La Cité, the Unique Walled City of Carcassonne

We have been looking forward to visiting Carcassonne, on our roving retirement journey, since we were in France in 2020. Both Diana and I had visited many years ago and we only remembered the climb up the hill, the “fairy tail” walls, and the cassoulet. This time we chose to stay inside the city walls of Carcassonne, to maximize our time in situ.

Arriving in Carcassonne

Before we arrived, we didn’t really understand that only locals park inside the citadel, a.k.a. La Cité. Our hotel had a parking lot outside La Cité, from there you can walk or they will shuttle you in. It took a couple of passes before we were able to locate the lot and begin unloading the car.

Our driver, Jerome, picked us up in a small-ish 4 door car and jammed it full of luggage for us and others. The other folks walked to the hotel, we wanted to stay with our luggage for safety. Jerome then drove across the narrow draw bridge, unfazed by the tourists standing and sitting on it. He stopped a few times along the route for an impromptu tour, pointing several things out. Jerome kept going through narrow streets and archways, deftly negotiating tight corners and tourists, as he has done for the last 8 years. Practice makes perfect.

Hotel Le Donjon

While there are a number of Airbnb’s available in La Cité, there are only two hotels, both run by the same company. We chose the less expensive Hotel Le Donjon. Since we were staying in the shoulder season, the cost wasn’t bad. In fact, it was cheaper than expected because the hotel put us in a smaller room than we booked. Unfortunately, they did not own up to their sleight of hand and I needed to employ our 3rd party booking site, Priceline, to get compensation.

Trickery notwithstanding, the hotel was decent. It had a rustic feel with odd passages and stairways that occur when one combines multiple buildings into a single establishment. It was like Escher had designed it. Simply getting to our room required going up and downstairs. Quirky but fun.

La Cité

Settlement in the region began around 3500 BC, but the fortification to form La Cité dates from 100 BC. Jerome showed us the original Roman base of the inner walls, middle layer, and upper walls. The middle layer and an outer wall were added in the 13th century. The outer wall includes a tower that housed a deep well, enabling the town to better withstand a siege.

The citadel surrounds an oval hill, with a total area of 27 acres, including a large castle and 52 towers. Often considered impregnable, La Cité was still captured several times over the centuries. The lower town, outside the Cité walls, was fortified in the 1200s and became more important after the cessation of hostilities from the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. After that time the citadel became abandoned.

The Reconstruction of Carcassonne

By 1849, the citadel had degraded to the point that the government decided to demolish it. After a local uproar, a campaign began to restore La Cité. The reconstruction task was given to Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who was already working on restoring the Saints Nazarius and Celsus basilica in La Cité.

The restoration is quite impressive, especially considering everything in the middle of the fortress was effectively built from scratch in the 1850s. Even so, Viollet-le-Duc took some liberties in favor of aesthetics over accuracy. The original rebuild included Roman towers with pointed roofs instead of more accurate sloped roofs as well as the use of slate as opposed to terra cotta tiles. Still, the result is a worthy achievement, as you can see below.

Beauty and the Beast

Since there are only 2 large hotels in the center, the crowds leave in the evening. Wandering the Cité at night felt like I was strolling through the town from the animated Beauty and The Beast film. The streets at night are mystical and this place is something else. A big part of the charm of La Cité is the interior buildings and alleyways. All of the timbered houses, many with bulging walls including our hotel. Our room even had its own bulging, timbered wall.

You Never Expect the French Inquisition

The region has been witness to some terrible acts in the name of God. In the middle ages, the region was governed by Cathars, who were dualists, believing in one good and one evil god. Pope Innocent III would not brook these heretics and ordered their conversion or death. The Albigensian Crusades started in the July of 1290. Abbot Arnaud Amalric initiated the nearby massacre at Beziers, infamously ordering the burning of the town that provided sanctuary to Christians and Cathars. The abbot reportedly said, “Kill them all! God will know his own” before they burned down the town.

Carcasonne, a Cathar stronghold, fell in August 1290 after a brief siege. The crusade ended as a military action after 20 years. It was supplanted with The Inquisition, an ongoing effort to root out heretics and subject them to torture. The Inquisition lasted another century, with its center in Carcassonne. Eventually, of course, the Catholic church fomented a schism from within when Martin Luther posted his grievances on the wall in 1521, initiating the Protestant Reformation.

Chateau Comtal

Occupying a large fraction of the space inside the walls, the Chateau Comtal and ramparts are fun to tour. We got to traipse all through the castle. There are many descriptions of the living and defensive functions performed in the numerous towers, rooms, and courtyards. Since it was restored within the last 150 years, the condition is pretty good.

Naturally, the extensive access to the towers and ramparts afford great views into La Cité, of the walls themselves, and out to the surrounding plain. A couple of hours went by quickly taking it all in.

Road Trip

We decided to take a break from the ramparts and hit the road for a day. The tourist office had given us a booklet which outlined several possible routes. We stopped first in Montolieu, a picturesque village with an inordinate number of booksellers for a population of 861. It also sported a pretty ravine.

Next, we found the pretty village of Saissac and its chateau. Then we visited a serene reservoir, Le Bassin de Lampy. Finally, we drove by a paper mill at Brouse-et-Villaret that proved difficult to get to, so we skipped it. I should note it was not easy finding food along the way, so packing a picnic in advance is advised for future visits.

Blanquette de Limoux

Our final stop was for a little wine. Blanquette de Limoux is considered to be the world’s first sparkling wine, with references from 1531 by local monks (of course). Production of sparkling wine in Champagne didn’t kick into gear for another century. Blanquette is made primarily with Mauzac grapes, which taste a bit like apples.

Cremant de Limoux is another popular local product. It is at least 50% chardonnay. We found we preferred the Blanquette to the Cremant. A final benefit of our tour was that it brought us back to Carcassonne at golden hour, so we got a great view and beautiful pictures of the city.

Carcassonne Food

Cassoulet is a specialty of the region. When I asked for a recommendation to try some, Jerome suggested the Comte Roger next door and even arranged a dinner reservation on the spot for that night. I suspect he would take care of just about any request with equal ease. We shared a huge foie gras appetizer, and each had cassoulet, taking home not quite half of one. Desert was licorice ice cream and glob over a pastry with raspberries. The 10-year old local wine is good and well-priced at 30€.

Another night we went to Café Lucien for a less elaborate meal of cassoulet and a chicken Caesar salad. A final spot we liked was Le Plo, which had a lovely patio and a well-priced prix-fixe of soup, duck leg, and ice cream for 18€.

Which walled cities would you recommend visiting?