Carcassonna

Carcassonna (Carcassonne in French) is a small town in Languedoc, the south of France. It has around 48,000 inhabitants and it's the capital of the Aude prefecture. Aude is also the name of the river that crosses the town.

It is specially famous for its fortified city (la Cité Médievale in French) which is by far the most remarkable tourist point of the town. The fortified city is an old part of the town surrounded by towers and walls, and its most important part is the Castle of the city, which was built in the 12th century. Inside the cité there's also plenty of souvenirs shops, restaurants, and The School Museum, a building which was actually a real school where people can see what was it like in old times.

Carcassonna has also other interesting places to visit, like the Midi channel, where you can take a ride in boat and enjoy the landscape, or have a walk in its quiet streets.

I've been in Carcassona three times. The first one was in Eastern 2004, in a travel organised by three schools of my town, because we had started learning French that year. Apart from the things I have already said, we also visited Tolouse, the capital city of Languedoc, although we couldn't see much of it as we were there only for half a day, and Narbonne, a beautiful town with several Roman remains. Three years later I came back, this time with the high school's French students and teachers for some five days. We visited more or less the same things, changing Tolouse by some little villages in the Carcassonna although I had a better time since I spoke better French so I could understand the tourist guide's explanations better and I also knew the teachers and the rest of students better. Finally, I was there also last year with my family. We made a three days trip to Andorra and in one of them my father drove to Carcassonna, since I had told them it was a nice place and they had never been to France before. I have to say this time was funny for me because only I spoke French, and it was me who had to be translate or speak in the shops or restaurants all the time!

I think Carcassonna is a really beautiful and calm town, nice to visit and to make tourist, but in my opinion, I think I wouldn't like to live there since I noticed a lack of social life in the mean of bars, pubs, fun for young people...and maybe I would get a bit bored in that way.