Carcassonne did not disappoint

When I read that Carcassonne, a walled medieval village, is the 2nd (to the Eiffel Tower) most visited place in France, "overrated" alarm bells went off all over the place in my head. Now I know their popularity is not unjustified.

Once again, we had awful weather, rain/wind/cold. In fact, we hid in our apartment for 20 hours before venturing out. Only the week before I was wondering how we were going to kill two nights in Carcassonne. Luckily the bad weather warded off the hordes. A fan of old city walls, I loved all the towers and ramparts. The place was very atmospheric. I could feel myself transported in time, in books...

When the weather was nicer the second day, it was a different place.... Not to mention the outrageous installation art. I was forewarned -- the ridiculous thing appeared in the my news reader the week before Otherwise, I might have suffered shock. Every time I walked by, I had to stick my hands in the pockets to contain my urge to sabotage.


Photographs of the Cité de Carcassonne, the old walled city. Here's the city wall near the Narbonne Gate.


Narbonne Gate.


Between the Outer Wall and the Inner Wall.




The artist Felice Varini has painted (actually pressed yellow aluminum) onto the Cite Walls. From a certain spot, one sees concentric circles, thus the title of the work, "Cercles concentriques excentriques". From other vantage points, one gets an "eccentric" view like this.




The Chateau (foreground) and Church (back) are both inside the walls.


There are 52 towers, these three are from the Roman Era.


Great views to the new town, established the 13th century, below.


We get closer to the "concentric" view.






Voila!




And then moving away down the hill.






And on the pavement we spot some yellow remnants of an installation from his Linear Period.


And looking back to the Old City Walls from across the Old Bridge.




Some Trompe-l'œil in the New City.


A series of night views.


















The next day, our train was at 14:00 so walked a few kilometers east on the Canal Du Midi, turning around at a set of locks at the edge of town.






Some "lock action" video.


If the video does not play, click here.

There is just enough time to walk up through the city walls one more time.






Deco-ish house seen on the walk to the train station.


The new town.


Waiting for the TGV at Gare de Carcassonne.