Right on the main Toulouse-Montpellier train link,
CARCASSONNE
couldn't be easier to reach; and for anyone travelling through this
region it is a must - one of the most dramatic, if also most-visited,
towns in the whole of Languedoc. Carcassonne owes its pision into two
separate "towns" - the Cité and the Ville Basse - to the
wars against the Cathars. Following Simon de Montfort's capture of the
town in 1209, its people tried in 1240 to restore their traditional
ruling family, the Trencavels. In reprisal King Louis IX expelled them,
only permitting their return on condition they built on the low ground
by the River Aude.
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