac de Cavayeres to watch the amazing water skiers and sample the delights of the waterside restaurant.
It’s been a fabulous trip but Ryanair manage to fuck up the ending by taking over an hour get all baggage off all their planes at Stansted airport with no updates to customers about when the delay might be resolved. We vow never to fly with them again. If our dream bands do ever play Carcassonne it’ll be a flight into Toulouse or Perpignan for us!