Perpignan - Carcassonne, Day 4

Looking back along the Aude towards Limoux.

Last day then, and only sixteen miles or so to do, which is good since I have a flight to catch, departing at 5:30pm.  At least today I will actually get lunch, Limoux is big enough to have shops that open so I walk out of town with some food in my bag.  The walking is easy enough, I head north along the Aude valley, crossing the local rail line a few times.  Then at around six miles in I have a choice, I can either keep north and walk another ten miles straight to the airport, or cover the same sort of distance but a little more to the east, to reach the famous citadel of Carcassonne.  Of course I will then need to find a taxi or some such, or miss my flight.

Approaching the citadel.

Well, it is a no brainer really, and in the event the rest of the walk is a largely pleasant trek through vineyards and woodland.  Although I do pass through quite a bit of private land, including a section where I need to divert through the trees to avoid some angry dogs.  But I survive, and eventually cross a rise to see the walls of the citadel in front of me.  It is certainly very impressive, the sheer size of the thing is such that once I get up close it is hard to get any sense of scale, other than by walking around the battlements, it takes twenty minutes or so just to get a quarter or so of the way around.

I have time to get inside, it is rather reminiscent of Mont-St-Michel, but much larger.  Same plethora of tourist tat, though, on the plus side I'm able to get a beer.  I'm sure I could happily spend the whole day exploring here, but sadly I have a plane to catch - at least getting to the airport is easy, a tourist bus turns up just as I step out of the citadel gate.  All went according to plan then... and a pretty good plan it was too if I say so myself.

At the main gate.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.