Carcassonne

An action-packed day. Set off this morning from Barcelona in a new Ford Focus ST. 'Our' car is a sporty diesel version in vivid red.

After breakfast we drove around the city to see some of the sights, including the fantastic Sagrada Familia, the very ornate cathedral dating back to the 19th century. Working on it was the career pinnacle for the celebrated Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. It was famously left unfinished, its completion interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, but fresh work seems to be going on again now.

Our route north took us via Ripoll and across the Pyrenees. We used one of the tunnels to ease the trickiest part of the trip, but on exit an overnight snow dump and fresh snow falling on our arrival meant a stop to fit snow chains as a safety precaution. I reckoned that Ford would rather have the car back intact!

Our overnight destination was Carcassonne, the wonderful walled medieval city, where we parked outside the ancient fortification and walked in to find a restaurant for supper. Tonight's stay is in a chateau. Sounds extremely grand, but it's actually rather more modest, a three star hotel that happens to be housed in a rather notable building.

Tomorrow's destination is somewhere in the middle of France, yet to be decided ...