Are you trying to decide, if Carcassonne is worth visiting in 2023?
As someone who loves the history of France and the Occitaine region, I did wonder if Carcassonne was going to be worth visiting.
Would it live up to my expectations, or would I be disappointed? The hype around this city is huge, and I really didn’t want it to let me down.
Well, I can happily say that it didn’t.
Spoiler alert, Carcassonne is absolutely worth visiting and full of history, stories and amazing architecture.
In this article, I’ll discuss all the reasons why I believe that Carcassonne is worth visiting, plus some tips for the best things to do in Carcassonne, where to stay, and the best time to go.
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Table of Contents
Is Carcassonne worth visiting?
100% yes! Put Carcassonne at the top of your ‘must-visit’ list of cities in France.
It is everything you imagine a Medieval city to be and then some, complete with a château, ramparts and Gothic Basilica.
You’ll find yourself quickly drawn into its world of intrigue and history. And if you let your imagination take charge, you can almost see the knights of olde standing on the ramparts waiting to do battle.
Organizing your trip to Carcassonne
So now you know that Carcassonne is most definitely worth visiting, it’s time to help you plan a hassle-free trip.
First things first, let’s cover the basics that every visitor to the city needs to know.
Where is Carcassonne?
Carcassonne is in the South of France in the Aude Department in the region of Occitanie, which was once completely independent from France and had its own language, not French, but Ocitain.
It was originally referred to as Languedoc-Rousillon, and many French still call it that.
If you want to know more, take my ‘Discovering South West France Quiz’.
You’ll find a lot of Spanish influences in this area as it’s not far from the Spanish border.
The nearest big city is Toulouse, another fantastic place to visit, about 80 km away, and even closer, about 60 km drive, is the city of Narbonne.
Three rivers run through Carcassonne, the Aude, Fresquel, and the Canal du Midi. But more on that later.
How much time do you need in Carcassonne?
Good question. The answer to this depends on what you want to do. If all you want to do is walk the ramparts, cross the drawbridge to the town, check out the chateau and walk through the cobbled streets of the cité, then you could do this in a day.
However, I’d recommend longer.
I went for three days and could have spent longer as I would have loved to do some day trips whilst I was there.
But if it’s just to immerse yourself in Carcassonne, enjoy some of the restaurants and really take your time to explore, then three days should do it.
What is the best time of the year to visit Carcassonne?
From a weather perspective, the warmest months are between April and September, with June, July and August being the hottest, not to mention being the busiest.
I went in July for my birthday, the first weekend of the month, and although it was hot, it wasn’t too bad.
Friends have told me that the Fall is a lovely time to visit as the colours are stunning and the temperatures are still warm but not as hot.
Plus, if you want to avoid the crowds and lots of kids running around with plastic swords pretending to be knights, Autumn is perfect.
I sound like a grumpy 50-something saying that I promise I’m not, but there were a lot of kids doing exactly that when we went. It actually reminded me of my brother, just the sort of thing he did at the age these kids were.
Do you need a car in Carcassonne?
It all depends on what you want to do. If you’re only intending to stay within Carcassonne itself with possibly a couple of planned day trips with a tour company, then no, you won’t need a car.
Carcassonne is a very walkable city, and it’s by far the best way to see it, so you can really take it all in.
Although there are no trams, there are plenty of buses and a train station.
However, if you’re planning on doing a few trips to other places to explore the region, then yes, you’d be advised to rent a car as it will be easier.
I highly recommend Discover Cars as they’re always the cheapest and more reliable option for hiring a car, and I always use them myself when travelling.
How to get to Carcassonne
You have a few options for getting to Carcassonne as the city has its own airport and train station.
By Plane
If you’re travelling within France, Carcassonne-Salvaza Airport will get you from Paris to Carcassonne in under two hours. Plus, you can fly in from the UK, Ireland, Belgium and Portugal.
There are other airports where you can get an international flight and then rent a car and drive to Carcassonne:
- Toulouse Blagnac Airport – 1hr 30 mins
- Béziers Airport – 1hr
- Perpignan Airport – 1hr 30 mins
- Montpellier Airport – 2hrs
By Car
Driving from Paris will take about 8 hours to get to Carcassonne, but worth it if you’re planning a road trip. There are plenty of fantastic stop-offs along the way to make it the trip of a lifetime.
From Toulouse, it’s just over an hour, Montpellier just under two hours and Béziers just over an hour.
If you’re coming from the Poitou-Charentes, where I live, it takes approximately 4.5 hours to drive. That’s how long it took us on a straight run.
Remember to use Discover Cars to get the best deal on your Car Rental >>>
By Train
Getting to Carcassonne by train is easy. The address of the station is 1 bd Maréchal Joffre. Below are the approximate journey lengths from the major cities in and around Carcassonne:
- Paris: Around 7 Hours, sometimes less
- Toulouse: 40 – 70 mins
- Narbonne: 30 mins
- Perpignan: 90 mins to 2 hrs
- Montpellier: 90 mins to 2 hrs
I always use the Trainline App to book my trains as it’s reliable and has the best prices.
Carcassonne: Reasons to visit this historical city in France
Carcassonne is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and la cité médiévale of Carcassonne is reminiscent of something from a fairytale.
As one of the largest medieval fortresses in Europe, it has been written about many times and welcomes four million visitors a year over its drawbridge.
Although the castle was rebuilt in 1800, there are still many original parts of the city to see and a few legendary stories to go along with it.
Why is Carcassonne so popular?
