Carcassonne holiday apartment: Carcassonne

Our stay
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and for a couple of sunny days we just stayed at the apartment and sat in the garden, eating cherries and apricots from the trees in the garden and enjoying blue sky and sunshine.

The apartment
We stayed in the ground floor apartment and It is really well equipped - with more tupperware than we have at home and every conceivable kitchen gadget you need (and more) for a week away. The only thing we missed was a dishwasher, but then there's no rush.

The bedrooms were comfortable and serviceable though we were spending most of our time in the garden or walking through Carcassonne.

Take some dvds or cds with you as there's a dvd player for the tv and a cd player too. An iPod dock would have been even better.

Everything was very clean and well laid out. There is info there about what you can do in the region, but as we didn't have a car, we couldn't do a lot of these. That said, without a car we did manage to do a fair amount of things.

Self catering tip
There are small shops nearby which are quite expensive for groceries, so best to start your trip with a visit to the supermarket. There's plenty to choose from in the usual French hypermarket type - plus a Lidl if you need it.

Customer service
Dealing with Mick (the owner in Britain) via email and post was really easy and so many thanks to him and his wife for their great service.

What to do
Being so close to La Cite was great - only 5 minutes stroll and you were walking up to the medieval walls. If you can go in the early evening La Cite is at its best as most of the day time tourists have gone.

We can recommend Cafe Le Saint Jeans which has a great view of the castle in La Cite. Fixed price menus were very reasonable and the staff fairly attentive.

A walk around the city walls is a must and a great way to orientate yourself, though walking through La Bastide - the lower city is good too.

We took a canal boat trip on the Canal du Midi which was great (leaves from near the station). We also went to Narbonne by train, though missed the connection for the bus to the beach which was a shame. Narbonne itself can be seen in a couple of hours.

Travel tip
Carcassone airport is small and crowded, but the bus to and from the airport is timed to match the departures. There's nothing to do after security except sit and wait, so no shopping or cafe.

The weather was very good although we did have a wonderful thunderstorm one evening that lit up the sky!!
Everything was fine at the apartment (we didn't drink the champagne but only because we are drinkers of red wine rather than white!)
Just thought I would send an e-mail to say how much we enjoyed our stay in Carcassonne.
The apartment was very clean and tidy when we arrived. We left the apartment as we had found it and left the linen money on the table as you had told us.
We did go out and about a bit, travelled down to the long sandy beach of Narbonne, went to Mirepoix and to Lagrasse. We also had a lovely picnic by the Lac. We spent a lot of evenings up in La Cite, as it was so easy to walk there and back - no worries about having to drive.
All in all a lovely break away in the warm sunshine.
We have had the heating on constant since we are back !!.
Thanks very much, and if we get the chance, we will go back to Carcassonne again.
Friends in work are waiting to see the photos and I will be passing on the website address to anyone interested.
Kim and Paul.