After a wonderful night's sleep at the flat we were staying at, we were ready to do more exploring of La Cité. The previous day had been quite interesting with the medieval city almost empty. While it made exploring easy, it gave the place an almost eerie atmosphere.
There had been sporadic drizzles from the night before so we took our umbrellas with us. Instead of taking the same route up to Porte de l'Aude like the day before, we swung around the city. Passing Rue Trivalle where we had dinner the night before.
We took a walk down the street and did notice that many of the restaurants on the street were closed for the week.
We skirted past the hotels on Rue Gustave Nadaud and made our way to what is considered the main entrance to La Cité, Porte Narbonnaise.
The gate with two huge towers and drawbridge is quite impressive.
As you walk to the gate you can't help but notice the bust to the right. Who is this you might ask? It is the bust of Lady Carcas, the namesake of the city. So, why is the city named after her? Well, according to legend, and yes it seems that this is a legend, while under the rule of the Saracens, the Franks under Charlemagne surrounded the city hoping to retake the city that was once theirs. At the point where the siege had gone on for over five years the citizens of the city were running low on food and water. Lady Carcas, the widow of the former chief requested an inventory. She was told that there was some grain left and a single pig. She ordered that the pig be launched at the Franks. Charlemagne seeing this pig launched toward his army believed that the city had enough surplus supplies that it could waste food, lifted the seige! As the Franks retreated Lady Carcas ordered the bells of the city to be rung, which led people to exclaim "Carcas sonne" – "Carcas Rings"! You gotta love it.
One thing that is easily noticed as you cross the drawbridge into the city are all the formidable battlements and defenses. There's a huge metal gate to crush you, notice the curve as you cross into the city, that serves a defensive purpose as well; to slow you down as you attacked the city.
The place was very quiet, just as the day before. The intermittent drizzle set the mood as we walked along the cobblestones, winding streets, passing medieval structures. Even the TI was closed!
Though unlike the previous day, some of the shops were open or opening.
And the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus was open as well, so we decided to take a look.
We spent a good amount of time walking the avenues of La Cité and before we knew it, the clock stuck noon. We were lucky enough to notice that one of the places I had on my "list", Adelaide was open! So, we headed on in.
The place had just swung open its doors for the day, so we were the first customers.
The folks were very mellow and friendly, of course there was one key item on the menu that the Missus was raring to try.
We started with some salads, not "just greens" mind you. The Missus got the Foie Gras mi Cuit de Maison (22€).
We loved the greens here, crisp, fresh, tossed with a nicely balanced vinaigrette. Of course, you're wondering how the foie gras was, right? Well it was quite good, somewhat rustic, light funky-offal tones, that caramelized onion jam was the perfect foil for it.
I got the Salad Adelaide (17€)
Which included the same salad, some fois gras, but much more. There was a nice cured duck breast and more importantly, what you see at the bottom of the plate in the photo above, Gesiers de Canard, duck gizzards. I had really enjoyed the version we'd had in Sarlat la Caneda years ago and couldn't wait to try this. We could not believe how tender these were, they basically melted in your mouth. Loved the flavor we call "funky-ducky", it was so good!
And the Missus and I split a main, the house specialty and one of the reasons we traveled to this area; the Cassoulet (15€).
Man, this was not to our liking. It was super salty, the duck confit dry, the sausage tough and bland, and worst of all the beans were hard and undercooked. I did appreciate the piece of pork rind at the bottom of the pan. But overall, this was not very good.
Man, after those salads our hopes were high, but the cassoulet had us crashing to the earth. There were two other couples in restaurant as we left and we noticed they were having cassoulet as well. I'm wondering how they fared. Well, at least the price at 15 Euros for the cassoulet was not bad.
Adélaïde
5 Rue Adélaïde de Toulouse
11000 Carcassonne, France
As we made our way back to the Porte Narbonnaise, we ran into a few people.
We had enjoyed our time in La Cité, but it was still mid-afternoon and I could tell the Missus wanted to do more.
So now what to do?
Stay tuned!
A very generous portion of terrine mi cuit, with a lovely apple jam. The accompanying sea salt and a touch of jam went well with the lovely, rich and buttery fois gras.
Not a big fan of this dish. The mussels were overcooked and on the tough side and there was a bit of grainy "sandy" bits. Also, we didn't care for the milky creamy flavors which really detracted from the briny – sweet mussels. 
This "interesting" building is 
The croissant was dark, flaky, and light. But it really lacked the butteriness I like and was on the dry side.
There were no herbs and veggies on a plate; what little there was had already been dumped in the soup; which had a weird tinge that was almost grey. The broth tasted like salt water with some beef bouillon dumped in it. The slices of beef were tough and tasteless. The banh pho were of the thicker variety and were just a tad overcooked. Man, this was even worse than the 
The best item were the "nems", which we call Cha Gio, it was light and crisp and the filling while on the chewier side had a nice porky flavor. The bun was overcooked. The bun cha dry, tough, and bland. The nuoc mam cham suffered a from a serious shortage of fish sauce. I'm just going to stop here…..
The church is dedicated to 
For the eggs, you could get either Smoked Salmon or Bacon, so we ordered one of each. The frites were nicely fried; hot and crisp, the small salad refreshing. As for the "Benedicte", well, to my surprise the Missus really liked the smoked salmon version. The Hollandaise sauce was creamy, but not overly assertive in that eggy-overly buttery manner. The smoked salmon was excellent; lightly briny and with a great smokiness, it reminded us of what we'd 
While we didn't care much for the pita, which was too dense, hard, and "bready" for us, we thought the falafel were quite good. Crisp outside, mildy creamy interior, nice nutty herbaceousness, this was actually better than what we'd had at 
And while we loved the heads of kings of Judah that originally graced Notre Dame and were severed during the French Revolution ("off with their heads I say!!!!") in what is called 
We were instructed to start with the "naan", basically a buttery cube of flatbread with wonderfully flavored fowl in it. The skewered liver was wonderfully gamy and delicious. 
