We have just had visitors again for the last few days, this time it was our youngest son and his friend. Our son lives and works in Cambridge and we always try to catch up whenever we are in Europe. Last time we saw him was when we house sat in Bourne, 9 miles outside of Cambridge, in August last year.

Mick and I had loads of exciting places we wanted to take them to while they were here for three days.

They had booked their flights from Stansted to Carcassonne with RyanAir months ago. Their flight was due to arrive at 10.30am last Sunday.

Both Mick and I were sceptical that it would land because we have had previous experiences with RyanAir at this airport. And, none of them good.

Two years ago when we were to collect our host from Carcassonne Airport as we finished our house sit, her plane was diverted to Perpignan because of supposedly windy weather. Once the plane landed in Perpignan she was put on a bus and brought back to  Carcassonne, two hours or so later.

And when we went to catch the plane from Carcassonne the following morning (two years ago),  although the weather looked fine to us, the plane we were to catch did not land and we were put on a bus to Perpignan. This was our experience two years ago.

When we dropped our host off recently at the start of this house sit (16th December 2018), the weather looked fine but her plane did not land and the passengers were put on yet another bus, this time to Toulouse, to get the flight from there.

We are not talking about small distances either. This map shows Carcassonne roughly in the middle, and I’ve added Caudiès as well for perspective.

Last Sunday, Mick and I headed off at 9.00am to collect the pair and the weather looked good, so we were optimistic. Around 10.40am we were told that the plane was above the airport trying to find a safe opportunity to land through the clouds. A short time later an announcement came over the speakers informing us that the plane was diverting to Toulouse and the passengers would be catching a bus back to Carcassonne Airport. The time frame given was approximately two hours.

That makes four flights out of four that we have had something to do with at Carcassonne Airport that have NEVER landed at Carcassonne.

The two hour wait was very optimistic as well because it appeared that the passengers in Carcassonne were put on two buses and taken to Toulouse Airport, and once they were off, the waiting passengers, including our son and his friend, were put on the now empty buses and returned to Carcassonne. It was well over three hours.

That delay meant we were unable to go to Espéraza markets, and all the goodies I had planned to buy for dinner had to be bought from a supermarket instead.

We were all pretty hungry by now and had to find a restaurant for lunch. On Sunday, most restaurants cease serving meals at 2.00pm, but luckily we found a very nice restaurant in Limoux that was serving meals all day.

Actually it was not this one, as it had closed at 2.00pm, but it looked very nice.

Mick and I have driven through Limoux a few times and never stopped, so as we searched for the centre ville and any open restaurants we enjoyed our look around.

One thing that we love about this part of the world is that between midday and about 3.00pm the streets and squares are almost empty.

After we enjoyed a very nice meal at a Café in the Square, we had a bit of a walk back to the car, as of course you are unable to park anywhere near the centre of a town.

We ended up having a great time over the next few days with our son and his friend. Some highlights I will share in a separate post.

Yesterday we drove them back to Carcassonne in the hope that the plane they were to catch did in fact land in Carcassonne.

And it did. And they flew back to Stansted and landed on time.

That makes 1:5 or 20% success rate at Carcassonne Airport with RyanAir.

I really hope this statistic improves as I have my sister, who lives in England with her husband, coming to visit in three weeks.