Things to do in Carcassonne

Carcassonne is two settlements facing each other across the Aude. The Cite stands on the hill behind a double ring of walls three kilometres long and fifty-two towers. Only a few dozen people still live up there.

Inside and below the walls

• Chateau Comtal. The castle within the castle, and the way onto a long stretch of the inner rampart walk.
• Saint-Nazaire. The basilica, whose thirteenth-century glass is the best thing inside the Cite.
• The restoration. Viollet-le-Duc rebuilt the walls in the nineteenth century and gave the towers pointed slate roofs that historians still argue about.
• Bastide Saint-Louis. The grid-planned lower town across the river, laid out in the thirteenth century, where people actually live.
• Canal du Midi. It passes the railway station on its way from Toulouse to the sea, walkable and cyclable under plane trees.

Why the Cite needs explaining

Walk in without context and the place reads as a film set. It was a Cathar stronghold, taken by the northern crusade in 1209. One hour of history changes the view.

• Guided. A private walk covering the ramparts, the castle and the siege, roughly an hour and a half on foot.
• Self-guided. A phone-led ghost story over the same ground for the price of a sandwich, which works well with children.
• Beyond the walls. The Cathar castles at Lastours sit on their crags half an hour north, with Minervois and Corbieres vineyards either side.

Neither format needs booking far ahead, which is unusual for a place this busy. The Cite absorbs its crowds because it is a town rather than a monument. Timing matters more than tickets.

Practical

• Crowds. The Cite is free to walk into and takes millions of visitors a year, most of them between June and August.
• Best months. Spring and September are the sensible ones, and the place is at its best in the hour after the coaches leave.
• Heat. July afternoons inside the walls are hot and airless, and there is very little shade on the ramparts.
• 14 July. The fireworks set the whole fortress alight for a few minutes and fill every room in the department.
• Getting up. Parking sits below the walls and is charged; the climb is short but steep, and the cobbles punish wheels and heels.
• Eating. A set lunch in the lower town costs around fifteen euros against roughly twice that inside the Cite.