This self-guided audio tour takes place around the medieval city of Carcassonne.
On this tour, you'll see the Buste de Dame Carcas (a sculpture of Lady Carcas) and tell you the story of how she saved the city from Charlemagne.
As you enter the city through Porte Narbonnaise (Narbonne Gate, you’ll begin following the wall, which encircles the old city. Along the way, you’ll also learn about the Cathars who flourished here in the twelfth century, the crusade launched against them, and some of the sieges that took place here.
The Château Comtal is the castle-within-a-castle at Carcassonne's medieval Cité. Built around 1130 by the Trencavel viscounts as a fortified residence, it was reinforced during the 1209 Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars, gaining a moat, barbican and inner wall so its lords could hold out even if the outer ramparts fell. After Carcassonne passed to the French crown in 1226, it became home to the royal seneschal. Left to decay for centuries, it was restored in the 1800s by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Today it's a national monument and museum, entered separately from the free ramparts walk.
As you follow the wall around the city, you'll learn about medieval warfare and locate the various “kill zones” that enemies risked finding themselves trapped in when attempting to siege the city.
You'll gaze upon the monument de la Jean Pierre Cros Mayrevieille, a doctor of law, a historian and an Inspector of Historic Monuments who saved the city from ruin.
Carcassonne's Museum of the Inquisition is a modern themed museum, not a surviving Inquisition-era site, housed in a 17th-century building on Rue Saint-Jean inside the walled Cité. It explores the period through instruments of torture and interrogation spanning the 12th century to the French Revolution, alongside displays on the Cathars and the great Cathar castles of the Languedoc. A separate "Punishments" section walks visitors through an accused heretic's path from trial to execution — a curated, family-oriented attraction rather than a preserved historical monument.
You'll take in the impressive and almost century-old Château et Remparts de la Cité de Carcassonne, also known as the Château Comtal, where the castle meets the wall and its surrounding defenses.
You'll take in the impressive and almost century-old Château et Remparts de la Cité de Carcassonne, also known as the Château Comtal, where the castle meets the wall and its surrounding defenses.
The Théâtre Jean-Deschamps is an open-air amphitheatre inside Carcassonne's medieval Cité, seating around 3,000 people beneath the backdrop of the city's towers and ramparts. It's the main stage of the Festival de Carcassonne, a summer festival hosting French and international music, theatre, dance, opera and classical performances. The venue is named after Jean Deschamps (1920–2007), a French stage and screen actor and director who staged numerous productions here over two decades, including adaptations of Julius Caesar and Othello. Its intimacy — far smaller than a typical arena — is often cited by performing artists as giving their shows an added dimension.
On this two-hour tour, you won’t just trace the walls of Carcassonne, you’ll also venture into its centre through various gates including the Aude, Nazaire, and Toulouse Gates, and see the Church of Saints Nazaire and Celse, the city’s two patron saints.
A brilliant guided tour which balanced facsinating details about the site which more general contextual history that helps understand what you're seeing. The app works really well (better than a few others I have used). Give yourself enough time - the two hours went quickly.
It was a splendid experience. Prof. Macdonald’s commentary was clear, informative and detailed. And the audio technology worked perfectly! I was most impressed. Would recommend this self-guided tour to everyone.
The App worked perfectly - I was really impressed that it was so easy to use. It’s the first tour like this I’ve ever done and I would gladly recommend it to anyone
Excellent ! Easy to use. Very informative. Nice to be able to stop And start……………..::::::::::::::::::
Atrocious and a total waste of money. The voice tour took nearly 30 minutes to start so we began the tour without it only to have to go back to the beginning again so that the spoken information could co ordinate with our position. And THEN it wouldn't sync with our location at all! Finally turned the bloody thing off as it was ruining the experience. And yes, location WAS on.
Great tour, loads of info and keeps you away from the masses. Takes about 3 hours, great app with geolocation so it works at your pace.
This is a historic, special place and is a must see in France! A beautiful village with wonderful restaurants and shops and of course a true piece of history.
It was amazing, great commentary, very informative and the information about the site was accurate. As the commentator informed us at the beginning certain parts of the site maybe closed due to restoration and this was true on the day of our visit but it was easy to skip to the next chapter and pick it back up. Overall 10/10.
