Here's the map. You cross the Pyrenees- Somport tunnel (8 kms) and wiggle down through the narrow main roads until you get to Pau, and there, if you're lucky, you find the motorway to Toulouse; I hadn't got my gps working at that point, and so we wiggled about more than we expected before finding our route. Tarbes, Toulouse ring road and our B&B, Domaine Saint Louis, which was a little way out of the city of Carcassonne.
A big, old country house, a bit shabby but very comfortable, with a wonderful, if messy big fig tree in the garden (we were invited to help ourselves to figs as there were too many to harvest). After a welcome cup of tea we drove down to the outskirts of Carcassonne.
This is La Cité, which you can only see like this from the air-Ryanair flights go right over it really low! We didn't see it this way, but the sight of it is amazing from anywhere!
Anyway, first stop, La Ville- the lower, new town where most of the people live; out of a population of 50,000, only 40 live in the walled city. We had expected just the old part to be good, but look!
I've never seen so many umbrellas! Such a pretty way to create shade!
First sight of the turrets
Column commemorating the reconstruction of the city.
About Carcassonne, I've copied text from Wikipedia. Read it if you like!
The first signs of settlement in this region have been dated to about 3500 BC, but the hill site of Carsac – a Celtic place-name that has been retained at other sites in the south – became an important trading place in the 6th century BC.
A medieval fiefdom, the county of Carcassonne, controlled the city and its environs. The origins of Carcassonne as a county probably lie in local representatives of the Visigoths, but the first count known by name is Bello of the time of Charlemagne. Bello founded a dynasty, the Bellonids, which would rule many honores in Septimania and Catalonia for three centuries.
In 1067, Carcassonne became the property of Raimond-Bernard Trencavel, viscount of Albi and Nîmes, through his marriage with Ermengard, sister of the last count of Carcassonne. In the following centuries, the Trencavel family allied in succession with either the counts of Barcelona or of Toulouse. They built the Château Comtal and the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus. In 1096, Pope Urban II blessed the foundation stones of the new cathedral.
Carcassonne became famous for its role in the Albigensian Crusades when the city was a stronghold of Occitan Cathars. In August 1209 the crusading army of the Papal Legate, Abbot Arnaud Amalric, forced its citizens to surrender. Viscount Raymond-Roger de Trencavel was imprisoned whilst negotiating his city's surrender and died in mysterious circumstances three months later in his own dungeon. The people of Carcassonne were allowed to leave – in effect, expelled from their city with nothing more than the shirt on their backs. Simon De Montfort was appointed the new viscount and added to the fortifications.
In 1240, Trencavel's son tried to reconquer his old domain but in vain. The city submitted to the rule of the kingdom of France in 1247. Carcassonne became a border fortress between France and the Crown of Aragon under the Treaty of Corbeil (1258). King Louis IX founded the new part of the town across the river. He and his successor Philip III built the outer ramparts. Contemporary opinion still considered the fortress impregnable. During the Hundred Years' War, Edward the Black Prince failed to take the city in 1355, although his troops destroyed the Lower Town.[6]
In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees transferred the border province of Roussillon to France, and Carcassonne's military significance was reduced. Its fortifications were abandoned and the city became mainly an economic centre that concentrated on the woollen textile industry, for which a 1723 source quoted by Fernand Braudel found it "the manufacturing centre of Languedoc".[7] It remained so until the Ottoman market collapsed at the end of the eighteenth century, thereafter reverting to a country town.[8]
Historical importance
Carcassonne was the first fortress to use hoardings in times of siege. Temporary wooden ramparts would be fitted to the upper walls of the fortress through square holes beneath the rampart itself, providing protection to defenders on the wall and allowing defenders to go out past the wall to drop projectiles on attackers at the wall beneath.
The fortified city
The fortified city consists essentially of a concentric design of two outer walls with 53 towers and barbicans to prevent attack by siege engines. The castle itself possesses its own drawbridge and ditch leading to a central keep. The walls consist of towers built over quite a long period.[9] One section is Roman and is notably different from the medieval walls, with the tell-tale red brick layers and the shallow pitch terracotta tile roofs. One of these towers housed the Catholic Inquisition in the 13th century and is still known as "The Inquisition Tower".
