Date of visit: May 6, 2013, around 11:00 a.m.
The most popular World Heritage Site in France is Mont Saint-Michel, but Carcassonne is no less popular. In fact, this is my second visit to Carcassonne in my lifetime, having first visited in 2010.
Until the day before, I was in Corsica. I took a night flight from Ajaccio, Corsica to Marseille, mainland France. I stayed one night at the airport in Marseille.
The hotel we chose was cheap and there was no restaurant in the hotel, so we tried to have dinner at the airport, but it was after 9pm on a Sunday night and there were only fast food restaurants open, probably because there were not many shops in the airport itself.
And it’s very crowded.
But it was quite hearty and delicious.
After a long night, I rented a car for the second time in this trip at Marseille airport. I learned the hard way about crappy cars in Corsica, and since I’ll be renting a car here for about two weeks, I decided to go up a class.
Then, I got a Volkswagen Golf with great success.
This is my second Golf. Great car, no problems.
Instead of going to Marseille, we rented a car and headed to the west. Actually, I was going to meet my friend in Toulouse this evening, so I decided to move there at once. I could have flown from Corsica to Toulouse, but I thought it would be quicker and more efficient.
And here we are, in Carcassonne. Another beautiful day! The sky is blue!
The souvenir shops are as fun as ever.
Of course, the inside of the castle is worth seeing, but the town is also very nice. It’s really medieval.
There’s a reason why Carcassonne is so thoroughly medieval.
In the Middle Ages, this area was called Occitania, and Catharism, which was a heresy from the Catholic point of view, was the mainstream in this area. The « Bjoer Crusade » was held when the interests of northern France and England, which were planning to dominate such a fertile region, and the Roman Church, which was aiming to eradicate heresy, coincided.
Carcassonne was also subject to its conquest.
However, before Carcassonne was attacked, the Occitan city of Béziers, southeast of Carcassonne, was thoroughly attacked by the Albigensian crusaders, who massacred its inhabitants, whether Catalans or not.
The next target was undoubtedly Carcassonne. Surrounded by strong walls, Carcassonne was indeed an impregnable castle, but after being attacked by the Crusaders and the massacre at Béziers just before the attack, Carcassonne decided to stop its futile resistance and surrendered immediately.
The occupying Catholics decided to make Carcassonne their stronghold because it was a very strong castle.
So, the scene was maintained as it was in the past because it fell without any major battle.
The romance of history is very interesting, because a little fate may or may not make it a world heritage site in the future.
Now, it is such a castle interior, but it is crowded with a lot of tourists. It is indeed a world heritage. But there are few Japanese.
It’s a really popular spot with a lot of people.
There are maps and illustrations of the castle all over the place, and they are also very emotional.
The view from the castle is amazing. It was a beautiful day and we could see the Pyrenees Mountains in the far south.
There are various Catalan sculptures everywhere in the castle. After all, the atmosphere is different from Catholic. It has a rustic feeling.
Walk around the castle. I went outside for a while and took some photos.
We had lunch here because we were hungry. We had a famous « cassoulet » and left Carcassonne at about 14:00.
15年前に訪れたことのあるトゥールーズを目指します。（続く）
