Fortified City of Carcassonne

If you find yourself in the south of France, PLEASE visit Carcassonne. This small, medieval city is full of awesome history and provides a very unique experience for tourists (especially us Americans) because we don’t have anything like this.
There’s guided tours or a booklet you can grab as you walk in. Whatever you choose, make sure you learn all you can about the history here. This is THE oldest, fully preserved medieval walled city in Europe. This place is so well-​preserved there’s still shops and restaurants operating inside, which says a lot about the care that has gone into the upkeep here.
After you walk around the innards of the city (get lost, you’ll always make your way back to center eventually), go visit the original castle structure. It costs extra to visit but it’s worth it to learn more about the history and see how people would have lived here 800 years ago.
The restaurants and shops OFF the main drag and square are the best because there’s just less traffic. The prices are lower, the service a bit friendlier (not that it’s not friendly elsewhere) and the locals LOVE answering questions about their little city.
The shopping here is some of my favorite in the region because you can get all kinds of artisan-​produced goods specific to the south of France (herbes de Provence, textiles, local wines, pâté de fois gras, etc.) at reasonable prices. Shop around because many places sell similar things, so you can always find the lowest price.
I absolutely adore Carcassonne. I love coming here and would be happy to spend a week in the area.

La cité est vraiment jolie et en plus de cela elle est assez vaste. Il est possible d’y passer l’après midi et de se restaurer sur place. Malgré tout c’est tout de même un bon piège à touriste. En effet il y a un grand nombre de boutiques de souvenirs et de babioles, il y a aussi une maison hanté (merci de me dire le lien avec la cité). Le parking est payant 5 € pour y avoir passé l’après midi et la visite du château n’est pas gratuite pour les + de 26ans. Cela né me choque pas mais pour 8,5 € je m’attendais à plus de choses, une plus grande liberté de mouvement. En effet lors de ma visite le personnel n’étant pas assez nombreux, les remparts n’étaient pas accessibles sauf avec les visites guidé et donc à des heures précises (pourtant le personnel né manquait pas dans la boutique souvenir).
Le château reste tout de même très joli et la vue est vraiment magnifique mais pas besoin de payer pour la vu je pense.
Le reste de la cité est agréable (surtout en été car il y fait relativement frais). Je vous conseil si vous souhaitez boire un verre d’aller place saint jean car elle est beaucoup moins fréquentée que le reste.
En gros il faut y aller pour la vue et l’histoire de la cité mais je trouve que c’est un bon piège à touriste.
PS (edit du 27 aout): je vous conseil de faire le festival de Carcassonne avec de gros groupes et artiste. J’ai vu Saez et Orelsan et le cadre est vraiment sympa pour ce type de concert (même si bouffe et alcool sont interdits dans le théatre).

A great day trip. This place is quite incredible. It wasn’t built for it’s current use, it actually was a functioning medieval village at one point with real archers and moats etc. Now it is a tourist spot, but still very impressive.
The people who live near and in the town are very proud of having been in the film Robin Hood, many have photos of themselves with Kevin Costner displayed. It isn’t somewhere you would want to spend a week, you can get through it in a day, but do take a tour to get the back story. do wander around and maybe even take a lunch and a blanket, the moat is a great place to picnic (since the water and alligators are no longer down there) — of course that assumes nice weather.
The food is so/​so by comparison to the surrounding areas and i think it’s just because they are trying to serve things that are more universal in nature, like pizza and such rather than doing classic country fare.
There are lots of shops with the classic sort of souvenirs you might expect. They also have a hotel located inside the city that is very cool. I think it is worth a nights stay just to get that castle feel. We stayed there and it was rather nice.
I love being able to walk around the gardens and the different lobby areas, but I will review that hotel separately.
If you are in the mid-​Pyrenees, make sure you have real local fare in Cahor and the small villages and for the love of God — have some cassoulet!

Very cool castle town to wander around in. Beware though; it is packed with tourists, crappy and overpriced food, and loads of shops selling junk.
Despite all that, we loved both our nighttime and daytime romps through town. We did not pay extra to go into the one «special» area, but we don’t care about things like that.
Tip — Go early or late to avoid the masses.