Final blog Until Iowa!

Hi everyone! This is my last post before we leave. I have a lot to wrap up!

First of all we spent two days at Carcassonne, a Medieval walled city near Toulouse. It is incredible. It has been completely rebuilt and looks just like it did hundreds of years ago. We went for a walk in the city first thing in the morning, This is what it looks like when you walk up to the outer walls. This is a gate leading into the inner walls.

This is my brother and me standing between the walls of the city.

 We went to the castle museum and climbed up on the ramparts. We had a huge view of the city. This is what it looked like looking down the castle walls.

 This is looking at one of the towers on the outer wall.

 This is looking over the city towards the cathedral. Parts of the Cathedral date back to the 9^th century.

 This is looking into the middle of the castle. The wooden part at the top of the wall are sections where the soldiers stood to protect the city. The city became so well built, enemies didn’t even bother to attack, they just went someplace else.

This is another picture towards the Cathedral.

 These are the big windows inside the Cathedral.

After Carcassonne we went to Albi to look at the Cathedral there. This is what surrounds the door of the Cathedral. It was added on after the Cathedral was built—the Cathedral is Romanesque and the door opening is Gothic.

This is the outside of the Cathedral. It is HUGE!!!!

This is one of the carvings around the door.

 This is the ceiling of the Cathedral. The whole place was amazing!

It was all painted inside.

 This is the organ.

Afterwards we went and looked at the city gardens before we had lunch.

This is a picture of the town from the top of the garden walls.

This is my last picture—my family getting ready for dinner. My aunt and uncle live in a huge 17^th century house. The kitchen is really big with a huge fireplace at the end.

Ok, that’s it for my blog. I hope you enjoyed what I had to share. It was the most amazing trip. I had a great time and I’m really happy that I was able to share it with you. We get on a plane for Iowa tomorrow. I’ll see you all on Monday!!!