Carcassonne is France’s Rothenburg ob der Tauber*. The walled medieval city on a hill has been beautifully restored into the kind of picturesque cuteness that tourists can’t resist.
The medieval walled town has a handful of token residents, but otherwise it is purely the realm of tourists. Shops and restaurants line every cute, windy, pedestrian-only street, and menus are proudly displayed in every language you can think of. Most are pushing the cassoulet.
We visited the castle and learned about what we were seeing with the help of a decent audioguide. A castle ticket also allows you to walk part of the wall that surrounds the city, which offers lovely views of the walled city, the modern city below, and the countryside beyond.
An afternoon was plenty of time to explore most of the walled city, but I could have stayed longer to enjoy the views over a drink or two. But alas, we still had so much else to see.
Other posts about this trip to southern France:
Delightful Albi
Itty Bitty Andorra
Atmospheric Toulouse
* Post about Rothenburg o. d. Tauber to come soon.
Great site with beautiful pictures !!
You right it looks a lot like Rothenburg. Beautiful pictures!
Pan – thanks. 🙂
Frau – Rothenburg is bigger, and has more 'regular life' within its walls, but they really are quite similar towns as far as quality of restoration and number of tourists. Both places make it easy to take beautiful photos, too. 🙂
Unfortunately, in spite of the wonderfulness of Carcassonne (and the good game of the same name) the place will always live in infamy in my family due to an amazing fight we had at dinner there, complete with people storming off and saying things that are embarrassing to this day.
Jul — thanks for posting. I've always wanted to visit Carcassonne, wasn't however quite aware that it's basically the French Rothenburg; that can be a blessing or a curse. But the place is beautiful all the same, as can be seen easily enough with your visuals here.
Well done, as always.
Have a great week (and Xmas!),
Michael
Hi, Jul, I got to Carcassonne last fall and really enjoyed it: the first views of it across the plain are magical, and the city is fun to explore. 'Way too expensive , consistent with the touristy nature of the village, but the hybrid Roman / Gothic church was really good and there are lots of good day trips through the surrounding countryside.