Carcassone, Wall at Night

(3 photos)
The old city of Carcassonne is called “La Cité” and is an overpowering specimen of military architecture. This incredible city was first mentioned in the records of Rome in the year 20 BC, and the most recent part of La Cité is 600 years old. The two walls (about 50 yards apart) and fifty-two towers are floodlit every night of the year — and what a sight to behold.
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On our third (of four) visit we arrived in mid-afternoon, found a parking place, rested awhile, then fixed dinner in our RV, right next to Carcassonne’s wall. Imagine what that means. Here we are, little ‘ol friendly travelers, parked right next to this ancient medieval wall, built to keep out not so friendly travelers. At sunset we walked and walked through this most fascinating city, then drove the mile or so down the hill to the very nice, brand new campsite.

French TV was filming a special about Joan ‘d Arc. Since Joan had never been to Carcassonne, they built a new castle entrance out of plywood and paper, so no one would recognize where the picture was being made. Special platforms were used to attack the wall. Fires were started on the platforms, they filmed for a few minutes, then quickly put the fire out so they could do it again a few minutes later.
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Each year we visited Carcassonne, in the evening we returned to admire, and take pictures of the floodlit city walls. On the main street through town, just below la Cité, a Mobil gas station closes early in the evening and provides a large parking space, with an excellent view of the walled city on the hill. Maybe the best view is from the old bridge over the Aude River, between the old la Cité and “new” Carcassonne. A picture is worth a thousand words, a visit is worth a thousand pictures, the video is priceless. We have seen at least a 1,000 walled towns and cities in Europe, and if Carcassonne and Dubrovnik, (former) Yugoslavia aren’t the best two, they are at least two of the very best.