Carcassonne: The Cité, the Château Comtal and Cassoulet
Occitanie, France
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Carcassonne: The Cité, the Château Comtal and Cassoulet
200 + 100 XP
The Cité de Carcassonne is a medieval walled city whose double enceinte runs nearly 3 km and carries fifty-two towers, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, with the château and ramparts listed again in 2026 among the Capetian royal fortresses of the Languedoc. Inside, the Château Comtal was begun in 1130 by the Trencavel viscount Bernard Aton IV, and the basilica of Saint-Nazaire, whose building stone Pope Urban II blessed in 1096, was the cathedral of Carcassonne until 1801. The Cité was very nearly pulled down in the 19th century and was rebuilt, controversially, by Viollet-le-Duc. And Carcassonne is one of the three towns that claim the cassoulet — the Son, in the local formula, against Castelnaudary the Father and Toulouse the Holy Ghost.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Walk the full circuit of the lices, the corridor between the two walls, and work out where the 112 workers' houses stood that filled it in the 19th century when the towers were being used as garages and sheds and the walls were being quarried for stone — the demolition of the whole Cité was already scheduled when Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille stopped it
2
of 4
Go through the Château Comtal, begun in 1130 as the Trencavel palatium, and find the cellars: Raimond-Roger Trencavel surrendered his city on 15 August 1209 after two weeks of siege, having run out of water, to save the lives of his people — and died of dysentery that November in the prison of his own castle
3
of 4
In Saint-Nazaire, which Pope Urban II blessed the stone for in 1096 and which was Carcassonne's cathedral until the see was moved down to the lower town in 1801, stand where the Romanesque nave meets the Gothic choir and transept and look up at the windows in the two ends
4
of 4
Eat a cassoulet in Carcassonne and find out which town's version you have been served: the Carcassonne one takes red-legged partridge and a piece of mutton, Castelnaudary's goose confit and pork knuckle, Toulouse's duck confit and a Toulouse sausage. Then judge for yourself whether Anatole France was fair when he dismissed the Carcassonne cassoulet as a leg of mutton with beans
Walk the full circuit of the lices, the corridor between the two walls, and work out where the 112 workers' houses stood that filled it in the 19th century when the towers were being used as garages and sheds and the walls were being quarried for stone — the demolition of the whole Cité was already scheduled when Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille stopped it
Go through the Château Comtal, begun in 1130 as the Trencavel palatium, and find the cellars: Raimond-Roger Trencavel surrendered his city on 15 August 1209 after two weeks of siege, having run out of water, to save the lives of his people — and died of dysentery that November in the prison of his own castle
In Saint-Nazaire, which Pope Urban II blessed the stone for in 1096 and which was Carcassonne's cathedral until the see was moved down to the lower town in 1801, stand where the Romanesque nave meets the Gothic choir and transept and look up at the windows in the two ends
Eat a cassoulet in Carcassonne and find out which town's version you have been served: the Carcassonne one takes red-legged partridge and a piece of mutton, Castelnaudary's goose confit and pork knuckle, Toulouse's duck confit and a Toulouse sausage. Then judge for yourself whether Anatole France was fair when he dismissed the Carcassonne cassoulet as a leg of mutton with beans
Before you go
Walking into the Cité and round the lices between the two walls costs nothing, and the basilica is free. The wall-walk, the towers and the Château Comtal belong to the state and are on one Centre des monuments nationaux ticket, free for under-26s from the EU. In July and August go early: the Cité takes well over a million visitors a year and the lanes inside are narrow.
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About Occitanie
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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