The Cité de Carcassonne, France

The stunning medieval city of Carcassone is perched up on hill above the River Aude. The town is very old and dates back to the 3rd century A.D. That's over 2,500 years of history! The town has lived through the Romans, Crusaders and more. The town itself is still inhabited and from the looks of it, is solely sustained on tourism. There were restaurants, specialty shops and souvenir shops galore. That was one of the things that I disliked about Carcassone and felt very similar to Mont Saint-Michel. There was too much emphasis on the touristy things and not on the history. If I didn't do research before it's possible we could've fallen prey to a tourist trap! It's just one of those places that you have to find the hidden gems. Despite all of this, it's a beautiful medieval city and I'm glad that we were able to visit. 

Cimetière de la Cité | Carcassonne, France

Our fourth stop on our whirlwind road trip through France was Carcassonne in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Carcassonne is well known as a 13th century medieval fortified city and is classified as a UNESCO heritage site. Markus and I haven't been to many authentic medieval places, so we decided to include the city on our trip. 

As we walked up to the entrance of the medieval citadel. We glanced to the left and saw the entrance to the Cimetière de la Cité. Since, we often don't see above ground cemeteries much less ones in a 13th century fortified city, we decided to take a look. The layout was very straightforward with just four aisles and mainly graves. I don't recall seeing any chapels or mausoleums. We explored for about 30 mins and saw a lot of flowers and decorations. There was a huge festival or something going on nearby and I remember hearing Bruno Mars playing quite loudly, so that was a bit strange and a memory I wont soon forget.