Carcassonne; Friday, 16 September, 2022

I had a good nights sleep and with a filling breakfast inside me I headed out to explore more of the city, starting off by taking in the other UNESCO listed site in the city (after La Cité itself).

Running through the town on it’s 240Km journey from Toulouse to the sea is the Canal du Midi and naturally there are options to take a cruise along a part of this important waterway. The tour I took this morning headed downstream from Carcassonne along a stretch to the Écluse de Saint-Jean from where there are views down a Napoleonic avenue of cypress trees bordering the canal and in the distance the black mountains from where the canal draws most of its water.

From there the boat turned round, ascended back up through the lock and headed back towards the city, stopping for a few minutes at a point where La Cité is visible from the canal for a chance to take some photos.

Back in the city I had a quick lunch from a supermarket before picking up the Petit-Train that runs from the area around the Canal port and train station up to La Cité, avoiding the hike back up the hill. The land train drops you off by the Porte Narbonnaise which is where the Cité Land Train also departs from for it’s 25 minute tour round the fortifications, so naturally I did that next.

Back from the Cité Land Train tour I had a wander through La Cité before heading back to the Porte Narbonnaise to take the other Land Train back down into town and from it’s end point wandering the short distance to the Église Saint-Vincent to have a look around the largest of the city centre churches and the one that looks more like it should be a Cathedral than the Cathedral does.

From Saint-Vincent I wandered back to the hotel to drop off my stuff and freshen up before heading out a little later for an early dinner.

After dinner I made the hike back up the hill to La Cité where I had booked to visit the Remparts et Lumières. I was incredibly lucky in this as the seasonal light show along a different part of the Ramparts to those that you can visit from the castle should have finished the previous Saturday, but had been extended by a week to finish the following night. Because it was one of the last chances to do it for the year it was quite busy.

With an audio guide that provides both commentary and music that sync to the display you are watching you are guided along 500m of the oldest part of the city walls to the story of La Cité as told by the stones themselves. It all sounds a little cheesy, but with the views of the city at night it works really well.

I spent about an hour taking in all the presentations as I walked along the ramparts and by the time I left the city it was gone 10pm so I descended back down the hill to my hotel to turn in for the night.