Sadly it was now time to say goodbye to Carcassonne and return to the airport for the journey back home.  We took a leisurely drive along the A roads and stopped off in the quaint town of Saint-Papoul in order to visit the abbey. We then continued our journey and stopped at Castelnaudary where we didn’t quite find the cathedral but we did find an unexpected windmill!! Along the way we picked up a cheese and ham baguette for lunch which we ate on a picnic bench at a service station.

After that we made our way back to the airport stopping for petrol on the way before finally dropping of the hire car. After all that we thought we were a little late for checking in but we found we were half an hour early. The flight times had been given in UK times rather than local times

I inadvertently managed to choose a seat that was in the emergency exit isle and was advised on how to open the emergency exit if a problem arose… Then I was asked ‘are you still happy sitting here’. Well of course I was for more than one reason. And in any case there were going to be no problems There was thick cloud throughout the journey until we came into land. At this point we were treated to some amazing cloud formations and gaps creating interesting views of the land below. My camera had been stowed away by this time…

Luck was with us and we were off the plane, baggage collected, onto the shuttle bus to the car within 20 minutes of landing. All that remained was for us to pick up our car key from the airport parking and head for home.