Thursday, July 15, 2010

Bastille Day

Ok, time to begin the proper travel blogging... my American friends have left for Paris, so I have plenty of time on my hands. Yesterday was Bastille Day, the French National Day, and we spent it in Carcassonne, where they have a huge firework display every year.

Carcassonne is a charming place, it has been a trading site since Celtic times, and Romans, Visigoths and Saracens have been among the rulers. The castle sits on a hilltop above town and is today one of the best preserved medieval fortresses in the world after extensive renovations in the mid 1800s. It was central during the successful eradication of those supreme idiots, the Cathars in the 13th century (generally, the only thing that can make the Catholic church look good is its competition). All pics of the fortress here and the city here.

The city itself reportedly has about 50,000 inhabitants, but up to 700,000 watch the fireworks. Probably every single one of them were on the road to Narbonne last night, because it took us two and a half hours to get out of the parking lot and onto the freeway. The fireworks lasted about 25 minutes, and you can watch it all here. Some examples below...

Nice, fairytale castle:
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Houses with windows and stuff painted on. Cool effect, I saw some of these in Montpellier too.
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Fireworks, wheeeeee!
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