France

Carcassonne

B Byrd

— 4 min read
Carcassonne

On Sunday afternoon, during our two-night stay in Carcassonne in southern France, we visited its medieval old city. It was gorgeous, but we had to be careful as there were thieves on the roads...

Thief!

The surrounding countryside was also lovely and we met a local farmer...

Farmer!
Not sure if this was a thief or a farmer... his head just kept popping up through the grass on the outer ramparts.

Despite the age of the castle (some parts date from 1093), there was still a knight there to keep an eye on things (didn't seem to deter the thief out on the road though)...

Knight!

We're not sure exactly why (Sunday, time-of-day, public holiday?), but we got our tickets for free to visit the inner area of the ramparts (all 1.3km of them) and the castle, Château Comtal, itself (no time for that). Timing-wise we were very lucky; the ramparts just opened fully to the public in September this year after 2 years and over €5 million in renovations.

Looking back into the old city (people still seem to live there).
Old inner wall after a realignment during upgrades in the 1300s.
Hmmmm... I wonder if there's anyone we know in there.
An old cloister (ruined) was converted into this theatre in the 1970s.
The few modern buildings inside (this amenities area for the theatre and the ticketing area at the entrance to the castle) were clad in these weathered slats. It was very effective in disguising them (A didn't even notice this building).

After finishing our walk of the ramparts (as they started closing doors and gates behind us), we wandered through the old city a bit more, including visiting the basilica. There we met a monk we'd known for some time...

Monk!
There were some gorgeous stained-glass windows. Some of them date back to the 1300s but others only to the 1800s.
And goodbye Carcassonne.
Possible apprentice thief we saw on the way back to our accommodation.

That night we also played Carcassonne in Carcassonne (our accommodation kindly provided a copy). Carcassonne (the game) was the inspiration for us visiting Carcassonne (the city). I lost miserably after F co-opted my extensive farming operations.

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