Carcassonne

This was another sight past which I had driven on my many trips between Bologna, La Rochelle and the UK. From the speeding freeway, the medieval city of Carcassonne with its 3 km of double walls looks ancient and romantic.  Up close you realise that it was completely restored in the 19^th century by the (in)famous architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. The romance of the place is somewhat diluted by the 1000’s of mid-August tourists. Having said this, we did manage a relatively private circumnavigation of the walls and then discovered an extremely pleasant restaurant under towering plane trees away from the hoi polloi. We then wandered back down over the ancient bridge over the River Aude to the “bastide" or new town.

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