Carcassonne from the motorway service station
Carcassonne itself was a bit of a disappointment when we went there on the last day of the holiday. For a start, it was almost impossible to photograph. It’s a walled citadel, up on a small hill, but it was very difficult to find a spot from which to take a picture of the whole city. I kept hearing Christopher’s voice in my head, saying in exasperation “The sun’s in the wrong place!” This snap was taken from the motorway service station on the way back and gives a hazy (literally!) impression of the scale of the site.
The city gates of Carcassonne
Up close, you can see the scale of the fortress, but also some of the problems I had with it. It’s essentially a Victorian fake! Well, that may be a bit harsh. The citadel had fallen into disrepair at the end of the nineteenth century, and there was a plan to demolish it completely. A campaign was started to save it, and it was then very heavily restored, not to say completely re-interpreted, to fit in with late nineteenth century views of what the middle ages should have been like. The pointed roofs are completely wrong – the chief architect came from the Loire Valley, where the chateaux typically have slate roofs like that, so he rebuilt the towers to look like a Loire chateau – despite the fact that it was historically completely wrong for this area!
What you can’t see, because I refused to photograph it, is the completely tacky set of shops lining the main street inside the citadel. It was a total tourist trap! If you wanted to buy a plastic sword and shield, some over-priced foie gras, or some expensive but tatty lace – this was your chance! It was pretty busy when I was there, right at the beginning of the season. According to our guide, by mid-August, there’s a solid mass of humanity trying to fight its way up and down the main street!
I’m really glad I went to Carcassonne, but I will be in no hurry to go back. I’m not keen on blatant tourist traps.
