Yesterday was a very, very long day. Jan and I, and Gill and her two children Katie and Tom, set off for Carcassonne (above) at 10.30. After a one hour stop over at Ikea to pick up a few decorative bits for the wedding and then a pique-nique lunch at a motorway service area near Narbonne (who says I don't know how treat a woman right?) we eventually got to Carcassonne around 14.00. The place was heaving. Full to overflowing with tourists (like you - Ed.) and not at all pleasant. Jan and I had been once before, a few years back, in the middle of winter, so pretty much had the place to ourselves. This was something altogether different and not something that I enjoyed. If it wasn't for the concert that evening I'd have left pronto. Anyway, it took Jan and Gill the best part of 15 minutes before they dived into a shop and muggins here stood outside for the best part of half an hour. When they had finished, and after a quick corrective interview, they had both learnt the error of their ways so it was back to the nearest bit of shady ground for a communal snooze until 18.00 when the urge for a drink took hold.
The concert didn't start until 21.30, so we had a quick dinner in Brasserie Le Donjon, 4 rue Porte D'Aude, Carcassonne, 0468 259572 which turned out to be very good. Jan commented that the onion soup was as good as hers, as was my tomato tart. I followed with an excellent faux filet and the others had cassoulet. Recommended.
***
The Theatre Jean Deschamps, just inside the city walls is a first class, modern amphitheatre with the ancient walls as a backdrop. The seats were laid out in such a way that everyone had a good view, which was just as well because with the seating being placement libre and, even though we turned up a full hour before the concert started, the place was already three quarters full when we got there.
Joe Cocker started, just like he did in Nîmes two years ago, quite slowly and 25 minutes in, lifted the tempo with a few old favourites. After an hour everyone was on their feet and we all rocked away (after three encores) until just after 23.15. Katie and Tom, who had recently seen the Arctic Monkeys in Nîmes, were very impressed. Whilst this was music from an altogether different era it was their first concert of this type and hopefully JC has a couple of new fans for the future. A good day!
