The Walled City of Carcassonne

Someone had told us that a visit to Carcassonne was a must if we were in the South of France, so the day after the bad weather we drove the hour and a half back towards Toulousse to visit the Medieval city, a world heritage listed site, a walled city protected by two fortified walls (making a total of 3km of walls) with 52 towers and a 2600 year old history!! The city is right on the banks of the river Aude is and still home today to 120 people. The walls had been around the city for 100 years and after the people living outside the walls continually and unsuccessfully tried to invade the walled city, they gave up and built their own city on the other side of the river, apparently they had been fighting for 700 years!

From the minute we walked through the wide entrance gate which once opened over a moat, we knew we had come somewhere special. As Jenny and Joll were standing in the gateway, (waiting for us to come through, I was taking photos, surprise, surprise!) a cat ran out in front of them, and grabbed and killed a pigeon!!). All the streets were really narrow (maybe 10 ft wide), all cobble stoned, mostly curved, as the city walls were in a ring, the buildings along the streets were two or more storeys high, cute little shops selling everything from souvenirs, fresh biscuits, glace fruit, chocolates, toys and clothes to name a few. There were lots of restaurants and cafes and we saw at least two hotels where you could stay. Inside the city walls there was a fort which had its own walls as it was the first part built, later on as the city grew the outside walls were added. We walked around the fort walls and the different rooms inside, many of which now house museum pieces such as early 15th century Alabaster objects and a collection of sculptures from Carcassonne and outlying areas. I really liked the big carved marble trough looking thing, it looked like a big bath, but it was actually a sacrcophagus (probably not spelt right) belonging to a man and his wife, it had a carving of them together with the tree of life on one end, something else on the other end and along the sides were carved impressions of all the people in the funeral procession!! The city walls had the usual "arrow loops" which are vertical slits to shoot arrows through, a "portcullis" which is an iron grid that slides down to close off a passageway and of course the good old trap doors to drop things like rocks on unwanted visitors!! And then when we thought we had seen it all, we came across SS Nazarius and Celsus Catholic Basilica! There had been a church in the city since the 6th century with the current "new one" being built in 12th century, with further additions throughout later centuries. It was magnificent inside, the stain glass windows were huge and beautiful. The organ, one of the oldest in existence dates from 1522 (it was huge too). It had been remodelled during different eras with the upper keyboard being extended in 1722 which now means that is can apparently only have classical pieces played on it (no idea why!) There were also a few tombs in the walls and floors and a board cataloguing all the priests at the church since 569!! We spent a few hours wandering around the walled City of Carcassonne, it was excellent and we all loved it.