Introduction
R and I decided to visit the town of Carcassonne in southern France, solely because we have a board game named after it.
Doing this trip in late February seemed like a good idea, because we thought the South of France might be warmer than the UK. (It may have been, but was still bitterly cold.)
Other than the board game, Carcassonne is known for its medieval walled ‘City’, which is built on a hill just across the River Aude from the slightly less medieval part of the city.
Tuesday
We took a TGV from the Gare de Lyon to Narbonne, then changed to a local train to Carcassonne. The journey was smooth and pleasant (and to my amusement the TGV passed through a town called Béziers, where it followed a smooth curve), but it is quite a long way: including waiting for the change, it took more than five hours.
After arriving and checking into our B&B (which incidentally was run by a couple of Englishmen; it was quite flamboyantly decorated, and rather lovely), we headed up into the old city to find a restaurant. I took some pictures on the way back, when the city was floodlit.
Wednesday
This was our official ‘City’ day; we began by walking up to the Aude Gate again.
The stepped walls leading down the hill, incidentally, were built to defend a route to the river so the people inside could get water in a siege.
We visited the Château Comtal, which has a museum.
The museum ticket also lets you access the upper ramparts in two directions, one of which is a dead-end and the other lets you out into the public part of the city. We walked the full route.
If you’re thinking the castle (and the entire city) looks a bit too Disney-princess to be real, you should probably be aware that it was extensively and not entirely accurately rebuilt (from ruins) between about 1850 and 1930. It’s still extremely impressive.
Later, we walked around most of the outer ramparts. You can normally walk the entire circle, but the southwest part of it was closed for repair.
We went into the slightly less old part of town across the river (the Bastide) for dinner.
Thursday
We visited the art museum then took a walk (through grey and exceedingly cold weather) along the River Aude.
The main road bridge took us across the river, and we returned on the other bank. At this point, the weather improved.
Friday
We walked into town, almost to the railway station.
A bridge near the station crosses the Canal du Midi, which was built in the 17th century to connect the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. We had decided to walk along the canal a few miles.
We had decided to turn around at the first lock, Ladouce Lock.
After returning to town, we looked around the southwest part of the Bastide.
The southwest corner bastion (once a fort) was laid out within as a park to represent the Garden of Calvary, for some reason.
We also had a quick look inside the cathedral.
And then we walked back toward the old bridge.
This time we took a look inside Notre Dame de La Sainte.
We continued toward the Aude Gate of the City.
I took a few pictures on the way back from a restaurant that evening.
And finally, here’s a photo from the window of our bathroom.
That’s it - we took pretty much all Saturday to get home, which was another nice journey (we went a different route, via Toulouse and Bordeaux). Thanks for reading all this!