Carcassonne was demilitarised under Napoleon and the Restoration, and the fortified cité of Carcassonne fell into such disrepair that the French government decided that it should be demolished. A decree to that effect that was made official in 1849 caused an uproar. The antiquary and mayor of Carcassonne, Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille, and the writer Prosper Mérimée, the first inspector of ancient monuments, led a campaign to preserve the fortress as a historical monument. Later in the year the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, already at work restoring the Basilica of Saint-Nazaire, was commissioned to renovate the place.
In 1853, work began with the west and southwest walls, followed by the towers of the porte Narbonnaise and the principal entrance to the cité. The fortifications were consolidated here and there, but the chief attention was paid to restoring the roofing of the towers and the ramparts, where Viollet-le-Duc ordered the destruction of structures that had encroached against the walls, some of them of considerable age. Viollet-le-Duc left copious notes and drawings upon his death in 1879, when his pupil Paul Boeswillwald and, later, the architect Nodet continued the rehabilitation of Carcassonne.
The restoration was strongly criticized during Viollet-le-Duc's lifetime. Fresh from work in the north of France, he made the error of using slates, ( when there was no slate to be quarried around,) instead of terra cotta tiles. The slate roofs were claimed to be more typical of northern France, as was the addition of the pointed tips to the roofs. Yet, overall, Viollet-le-Duc's achievement at Carcassonne is agreed to be a work of genius, though not of the strictest authenticity.
That's what Wikipedia says. It's an interesting, bloody history. The restoration is wonderful, although I thought the pointed roofs on the turrets were a bit Disney castle-ish!
The first afternoon we just walked about, sat on terraces and got an idea about the place, with the idea of a proper visit the next day. Lots and lots of tourists!
Cathedral church of St Nazaire, lovely rose windows
Some of the 50-something towers on the outer walls.
Much of the history of La Cité that they tell is about the Cathars, a 13th century sect which was destroyed by the Catholic crusaders. In the area there are many Cathar castles. We made a long and winding journey by car the next day to see the one they said was one of the best, Peyrepertuste.
We walked all round the castle and then realised there was as much again on the neighbouring promontory. Chapels in both parts.
Guard house
Amazing views of the next castle along
From the car park.Peyrepertuste castle is a bit like a ruined, more complex version of our Loarre castle in Huesca, but far more difficult to access; we had a long scramble through woods and rocky paths to get to and around it.Later that day we returned to Carcassonne via the town of Lagrasse, which has a famous old abbey. We had a lovely meal on a a terrace there, with the rather slow service we often saw in French restaurants; the food itself was delicious.The abbey of Lagrasse was a disappointment; the famous tower was completely covered in scaffolding.
Here's one I googled: it didn't look a bit like that. Moreover, when the abbeys were expropriated in the 19th century, Lagrasse was sold off in two parts, one of which is still an inhabited monastery, for which you have to pay a separate entry ticket, AND there was a basket of scarves by the entry so that women who weren't wearing enough clothes could cover up...I hate that (I was decent) We decided not to bother and went back towards Carcassonne.
From the motorway we saw a great column of white smoke, which was a fire in the woods near the city. Everything was very dry. We saw at least five fire-fighting planes flying over it.
(I was in the passenger's seat)
The following day we went to Albi, where we spent our last day and night in France. It took us a while to get there, as typically you can go back to Toulouse and go on the motorway or wiggle along narrow country roads; we did the latter. It was a long, but pretty journey.
Albi is an old city with lots of red brick buildings. The cathedral was built to show the great power of the Catholic church after they did away with the Cathars. It looks more like an impregnable fort on the outside than a church.
This is the massive main door. You can see the brick buttresses beyond it.
Adjacent is the archbishop's palace, home of the collection of the works of Albi's most famous son, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Apparently, after his early death, the artist's mother offered the collection to the city of Paris. To their shame, they said: "We already have plenty of paintings; wht would we want all these pictures of prostitutes? Early sketches and paintings, pictures of friends and colleagues, children, dogs and horses,,,,and the night-life we are all familiar with. He was a little man with an enormous talent!
Albi has the oldest bridge still driven on in France. It dates from 1040!
From the old bridge you can see the cathedral and the viaduct 
This is the old bridge from a viewing balcony.
That's all of the trip. The following morning we drove to Jaca, going round Toulouse, Pau, and stopping in Oloron at the hypermarket for sandwiches and to buy a few bits and pieces. When we tried to start the car, the battery was dead. Failing to contact our insurance, we found a nearby car workshop where a lovely man brought out a battery, gave us a jump-start and told us to go home without turning the engine off. No charge! Vive la France!
Lovely pictures
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