Thursday, June 30, 2011

Carcassonne - world heritage site

The chateau/fortress at Carcassone is truly a wonder. It was restored under the supervision of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, the same man who restored Notre Dame de Paris. One of the outer walls dates from Roman times, but most of the fortress was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. It is a monument to medieval architecture. The major entrance is the Narbonne gate.


There is an outer wall and an inner wall.


There are many towers above the ramparts.





The gothic basilica was the first restored building and has amazing stain glass windows.





We had a wonderful day exploring all the nooks and crannies of the fortress. After a wonderful dinner in the lower town we looked back to see the fortress at night. It was never breached and was considered impregnable.



2 comments:

Diana said...

Carcassone..wow. No home alarm system needed there. Hey, have you had "pommes frites" yet? Our friend couldn't get enough of them...something about being cooked in duck fat. And how about truffles(the underground kind)..and have you been to the Roquefort cheese caves? Notice my focus?

Dave and Belinda said...

Diana, on the food front,we have been eating a lot of duck. Last night we had a cassoulet with a duck leg and a Toulouse sausage in a wonderful ham flavored white bean stew. Duck seems to be the poultry of choice; we've rarely seen chicken and have had turkey once. The quality of the duck is better than any I've had in the U.S. Truffles seem to be used rarely to flavor food in southern France. We've had some great cheese, especially goat.