Summer, 2022
Summer has come and the temperature in Toulouse was approaching up to 39 degree. Knowing that I am still benefiting 1 euro train ticket to commute inside Occitanie region, I planned to go for a short trip. Thus if you are under 26 years old, you can get 1 euro ticket for TER which is the train in Occitanie, France. Then we went to the medieval age city of Carcassonne in southern France. It is only 1 hour away by train from la ville rose or Toulouse.
The Cite de Carcassonne makes into the list of UNESCO’s world heritage. This is fortified city where the city itself is situated inside a massive fort built during medieval age. Basically, we visited two parts of the city: the city encircled by the wall or so-called as La Cite de Carcassonne and a neighborhood called La Bastide Saint-Louis.
From the Gare de la Carcassonne (the train station), we need to walk about 2.2 km to reach Cite de Carcassonne. To get there, we walked through the city center or neighborhood of La Bastide Saint-Louis which plenty shops, bookstores, cafes, and restaurants are there. Many tourists come to this city, even from outside France. We heard a lot of English with British accent roaming over the entire places.
The Canal du Midi, the another UNESCO’s world heritage, also flows along the city. We walked passing Canal du Midi to get to Cite de Carcassonne. The fort was quite beautiful from far away. It is situated on the top of small hill. Thus, the way to get there is a bit exhausting, especially in the mid day of summer. Although, it was really worth to be done.
We entered to one castle called Château Comtal, which is located inside the fortified city. It is free as long as you’re student residing in EU and not more than 26 years old. We can just follow the designed route to get around the castle. Such a wonderful experience exploring old but nice building! At the exit of Château Comtal, the Church Saint Nazaire and Celse with very unique features can be seen.
After getting eyegasm during whole trip time, we decided to eat at one restaurant. I got salade de gesiers as entree and basse côte black angus as a plat. And free baguette for sure as at every French restaurant.
Voila! That’s all for the summer trip to Carcassonne!
MW
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