13 September 2023

13 September 2023

Val

Two of the fifty-two towers on the ramparts.

After a miscommunication delay, we had a wonderful tour of the medieval city of Carcasonne, which is enclosed by a wall with 52 towers along the ramparts. Our guide Remi recounted an abbrieviated history of 2000 years of the city, the region, and its rulers. He talked a lot about the various design aspects and developments that aided the defenders in shooting arrows, dropping various objects, and using many a trebuchet to toss round projectiles of 30 to 50 lbs. Simon de Montforte became known as Simon the Bloody for his cruelty in war, and living up to his sobriquet, he suffered death due to receiving a round, heavy rock from a trebuchet directly in the face. We later explored the castle on our own. It backs up to the ramparts, and we found ourselves circumnavigating the city on the ramparts, and feeling a bit like Charlie on the MTA as we passed several closed exits. Up and down, up and down, up and down, …..

We were up on top of the wall walking all around.
This is how close our hotel was to the wall.

We took our exhausted legs back to our nearby hotel, only to return a few hours later for our al fresco dinner at one of the restaurants in the medieval city.

We happened upon a statue of St. Lawrence, so we’re six St. Lawrence graduates with St. Lawrence. He’s lost his head, but we’ve still got ours, more or less.
Waiting (and waiting, and waiting…..) for dinner back within the walled city.

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  2. How extraordinarily beautiful the city looks. Barb is here with me and she has been there also.

  3. The stained glass windows are magnificent. I could look at them all day . . . if there were a place to sit down!

  4. That video is wild. Is there a local population that still lives within the walls – similar to Dubrovnik in Croatia? Obviously there are restaurants. In Dubrovnik it was somewhat awkward – as we were walking along the top of the wall, we’d pass someone’s laundry hanging out their balcony and have a peek into their kitchen or living room. It really made me wonder what it was like to live in such a gigantic tourist attraction.

    1. We were told that about 40 people still live inside the “city.” I can’t imagine living in a place so overrun with tourists. You could hardly walk on one of the main streets the first afternoon. I’d surely be cranky if I lived there.