Our Journeys Around the World: Carcassonne, France

A short day trip from Sete was the mid evil jewel of Carcassonne.

Who wouldn't love a chance to see a mid evil city that has been completely rebuilt to the specifications that it had in its prime? That is what Carcassonne, France has done. This castle was used as a strategic point since the Roman Empire, and over the years has had a amazing castle built on it that has been restored beautifully by the French.

The mid evil city had over a kilometer of outside wall fortification around it, and when you walk inside of the city, it is full of shops, apartments that people still live in, museums, a gothic church, armories, and restaurants. We were so used to seeing Roman ruins that to see something that has actually been rebuilt like it was in olden times was a real treasure.

Our children's favorite part seemed to be the school house museum that was set up like an 18th century school house, complete with hopscotch, wooden desks, ink wells, dunce caps, and old photographs and posters from the time period.

We couldn't drag our children away from the quill pens that they were able to write with. They spent a lot of time scratching our letters and notes with ink wells and quill in old wooden desks. I had never seen them so excited to be in school!

Here is a picture of Eli in one of the city streets. Everything is cobblestone, but it has all been so well preserved you really feel like you are in mid evil times except for the car in the background.

The gothic church was beautiful with its stained glass and other artwork. It was very large, very cold and built completely in stone.

Here is the actual castle that was inside of the city. It has a "mote" area around the castle so that it can defend itself in case of an attack. You can see murder holes and other openings in the stone to launch weapons from.