Cycle Tour Canal des 2 mers - Mediterranean route - Cycle route Switzerland-Mediterranean

After a very good breakfast, we went to Carcassonne by train at 9:15 am with the TER. It takes just eleven minutes.

From the train station we walked straight to Rue Clemenceau. It is one of the commercial streets of Carcassonne in the former Bastide Saint-Louis. Behind Place Carnot, we turned into Rue Verdun and then crossed the Pont-Vieux.

In the old town below the Cité, traders and restaurant owners were arranging their facilities on the street. But already here tourism is dominant.

We passed the fortress on its north side and then walked from the east through the mighty and strongly secured main gate into the fortress. On a winding alley we came to the inner defensive ring around the Château. Access to the castle remained denied today, the staff was on strike.

We continued through the narrow streets to Église Saint-Nazaire de Carcassonne. The nave could not be visited due to construction work. But the choir and transept were accessible and both surprised with a light-flooded emerging Gothic architecture and very beautiful windows with some original stained glass from the 14th and 16th centuries. Definitely worth seeing.

On the east side we went back towards the main gate. The little squares are full of restaurants. As a whole, the houses are crammed inside the fortifications with the usual tourist bric-a-brac or with restaurants or other food and beverage offers.

Back at the castle gate, we realized that the strike no longer hinders access. We bought tickets with audioguides and got in one and a half hours a very good impression of the defense facilities of the castle and of many of its rooms.

Then we went through the second access, the Porte d'Aude down the hill and crossed the Pont-Vieux back to the Bastide. From outside the Porte d'Aude, the holistic view of the art installation on the walls of the fortification became possible. The concentric yellow circles of aluminum strips were added to the walls of the medieval fortress of the city to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their appointment as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The buildings in the Bastide, that are worth seeing according to the information boards, could not aquire a taste to us.

After having had a coffee on the Place Carnot we took the train back to Bram.