Carcassonne is an area that had always attracted us. Being a medieval walled city in the Occitanie region of France, it definitely has a lot going for it.
We found a great price on airfare to Paris and built up a weeklong escape to Provence and Occitanie with a couple of days in Carcassonne as the highlight of our adventure!
Carcassonne has been inhabited since 3500 BCE during the Neolithic period! Its location between old historic trade routes linking the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea made it a strategic and lucrative spot for collecting tolls from anyone wanting to pass along the river! Our guide laughed as he said: “some things never change”, referring to the tolls we still had to pay on the highway on our way to visit! So true!
The Romans conquered this strategic location and kept it until the 5th century. The famous citadel known as ‘La Cité’ is a medieval fortress built upon ancient fortifications that date back to 100 BCE.
Much of the double-walled fortress was built and expanded in the 12th and 13th centuries. It really is an impressive sight, and you can see the hilltop walled city for miles.
Napoleon dismantled parts of the castle in 1804, but restoration began anew in 1844 with the majority of the work completed in 1879. The historic castle and walls became a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997. Ongoing restoration and repairs continue to keep this historic site in good shape so it can hopefully be there for generations to come.
Getting there
We drove into Carcassonne from Avignon allowing us to visit some other historical and quite beautiful places along the way such as Nîmes and the Pont du Gard. Read more about these in our road trip post.
Getting to Carcassonne from Avignon is about a 3-hour drive. You can take the big A9 Highway most of the way or opt for smaller more scenic routes. We did the A9 to get there and took smaller roads back to Avignon. You can also get there just as easily from Toulouse.
Interestingly enough there is even a small town next to Carcassonne called Montreal. When we said we were from Montreal our castle guide jokingly asked us, “Which one?”.
Where we stayed
Coming offseason (in early March) and booking well in advance got us a great room at the Hôtel de la Cité de Carcassonne. This is the only hotel built into the actual walls of the citadel.
They have a parking just outside the walls with a valet that helps with the bags to get you into the castle-hotel. He had a small Fiat and after stuffing us into the car with our bags he zipped us up through the fortified city’s narrow gate over the drawbridge and moat and through streets we were sure had to be pedestrian-only. He knew his way and before we knew it, we were in front of the hotel adjacent to the castle.
Hôtel de la Cité
Not being full, we were lucky enough to get an upgrade to a suite with access to the castle ramparts from a huge terrace and balcony. Quite nice! We could hear and see birds out there and of course we never got tired of admiring the castle from the room and our private little deck!
The room came with a Nespresso maker and a bottomless minibar. A comfortable king size bed with a second couch/hide-abed, desk, and both inside and outside dining areas.
The bathroom came complete with a towel warmer, double sinks, and a huge tub and a separate large shower. There was even a small changing room area with lots of storage.
The main attraction was still the balcony that was directly connected to the ramparts of the fortress. It was really like staying in the castle itself.
Dinner fit for Kings and Queens
The Hôtel de la Cité also has a famous Michelin starred restaurant (La Barbacane) which we had booked as a special treat. It included an amazing 6-course meal (and a few other courses thrown in for fun by the chef!).
We were stuffed to the gills, and it was both delicious and an artistic experience with each dish coming out as a work of art! Simply beautiful presentations.
Everything was made with local fresh ingredients, many from their own gardens. Fish and oysters were from the neighboring seaside. The oysters from Sète were served in an apple jelly made from apples from their own orchard. The meal included small rouget fish caught in nearby Marseille, little crab-filled raviolis, a lamb chop, and much more.
We ate for over three hours! And then they brought out the chocolate petits fours. Everything was spectacular! A true castle dinner fit for royalty!
More perks of staying in a castle
The next morning, we went out on our terrace and were pleasantly surprised to see that there was an even larger terrace next to the restaurant. They had opened the gate for us to be able to explore along some of the ramparts reserved for hotel guests. It really is a pretty cool experience staying in the castle.
After a wonderful breakfast we wandered out into a light mist. We had packed well and had our light Marmot rain jackets to ward off the persistent drizzle and wind.
Exploring Historic Carcassonne
It was nice to walk through the medieval city towards the Vieux Pont (Old Bridge) to get some views and to explore the historic lower town, Bastide Saint-Louis.
Legend has it that the King got mad and razed the houses of the inhabitants who then went across the Aude River to rebuild. The animosity between the upper and lower towns persisted for a long time.
With two nights, we really just had one full day to explore so we headed down to the other side of the bridge first as we had a tour booked to visit the Château Comtal and Remparts for the afternoon.
Bastide Saint-Louis
It took only about half an hour to get to Place Carnot, a historic square filled with restaurants and shops in the Bastide Saint-Louis neighborhood. Along the way we saw some nice murals.
That said, maybe the rain and maybe the fact that we were early in the season made for a somewhat dull walk. We would recommend that if you’re here for only half a day, stay in the castle area and enjoy that part of Carcassonne as there really wasn’t much in the lower town besides the square and the historic church. You can definitely do both with a full day if you like walking like we do.
The best pictures of the castle and ramparts were from the Pont Nouveau (New Bridge) where you could see the whole walled city of Carcassonne on the hilltop.
The ramparts are so big that even from this distance it was hard to get a good picture that included it all. There may be other spots on the outskirts of town to get even better pictures, but this was a good one for sure.
Inside the Medieval City of Carcassonne
The Hôtel de la Cité is located at the top of the hill in the walled city and next to the large Saint Nazaire Basilica. This makes it easy to find when you are wandering around as you just head up and when you see the church it’s hard to miss the hotel next door.
