From a distance the city of Carcassonne looks like a city of dreaming spires. Set in Cathar country in south west France it is a land with a history of terrible retribution and massacres with the Catholic Church hounding and destroying what they called ‘heretics’ Those who held a religious opinion somewhat at odds to conventional teaching.
Occupied as early as the 6th century BC by the Romans and fortified during the Middle Ages, the city fell into disrepair with stones from the castle and ramparts quarried and used for building until the turreted towers were restored by a French architect called Viollet-le-Duc who began a 50 year old restoration project and ‘ invented ‘ what has even been called ‘ a medieval fabrication of the grandest scale ‘ He was the one who installed the pointy towers on top of the old towers Not exactly in keeping with a medieval restoration but it has made it the second most visited site in France ( after the Eiffel Tower)
Our visit a couple of weeks ago was at the end of the tourist season but even so during the day the place was saturated with visitors . Shops in the tiny cobbled streets catered for them….tourist tat, shops for the kids selling plastic swords and helmets, every restaurant doling out cassoulets and baguettes. But…in the centre of the city there is this wonderful sprawling hotel called Hotel de la Citie , a haven of peace and comfort . Set within the walls and ramparts with luxurious bedrooms the hotel serves up a great breakfast, but be warned …eating there for dinner is expensive, luckily there’s lots of restaurants within the city itself that are more than adequate. If you do want to stay there , shop around and negotiate a price with the hotel itself. If you book with booking.com and others they take a cut so the hotel could match their prices. Or…. use a company that has already done a deal. We went with Great Rail Travel .
The Monday market at Mirepoix reminded me of Bridgnorth ( except it was hotter!) The stalls were obviously unregulated with lots of different sizes that added to its charm. There may be Heath & Safety issues about food stalls on markets in the UK but there certainly didn’t seem to be any in France, athough on reflection there was a lot of plastic wrappers about.
