Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:08 pm
#1312350
Just returned home from a 2-night stop in Carcassonne....hopefully this post will help you avoid some of our hiccups.
Carcassonne town itself (not the Citadel) for shopping/restaurants etc is active Tuesday-Saturday, and has some classic old French architecture. Sunday & Monday everything is shut (Sorry Susan, no shopping today!!), and the streets aren't exactly clean either, which especially shows when everything is shut!! However, bustling with activity on the Saturday and a good atmosphere to boot. If staying in a Hotel you will be paying for the location you choose (and holiday season) rather than the quality of the hotel. I couldnt quite stretch to 350+Euros a night to stay in the Citadel itself, but opted for a hotel just across the bridges from the Citadel at around 115Euro/night, this turned out to be half way between the town center and the Citadel, but "Les Trois Corronne" has a pool & restaurant with STUNNING views of the Citadel, especially when lit up at night, and made the price for the average room/service quality worth it in my opinion.
The Citadel of Carcassonne is only accessible by foot (one reason to fly there!) and active every day, with restaurants/shops open from 10-ish every day until evening-time (Dont let your girlfriend have the credit card!!). Restaurants appear to have similar menu's - Cassoulet/Toulouse Sausage/Faux-filet feature heavily, and around the same 20-28Euro "Menu's du Jour", but there are a few interesting places to be found too if you take your time hunting about - we decided to eat based on location a couple of times and menu a couple of times.
Now for the Airport info:
Fuel is only available if you have an AirBP card!! Closest alternates with fuel are Castelnaudry (west) & Lezignan (east).
Well we arrived on Saturday and were directed to GA parking in the far west end of the airport. This has a key-code written on the inside you need to get back in. The Airport website would have you believe you could get a taxi or regular bus by walking back to the terminal so we didnt phone at this point. After 5-10minute walk to terminal discover no taxis or buses & EVERYTHING is shut...why? Because there are no Ryanair flights on the ground!! Phone Taxi Number & told 10mins wait....45-50mins later (and a couple of calls to a message box) taxi guy turns up. We had a similar problem getting back to the airport. Hotel called for taxi & told 15mins wait....1hr+ later the taxi guy turns up. Apparently there is only one taxi company in Carcassonne.....So the lesson here is get on the ground and call a taxi right away, tell him to go the the fire station/hangars just off the main roundabout, not the terminal to save you a walk. Book your taxi the night before you want to leave - Get him to go via the terminal if its open to pay for your landing/parking fee and if you can get him to do it, take you on to the Firestation entrance gate, because you are not allowed airside at the terminal, and you MUST walk around!!
Taxi to town or the bridge to Citadel (our hotel location) = 15 Euros
Landing fee = 5 Euros. Parking is charged by the hour, but Parking is about = 10 Euros a day (we paid 20.30 Euros for just over 48hrs).
So, to sum up: Lovely Citadel for overnight stop, worth visiting by GA with planning wrt taxi/hire car/terminal access etc. Extra weekday required for main town visit (or to wait on taxis!!). Oh, and dog friendly too - Gustav accepted pretty much everywhere!!
Regards, SD..
Its generally best to make a hole in the sky.......not the ground...
FLYER Club Member