When I planned to visit Carcassonne, I made sure that our group must stop at the highway rest area outside the city to see the famous view of the medieval fortifications, and when I saw it, I was really pleased that the first view of this World Heritage Site was indeed impressive and deserved its famed reputation as one of the best walled cities in the world. My friends and I decided to stay at Carcassonne for one night, at first, we were in dilemma between stay in the old city or in the newer area, at the end we decided to book an apartment in the new city but within short distance to the old quarter.

The view of city wall together with its old Pont Vieux from Pont Nerf was really amazing. From here we could see that the fortifications were actually really complex in design which different from other famous walled cities like Avila and Dubrovnik which have almost similar pattern on the whole system. Its complexity reminded me Segovia’s Alcazar, but Carcassonne was much bigger and grander. One of the things that made Carcassonne looked even more special was its conical witch hat roofs on its many towers, again similar to Segovia’s Alcazar. While these creations of Viollet le Duc were controversial, they really made the fortifications more interesting and has visual impact more than other city walls. After we admire the outside fortifications, we walked to see inside. The pathway from the new town to the city gate of Porte d’Aude in the western side was quite steep and looked dangerously slippery after raining, but really beautiful. When we were inside the old city, we were quite surprised that the city was quite lovely than we expected. I noticed that the city must be full of tourist shops, but because we visited on low season, only few shops were still opened. Then we looked around the city to find a recommended restaurant to try the famous Cassoulet, a local dish of white bean and pork stew which was really nice for cold winter. We walked to the eastern side of fortifications; these side was quite different from the western side. While the western fortification was built on steep hill, the eastern side seem to be built on the normal level ground which required a large ditch and ramparts for better protection especially around the city gate of Porte Narbonnaise. We decided not to walk on the wall, as we believed that it is much better to see from the ground level, also Chateau Comtal which was the center of all fortifications were closed for renovation during our visit.

We were in the old city until sunset and walked back to our apartment, Carcassonne at nighttime was also stunning especially when looking from Pont Vieux, but the spooky atmosphere around Porte d’Aude was really something. In my opinion Carcassonne was a very nice example of European medieval town and really fine World Heritage Site. Its fortification is really great in terms of size and design. While the old city itself was a bit too small than my original thought, I still really enjoyed my time in Carcassonne.