Carcassonne is a medieval styled walled city, situated in the South of France, towards the border of Spain, getting close-ish to Barcelona….thus, one of the reasons why we stayed there, due to its proximity to Barcelona.
Carcassonne was also featured on a television series we saw in Australia, where TV Chef Rick Stein, travelled from Brittany in North-West France, to the Mediterranean on river cruisers. Whilst on the tour, Rick Stein went past Carcassonne and whilst looking impressive, he also ate a stewed meal of meat/duck confit and beans called Cassoulet.
We were impressed, so we decided to visit Carcassonne.
As we discovered, Carcassonne is a very small city with two distinct parts – a) the retail and market section where we stayed in an Ibis Hotel and b) the tourist based medieval walled city section.
We didn’t encounter loads of rain on our journey, and as always, you cannot pick the weather so you just need to go with the flow, however, it did rain in Carcassonne whilst we were there and we did get seriously wet!!! And when we say it rained, it bucketed down.
Predictably, the walled cities were built on hills as this offered the best option for defence in years gone by, and Carcassonne’s walled city was no exception. Therefore, when it rains on hills, the water runs dow
nwards and again, this was no exception with water everywhere!!! Was no major drama but it did pose a few small problems in drying our clothes, plus we couldn’t really walk around as much as possible, but that was also ok as it gave us the chance to have a drink and rest our legs in some bars and cafe's. The walled city was interesting but due to the heavy rain, we decided not to go on a tour of the interior of the city. We did eat cassoulet but to be honest, it was rather over-rated. It contains sausages (fatty), plus duck confit (duck soaked in fat to preserve it) as well as white beans. It was ok, but I found it rather greasy. Nonetheless, worth trying the once, which we have now done, so all good.
We had read a review that Carcassonne was someone’s favourite city, but to be completely honest, it was ok, not bad, not great....just another place to visit but we wouldn’t necessarily rush back again.
