If you're planning your first trip to France, go ahead, see all the hot spots: Paris, Nice and Cannes--maybe even dip into Biarritz after a lazy weekend in San Sebastian. Then see Carcassonne. It's not quite undiscovered, as its shares the high honor of being on UNESCO's World Heritage List. But it's not overdone like tourist-heavy destinations, either, sitting as it does rather quietly in Aude, which lies in the western part of Languedoc-Roussillon. 800 kilometers from Paris and just 60 kilometers from the Mediterranean, Carcassonne is a medieval town complete with a fully restored wall and about 45,000 inhabitants.
I referred to Carcassonne in an earlier Suite article as "the only walled city in the world still inhabited," and a watchful reader pointed out that there could be hundreds of cities that fit my rather vague description. I think I meant "oldest." But I went back and searched and searched for where I read that little gem of uniqueness, and guess what? It couldn't be found. In fact, Carcassonne itself, even with all its pre-Roman history, couldn't even be found in last year's Lonely Planet Western Europe guide. Oh well. At least in searching deeper into the "facts" of this quandary, I uncovered plenty of reasons for you to put Carcassonne on the 1999 must-see list. Who knows, maybe you'll find a tourist leaflet somewhere that will redeem my faux-pas.
History
Since pre-Roman times, a fortified settlement has existed on the hill where Carcassonne is located. Two important thoroughfares, one from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, one from the Masif Central through the Pyrenees to Spain, crossed at Carcassonne. Today, the city consists of two parts; la Cité, as the walled part is known, and the bustling town across the Aude river on the flatlands which began as a settlement referred to as Bastide-Saint Louis. Massive walls encircle the castle, a Gothic cathedral, and the various houses and streets. Thousands of visitors each year come to admire this small French city which is considered one of Europe's most complete examples of a fortified medieval city. And, according to the World Heritage List, the long restoration of Carcassonne by Viollet-le-Duc is another one of its outstanding features, as UNESCO's World Heritage website refers to Viollet-le-Duc as one of the founders of the modern science of conservation.
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