On Sunday Bill and I were walking through the park that runs along the Aude river here in Carcassonne. It’s very popular on weekends for all kinds of sports activities and is a great place to watch the fireworks over the castle on the 14th of July. Since the weather was nice, lots of people were picnicking including the group you see here sitting along a wall behind which runs a mill stream. The two of us had a bit of a chuckle wondering if these outdoor diners realized the original purpose of the wall upon which they were sitting.

When we were here a year ago to sign the lease on our rental home that provided us with the accommodation needed to obtain a visa, we spent the two weeks, mostly on foot, exploring the city and trying to imagine what it would be like to live in Carcassonne. Since Heather would be coming with us, finding walking areas for her was an important consideration, so we did a lot of exploring beside the canal and river. It was along the Aude, with its water source in the Pyrenees Mountains, that we came across a stone wall next to a stream that had been diverted to power the mills that brought wealth to the city. When we peered over the wall to look at the water we took a photo of what you see here. Nature called, apparently, and in what a beautiful setting to receive that call! This wall is, of course, the same you see in the first picture of our picnicking visitors, except from a different perspective. A few meters/yards from there is what I think of as an automatic flushing system that operates around the clock. You can see that in the final photo.

In keeping with this blog post’s title, have you been to Blarney Castle in Cork, Ireland to kiss the Blarney Stone? Any guesses as to what this slanted stone hole might have been used for originally? Let’s just say that in castles, calls from nature were frequently taken from holes in the exterior walls that provided any possible intruders with a less-than-friendly welcome. Have a nice day!