Carcassonne The real one, not the board game and Albi Cathedreal

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Carcassonne_south France and Albi cathedral town,

This place, a perfect example of a fortified medieval town in the south of France, is without any doubt in my mind, the most impressive thing I have seen on this entire world trip. I'm not even exaggerating.

As you can imagine, it has a long and violent history being a fort. It has seen many, many ruthless attacks and drawn out sieges (all the worse as it was a place where everyone in the surrounding town ran to in times of attack, for months and months they were holed up in the stink and filth and disease without food or water). Parts of Carcassonne were built by the Romans (small brick and stones, red line patterning and round defence structures). After the Romans were driven out and saw many more battles, it was taken by the powerful Viscount Trencavel. He built the castle in the middle and also did up the church. But alas, he was kicked out by Papal Rome's lackey The Count of Monfort and died a long and horrible death in his own dungeon. The pope didn't like how all these counts down in the South of France were tolerating the very popular (and becoming more popular) Cathars. The Cathar religious folk were extremely pious and acted like the Catholic priests, even allowing women full religious rights, but refused to believe that the host was the body of Christ and didn't agree that priests should be between man and God so you can imagine how the Church treated them. The Count didn't last of course, he died on a battlefield. His successor was weak. The King of France wanted Carcassonne for himself so just took it and did it up like the impregnable fortress that we see today (adding a wall right around the outside and thickening the walls, kicking out all the merchants and peasants and knocking down any houses and making more towers and defensive posts and shooting hoards etc. It was so successful, everyone was too scared too attack and the local people left to make their own town nearby. When the region became part of greater France, it's position as an important post became invalid and it fell eventually into decrepit old age. Luckily for us it was saved from demolition (can you believe that) and has been restored to it's 12th Century glory days complete with turrets and wooden hoarding and bridges. Just superb!

It looms over the old and new town like a hawk. In the night, it looks romantic and impressive due to the golden lights the local council spend a fortune on lighting it up. In the morning it looms clearer and brighter above you and it fills you with awe. But on dreary, overcast days, you really get to see the real Carcassonne: the menacing, brutal, solid stone fort that actually sent shivers down my spine.

Enjoy the photos of this stunning place

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