Quite simply, it’s because of the way it looks and has been preserved. Carcassonne sits majestically on top of a hill, and when the magnificent walls of the cité come into view, it will take your breath away. Words just didn’t do it justice.
For me, Carcassonne is magical as it allows you to step back in time, through its cobbled streets and enter a Medieval world.
In this world, battles raged fiercely, and if you wanted to survive, you had to have your wits about you.
It was quite literally survival of the fittest and the smartest in medieval Carcassonne.
So for many people, coming to this beautiful city is a chance to live a little piece of history in a relatively unspoilt place.
Not to mention it had a starring role in lots of great movies, including Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Carcassonne Through the Eyes of Author Kate Mosse
Many people fall in love with Carcassonne through the stories they read, and for me, it was thanks to author Kate Mosse.
She brought Carcassonne alive for me through the pages of her books, making this one trip I couldn’t wait to take. I had a list of things to see in Carcassonne that were non-negotiable. And I was beyond excited.
I’ve long been a fan of historical fiction. I’m in awe of how the author draws you into their world through a clever combination of history and storytelling.
The characters they create become real in your mind, and knowing the places really exist, makes it even more exciting.
Burning Chamber, a novel set in 16th-century Carcassonne
It was my Dad who introduced me to author Kate Mosse and her novel ‘Burning Chambers’.
Since reading it, Kate has released the sequel ‘The City of Tears’, and ‘The Ghost Ship, the 3rd in the series, has just been released. And yes, I’ve got myself a copy in hardback, and I’m about to dive in.
Burning Chambers is set in sixteenth-century Carcassonne during the French religious wars.
It’s a historic display of intrigue, secrecy and violence as the wars between Catholics and Huguenots rage. It’s rich with detail, giving you a glimpse into the lives of those who lived through the very real horrors of the time.
The heroine, Minou Joubert, is the daughter of a bookseller, strong, fearless and utterly faithful to those she loves.
Falling in love with Piet, a Huguenot and ex-soldier, puts Minou on a dangerous path that she can’t help but follow, and we can’t help following along with her.
It’s one of those books that’s hard to put down, and I can’t recommend this trilogy enough.
You find yourself slowly but surely, falling in love with Carcassonne as much as with the characters themselves.
Carcassonne, a tale of two cities
Many people when they come to Carcassonne, are so focused on visiting the fortified citadel and the ramparts that they completely miss the second town of Carcassone on the left bank of the River Aude.
Yes, Carcassonne is split into two cities, la cité médiévale and the Bastide Saint-Louis.
The Bastide is also steeped in history and of course, features in the Kate Mosse trilogy, which is how I knew about it.
It sits at the bottom of the hill of the old city, and to get there, you have to walk across the beautiful old Pont Vieux bridge connecting the two. It dates back to 1260 and is the perfect place to see the old city lit up at night against the sky.
It’s simply magical, and you couldn’t drag me away from it when we were there.
The vibe is very different in the Bastide from the cité, but it’s just as wonderful.
A quick history of Carcassonne, France
You can trace the origins of Carcassonne back over 2,500 years and what a chequered past it’s had.
The Romans were responsible for turning it into a fortified town, but by the 8th century, Carcassonne found itself under Saracen rule.
It was during this time when the city was under siege by Charlemagne, the legend of Lady Carcas came into being.
Whether she was a real person or not remains to be seen, but she certainly left her mark, and many stories surrounding her have been told. You’ll see her bust at the entrance to the old Cité as you walk across the drawbridge.
Read about the legend of Lady Carcas here >>>
When the Crusaders arrived in 1209, they burnt neighbouring Béziers to the ground before turning their attention to Carcassonne.
The city was at that time, under the control of Raymond-Roger Trencavel, the Viscount of Carcassonne. He agreed to meet with the Crusader Army to talk about a truce and was offered safe passage out of the city with his senior nobles if he surrendered.
Knowing what had happened in Béziers, he didn’t want to leave his people to suffer the same fate, so he refused.
A lot of good it did him as he was then captured and held prisoner, and the city fell apart, surrendering to the enemy. The townsfolk were given just one day to pack up their belongings and leave or potentially suffer the same fate as the people of Béziers. As the city lay empty, Simon de Montfort seized the property belonging to Trencavel and became Viscount in his place.
A few years later came the Roman Inquisition, and Carcassonne became home to an inquisitorial centre where many Cathars were imprisoned and tortured to death. You can see the inquisitorial museum in the heart of the cité.
Despite being defeated by the Crusaders, the city remained a stronghold and stood up to many attacks. Edward, the Black Prince of England, is an example of this. He tried but failed to take the city in 1355 during his reign of terror.
The religious wars in France
Carcassonne played a big part in the events that were part of the religious wars in France, forming part of the Reformation in Europe.
The Catholics, led by the Guise family and supported by Catherine de Medici, waged war against the Huguenots, who were in the minority at the time.
Not far from Carcassonne, the Riots of Toulouse, which lasted about a week, saw the deaths of around 3,000 and 5,000 of its citizens in 1562, sparking riots and revolts in Carcassonne too.
Things started to wane in the 17th Century, and with the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, Carcassonne’s strategic position was no longer such an important stronghold. Its value as a fortified city of strength diminished overnight.
Things went from bad to worse, and by the 19th century, the city was turning into a slum, made worse by Napolean when he took it off the list of official fortifications.
Enter Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, a renowned architect called in to breathe new life into Carcassonne in 1853. His remit was to restore the town to its former glory and turn it into the place we see today.
