Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude departement, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc. It is separated into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. The folk etymology – involving a châtelaine named Carcas, a ruse ending a siege and the joyous ringing of bells (“Carcas sona”), though memorialized in a neo-Gothic sculpture of Mme. Carcas on a column near the Narbonne Gate – is of modern invention. The fortress, which was thoroughly restored in 1853 by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997. France travel deals.
France GPS travel help: 43° 12′ 47.02″ N, 2° 21′ 7.3″ E
Popularity: 1%
Interesting things to do:
I visited there in 1990. Very cool place. I remember 1 story about a siege that lasted month (perhaps) years. The city had been out of food and water for weeks as the invaders waited and waited outside the wall of the fortified city. Starving, the queen catapulted their last pig over the wall. The invaders, demoralized, believing the city must have plenty of food reserves if they would waste livestock in this manner, moved on.