Carcassonne (16 October 2024)

October 22, 2024

Entrance to La Cité

The weather forecast had predicted rain for later in the day so it was a relatively early start for us. It was also with some reluctance we left, as the apartment was superb with lots of room and relatively well equipped.

I had seen a sign pointing to the Cité de Carcassonne that evening so I knew the general direction in which to walk.

We looked for a nice place to have a coffee on our way to the Cité but there was nothing that appealed. With unerring accuracy I navigated us to the right spot taking the Vieux Pont over the river to climb up to the cité.

It is a magnificent sight. A fortified town that has magnificent views from every position. We entered the cite and set about looking for a coffee place. We eventually found a lovely place in one of the older buildings in the cité. We found out later that building our Salon de Thé was in had the shape it had because formally the city charged rates by the square metre of land on which it is situated

Our Salon de The

Bev found a English walking tour starting at midday and while having our coffee we decided to do it. That meant a rush back to the Office de Tourisme where the tour started from.

It was a good call as the guide was a delight, had good English and a sound knowledge of the history. There has been occupation of the site for 2500 years. The Cité itself was built on the original Roman foundations. In medieval times the fortress was expanded and in places you can see the original Roman brickwork and medieval stonework. In the 19^th century it was restored by an architect who added crenulations and the ‘witches’ hat’ rooves to the towers as he tried to make the cite look good.

Our guide telling us the history

There is a chateau inside the cite itself which was added after the Cathars who built the medieval version surrendered to the French king. Prior to that there was no need for the Count or Viscount to have protection as they were generally loved by their people. Not so the King’s representatives who were cruel and generally loathed by their subjects so needed a fortified chateau to protect themselves.

The Cité is a very expensive place to live with housing costing over a million Euro and beyond the means of most who live in Carcassonne so the houses there are mostly investment properties with only 38 permanent residents. The guide told us that the region is the second poorest in France because tourism the main income earner. Agriculture is also another activity but there is very little industry.

After the tour we had some lunch and spent some more time roaming the Cité before returning to the town and finding a bar where we could have a beer/wine before returning to our apartment. On the way we called into a little museum honouring the armed forces from the wars and other conflicts. It was interesting but we spent only a few minutes in it.

The rain held off and it was warm and sunny until early evening.