Carcassonne is a modern French city, medium sized, at the highest point of which there is the ancient double walled city.
This is great fun to visit and not too busy when we were there, although I believe high season can be hell. The surrounding countryside is beautiful with lots of places to explore and the Med less than an hour away by car.
The hotel is five minutes walk, down the hill, from La Cite main gate and ten minutes walk over the Pont Neuf from the centre of the modern town, which itself has a histiry of its own with pleasant cafes, restaurants and lovely shops.
The staff in the hotel are very pleasant and helpful. English is spoken but school French does smooth things, as with most places in France.
The set menu, three courses, with two choices at each course is 15.9 Euros and is really good. We had it every night gladly as very busy days meant that we could not be bothered roaming the area at night to find decent food.
The room we had was clean and comfortable but too small, we had booked a ” deal ” through Booking.com for four nights, 480 Euros. There were better rooms available but these were more expensive, up to 175 Euros per night.
Smoking is not legal anywhere inside the hotel but nobody bothered if you smoked in your own room. Who, nowadays, would smoke in a public area anyway?
We recommend the hotel wholeheartedly and intend going back. Next time we will book direcly on line.
Postscript. We flew Ryanair to Carcassonne airport, twenty minutes by car or taxi from the hotel and have no complaints, in fact the flights were efficient and early both ways. Five minutes after leaving the aircraft we were in the road outside. The return was different, one security scanner meant long queues with just two aircraft leaving and was a bit of a bind. No duty free shop, didn’t care, and no cafe, did!
