Well so it was with our visit to Carcassonne. A day where the only expectation was that the place was as great as the game. The Cite de Carcassonne, the old part of town, was quite stunning upon our arrival and cycle down to the castle. It apparently has been heavily reconstructed in parts through the 19th century. It does however have quite an amazing 'Moyen ages' feel to it with turreted towers around the concentric walls. Within these walls was the usual modern take over of the old town buildings and then filled with the usual tourist tat. The narrow streets with their cobbled avenues did however give off the correct flavour of such a place and it had a quite magical appeal. It is one of those archetypal fairy tale castles that has given stylistic voices to the many Disney castles and films.
Our visit was however, taken over with a real version of the game Carcassonne being played out. Essentially the game requires players to build cities and fortifications like the real version, and then stand little people called Meeples around in the cities, on roads and laying down in fields to score points. So, all our photos consist of us all trying to rack up points in the star shaped fashion of a Meeple. It was daft, but a lot of fun, and there were many quizzical looks as we tried to 'claim' a street by starring ourselves across it!
If you have ever done the traditional type games then, and fancy something a little different, then check out Carcassonne. It's cheaper than driving out here and playing it for real among the slightly perturbed other tourists. A good family game that we have had a lot of fun playing. It looks like a terrible jigsaw, but it is well worth the initial struggle through the rules.
Ed
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