Carcassonne city gets overshadowed by 'La Cite' - the fairy-tale castle on the other side of the canal. It's not a large or bustling place - but the central square is very pleasant and some of the shops off it are good. The weekly market is excellent and the countryside around the city seems far less built up than that around the coastal cities of Perpignan, Narbonne, Beziers and Montpellier.

Carcassonne sits in the valley between the Black Mountains and the start of the Pyrenees, and the fields around it are quite flat - being devoted to vines and, as you go west, sunflowers. The weather is slightly cooler and wetter than the coastal regions, but still very hot in summer.

Toulouse is only a hour away - but of course the beaches are also an hour - which makes Carcassonne an ideal centre for visiting the whole area of Languedoc.