Carcassonne

Carcassonne is a fortified city in the Aude, prefecture of its department in Occitania. The site has been inhabited since the Neolithic, sitting in the plain of the Aude on the historic routes linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and the Massif Central to the Pyrenees. The Romans recognised its position at once and held the hilltop until the end of the Western Empire; in the fifth century the region of Septimania was taken. What survives is a double ring of walls and towers above the modern town, best seen on foot and best at either end of the day.