Carcassonne, France

Hello- I woke up thinking about Carcassonne, again..

Then this came through from RyanAir today. (Pretty sweet deals!) 

Cheap ass fares from Ryanair. See Carrcassonne listed for 19.99 quid?

So thats roughly $31.08USD or 23.26EU. But if you want to go that cheap then you had better book from the Ryanair site and not on a US site. Why? If you book on US site you will pay 911 taxes...even if you are flying from UK to EU.  (You will save approx. $99.00USD per ticket ) Which is nothing to sneeze at. The site is safe, the airline is budget, but safe. No, it's not one of my favs. but keep your bags to a minimum and hold your nose and go. It's a short, safe flight. Plus I really love his part of France.


Ok, so where is this Car-Ca-Sonne? Please see map below..

Your daily map lesson.

Carcassonne (French pronunciation: ​[kaʁ.ka.sɔn]; Occitan: Carcassona) is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.

It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century, though the Romans had fortified the settlement earlier. The fortress, which was thoroughly restored in 1853 by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was added to theUNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997. (From Wiki go read more yourself, ok?)

Postcard picture

I have been like, hmmm maybe 5 times in the past 10 years? 1st time was just to get to France, had no idea about the town, BUT AS WE FLEW OVER I WAS BLOWN AWAY. Huge fortified cite means its a HUGE CASTLE. So if you like that kinda stuff go and explore. :D

Staying in the Cite is expensive, but staying further down in the "new" area is very afforadable. We spent a week at a Gite in May of 2011. Very nice, good market and train station is small but connects well. (I think if I remember right we rode train from Barcelona, Spain to Perpignan, France (met a wonderful artist who spoke great English and we visited the whole ride.) We spent a couple of days there and then took the train to Carcassonne. All of it was affordable and safe, btw.


I cannot find anymore of my pictures. (So this means I MUST RETURN) :D

Shopping in France

Wine makes a wonderful gift

So anyway, people are barging into my office now...expecting me to work--(WTF?!) So guess I had better. Busy weekend ahead.


I hope you find time to visit Carcassonne. It's a magical place.
Laters~