Chateau de Castelnou

February 10, 2007 (Grandpa Jennings' birthday – Happy Birthday!]

We are sitting down at the computer to write about our adventure yesterday when we went to Castelnou. “What did we do at Castelnou?” Karl asks. First, Castelnou is the name of both a restored castle and the name of it's surrounding village.

We went with our friends, the Kisker family. We drove less than an hour to get there. On the way we could see the eastern Pyrénées mountain range and the Pic de Canigou; they were snowcapped!





We went inside the feudal castle. We had to walk a long way first through a large garden. The steps up to the castle were made of rocks. The handrail was made of thick rope. The doors were very huge; they were made of heavy wood. In one door there was a tiny window covered with a metal net so someone could look outside of it to see who was there. The door knocker was a round heavy piece of metal attached to the wood with big bolts. Above the door was a shield with a picture of the castle on it.


There was a courtyard with a fountain and stone staircases going in different directions. In one room we saw knights in armor. They had shields and swords made of metal. We picked them up. They were hard. In another room, there were archers with bows and arrows. We could not touch the bows and arrows. Upstairs, there was a huge room. On the walls hung lots of colored quilts. In the middle of the room, was a long wooden table with iron chairs on either end. At one end of the room, there was a stage where Johann and mom danced. We looked out the tall windows and we could see the garden far below. We went up to the barracks on top of the castle. They were long and wide, a perfect spot for running. It was v v v v v v v e e e e e e e e r r r r r r r r r r y y y y y y y y windy!! From the top, you could see the look out towers and the mountains far away.

After we left the castle, we walked through the village. The roads were very narrow, about as wide as a couch. Everything was made of rocks: the roads, the walls, the houses, the garbage bins (just kidding). There were no sidewalks; you just walk in the streets or up and down tiny stone staircases. There were archways made of rocks that go over the roads. The doors to the houses are small. The houses look like Hobbit houses.