We went to explore this beautiful 12th century basilica on arrival. Of note were the beautiful stained-glasses windows and the wood statues ornamenting the top of the pipe organ.
Much of the fun in Carcassonne is in going through the city walls and exploring the various passageways, admiring the historical stone walls, carvings and statues. It’s really like going back in time.
Here, unlike in Lyon and Avignon, in the evening we had a biting cold wind going through the stone walled streets that kept us from straying too far. We needed all our layers in those conditions but again the following day when the sun came out, we could get away with t-shirts and a light jacket to wear in the shade.
In the old streets we stumbled upon a wonderful artisanal store selling fruit pastes. I made the mistake about asking about their fruit jellies and got an earful about how these should never be called jellies because they were 85 percent fruit cooked down slowly in a huge pot (the owner Turia pointed to a beautiful thick copper pot in the display as she explained)! She had dozens of flavors including some traditional recipes from ancient times using fruits like cassis and sour cherries to name a few. There were two dozen flavors in all.
Château Comtal and Ramparts
For the castle itself, we had booked the ‘privilege tour’ which is only available on the French version of the website. This tour takes you into some of the usually locked areas such as a basement where ancient mosaics have been discovered.
The guide also told us about some unexplained phenomenon in the castle such as a green silhouette of a woman that is occasionally seen. People have also heard many creepy sounds that were unexplained. Like with a lot of castles we can imagine the many gruesome things that must have taken place here over the centuries and it would not surprise us to find them all haunted!
He also explained the funny spelling with two n’s and two s’s in Carcassonne. Supposedly the scribes were paid by the letter in ancient times, so there you go!
While interesting, but wordy, we were concerned that we might run out of time to visit the castle itself as the tour continued. Google had told us that the opening hours were until 6pm but the guide said these were the summer hours and that in March they would close at 4:30pm.
We broke away from the tour a bit early to have the chance to explore on our own and must say that we were glad we did. Otherwise, we might have missed some of the best parts of the castle had we stayed.
We enjoyed ourselves roaming the castle walls on our own and walking right around the city enjoying the views from the ramparts.
Plan about an hour for the palace and another hour for the ramparts’ walk around the city. Both are well worth it and not-to-be-missed. If you have time for the guided tour as well great. But plan around these as in our case the organized tour did not include the whole site and you’d have to explore that on your own before or after.
Carcassonne Citadel
Carcassonne is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in all of Europe. It has a total of 52 towers, and the city ramparts span over 3 kilometers (almost 2 miles). The castle, while greatly restored, has been in place for 2500 years! It was almost in ruins in the 19th century when the architect Violet-le-Duc helped restore it. In 1997 it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Aside from the ramparts that are accessible from the castle itself, another fun thing to do is to explore the passageways between the castle and the city walls.
Filled with narrow cobblestone streets and ancient buildings turned into shops and restaurants you can wander around here sampling crepes, ice cream, and all kinds of sweets. They had what we thought were huge parmesan cheeses but instead turned out to be homemade nougats of varying flavors.
Carcassonne specialty dish
Just like the specialty foods we found in Lyon, Carcassonne also had a regional specialty called Cassoulet.
Our new friend, Touria from the fruit pastes (not jellies!) store had told us that La Taverne du Chateau restaurant made a great cassoulet. Sometimes it’s good to ask a local for a recommendation.
Cassoulet is a specialty from Carcassonne that is almost like a stew or a thick soup. It is made with a combination of local meats with preserved duck being a prominent and popular ingredient. It is all mixed with white beans. Picture the consistency between baked beans and a thick pea soup. This hearty meal is a regional tradition and tasted great. Touria did not lead us astray! We also had a delicious (but rich!) baked brie and a goat cheese salad.
We also kept bumping into another couple from Brittany, Henri and Suzanne. They were at the next table from us at the castle dinner, again at breakfast, and we saw them in the streets a few times and finally bumped into them again when heading back from our cassoulet. We laughed because they were also going out for the same simple hearty meal. We exchanged numbers and who knows may see each other in Montreal or back in France sometime again.
Some tips for Carcassonne
- Treat yourself to a night in the castle hotel, Hôtel de la Cité, and splurge on the Michelin starred chef’s restaurant menu if you can. Early booking is essential.
- Plan on at least 2 hours to self-tour the castle and ramparts. Check closing times carefully as online information may not be accurate.
- Try the cassoulet, traditional specialty dish from the area.
- Time permitting explore the old town but make sure to have sufficient time to explore the castle itself. Take the guided tours if you’re a real history buff or if you have extra time to fit it all in.
- We were pretty well able to pay for everything with the phone except for tips. Bring some extra change and small bills to use for tipping as it does not seem possible to add that to the electronic payments.
Conclusion
We loved Carcassonne and highly recommend a visit here. We’d been hoping to come for years and were so glad that finally our trip worked out.
As we finished up our scrumptious breakfast at the Hôtel de la Cité, we were going to hit the road to head back to Avignon.This time via the smaller roads so we could also see some other small towns. Since we were also so close to the Mediterranean we thought we’d do a small detour to smell the ocean. And to see where those wonderfully tasty oysters came from!
See our post: South of France Road Trip: Avignon to Carcassonne
If you are planning a similar trip, you could also head out to Toulouse from Carcassonne. From there it’s also easy to grab a TGV train that will get you back to the CDG airport or elsewhere.