Carcassonne Castle

What was meant to be just a short pit-stop on our way to visit Montpellier turned out to be an entir day's worth of sight-seeing and activities. Carcassonne is a town located in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France and the main attraction is the ancient fortified castle/township. We arrived not really knowing what to expect but were immediately blown away by how vast the castle and ramparts were. It was very surreal to have this medievil style castle appear out of nowhere when you have just been travelling past normal buildings and house on normal roads. 

The town is divided into a number of different parts:

1. Fortified Walls & Ramparts
2. Medieval City
3. Basilica of St. Nazaire & St. Celse
4. Main Castle

1. Fortified Walls & Ramparts

The walls and ramparts were probably my favourite part of the whole place. They were just so huge that it was hard to imagine how they were possibly built in the first place. The views were also spectacular from up on top of the ramparts and you could see the surrounding countryside for miles and miles around. 

2. Medieval City

The  medieval city is what actually takes up most of the area inside the the walls. There are dozens of different shops and restaurants scattered throughout with something for all tastes. You could spend hours browsing around all of the different shops there. There were of course some tacky "touristy" shops but most of it was quite interesting. One thing that felt completely out of place turned out to be the best thing we did all day. Near the centre there is a "Haunted House". It costs money but it was defintely worth every penny. You have to make your way through a haunted house in the dark with a monster scaring you constantly as you go along. I wish I could have taken my camera as I would have gotten some great pictures! I highly recommend the haunted house to anyone who wants to do something really different while you are there! I don't have any pictures from it but I do have a picture from my favourite shop there which was a chocolate shop with dozens of kinds of chocolate and lots of free samples! 

3. Basilica of St. Naziare & St. Celse

The Basilica was another very pretty place to visit inside the walls. It's very, very big so it takes a while to walk around and see everything but it's defintely one of the nicer churches that I saw during my Erasmus (And I saw a lot of churches!). 

4. Main Castle

The main castle was probably the coolest part of the entire town simply because it's an actual castle!! Being there felt like being in a Medieval movie when you walked over the draw bridge to enter the castle. Apparently there are Medieval reenactments held in the castle at certain times during the year so I wish I could have been there to see that but I will just have to come back again sometime. 

All in all, Carcassonne is a fantastic place to visit and there are enough things to do and see that you will find you can spend a whole day or more walking around the Medieval town. It's certainly a unique place and I would recommend it anyone looking for a day trip that's not very expensive at all!