Who goes to Carcassonne and doesn't visit the Castle?

The first time Carcassonne appeared on my radar (or more specifically, Ryanair's) was after I flew into its airport. I walked through the minuscule arrivals hall and boarded a shuttle (bus, not spacecraft) to take me to the train station where I met up with a couple of friends. We had lunch in a Mexicanish restaurant and wandered through the town. It was Sunday so nothing was open, bien sûr, but it was pleasant enough to walk around. So we did. Before long we drove back to my apartment in Toulouse.

Carcassonne, I decided, was perfectly charming but, in the southwest of France where these towns are all around, there was no reason to return . Then I found out it had a castle. The next weekend I returned. Parents in tow.

We arrived at the ancient city crossed the drawbridge, through one of the 52 imposing dark grey towers, and were swept into a throng of bustling bodies. Tourists were packed in from ancient wall to ancient wall. Our feet shuffled along the cobbled streets with everyone else’s. We passed endless gift shops – swords, armour, chocolate - before we realised we didn’t want this. Eventually we jumped off the imaginary conveyor belt and found a restaurant. We rested, stopped sweating and wondered what we had let ourselves in for.

Lunch over, we climbed impractically steep path to the city walls and looked out through the battlements at the countryside beneath us. It suddenly made sense. This was why Carcassonne was a big deal.

Looking out around the castle, it feels like nothing had changed in the 2500 years that the city has existed. The endless green hills that stretch infinitely in front of you have been seen by human eyes for thousands of years. Cars replaced horses, huts are now houses. Variations on a theme.

The ancient city of Carcassonne has changed immeasurably since its original conception. It was transformed by the Romans, annexed by the French, abandoned by the townspeople, half-demolished and fully-restored. The bricks that make the walls have changed. But, the verdant views around are unaltered and timeless. We were seeing what the Romans, Saracens and Crusaders saw when they rolled into town.

Ours was a fleeting visit, we did not stay as long as the Romans, but to be on the ancient walls of Carcassonne makes you feel like your life is such a small part of such a significant history. But a part of it nonetheless. So it deserves to be lived.