This was a total waste of our money. We could never get it to sync with the actual stops, me on an Android and my travel companion on his iPhone. We gave up after about 15 minutes of intense frustration. Neither of us is tech-illiterate.
The audioguide was very informative and made our visit worthwhile. Otherwise it would have felt a bit like a tourist trap. It was fun to see the gps working to figure out where we were and moving to the next explanation. Well worth the cost.
Good, informative and flexible method to take a guided tour. The application used for the self-guided tour worked really well, even with the GPS location of my phone being off a few times due to the nature of the terrain. If you want to be independent of a local tour operator, are not too attached to connecting with other people visiting the cité and prefer to be able to dodge some crowds, this is really a great way to explore Carcassonne. The narrator knows his stuff and has a good variety of interesting background stories, with an occasional humoristic touch. Just short of 5 stars only because I think it's a little bit too expensive. Although honestly, I didn't look up prices for locally guided tours. Don't forget to bring you own headphones!
This is a no fuss, excellent informative way of taking your time around the castle walls, with the flexibility of being able to stop/rest at any time, then carrying on at your own pace. I thoroughly recommend.
Fascinating overview of the medieval walls of Carcessone with lots of church history and observations on language thrown in. Well-paced, thoughtful.
So glad we downloaded this tour. It was highly informative, took you away from the masses and worked so well, even politely telling us we were off track. We would highly recommend this app and tour for anyone visiting Carcassonne. Extremely good value for money. Even our B&B hosts who live in Carcassonne said they will download it!
Initially we were skeptical about the use of an automated audio guide. After downloading the VoiceMap app over WiFi, and turning off our cellular service at the site, we were amazed at the seamless flow of the tour. The app prompted and tracked our progress with simple directions. Looking at the map was not necessary. James MacDonald gives a masterful tour of Le Cite, that surprisingly feels more intimate than an in person tour. It allowed us to linger in interesting areas to observe, discuss, and of course enjoy the environs. Highly recommended, especially if you share a pair of Bluetooth headphones!
This is an excellent well-paced walkthrough that we would highly recommend. Particularly liked the fact it steered clear of the mob scenes - it was extremely busy - in the streets, chateau and ramparts. If I could find a companion tour that focuses on the day to day lives of people living behind those Medieval walls, that delved a bit deeper into the social aspects, politics, art, economics and religion we’d buy it in a heartbeat!
A necessity if you are not on a group visit to the site. Easy to use and an invaluable source of information and background. 10/10
Just astonishing. Perfect in every way. Top quality. The exact opposite of the usual Disney experience in tourist traps like this.
Carcassonne is, quite simply, fabulous. Against expectations food and drink prices are very reasonable with a huge choice of nice places
We thought the historical information and the details on this self-guided tour were very informative and interesting. Unfortunately we couldn’t see all of it due to the festival. Highly recommend.
I loved the ease of use of the app the historical facts were really interesting. I found it easy to navigate my way around the city
Excellent directions and descriptions. Was thoroughly entertained and never bored throughout the tour. Rarely had to look at my phone for directions. While we don’t have a guided tour to compare it to, we were very happy with this option that let us go at our own pace.
We downloaded everything before we got there but couldn't get it to work at the castle. I'm sure it was something we did wrong & not the program itself but I have to give a low score bcos technically we didn't get the tour. All was not lost however. There was plenty of information inside the castle to find the information we wanted.
We loved the your. It really made our visit to Carcasinne.They were very easy to follow instructions with gps hep. The narrator was very knowledgeable and interesting.
Very educational and at the same time entertained tour. Ideal to enjoy the history of a place at my own pace.
An in depth tour of the history of the castle and it’s defenses. Really well done and very interesting. A great your that you can do at your own pace.
We enjoyed a lovely day looking around the chateau and old town. Great atmosphere with plenty of places to eat.
Never got to download and use as was looking for the code. Unlike the other audio tour we downloaded, when we sent a message no one answered in time for us to complete. Another audio tour responded in minutes
My sister and I are elderly and undertook this experience together. We enjoyed the experience and loved being able to stop and restart the tour. We found the host knowledgeable and he had a pleasant voice. Our only disappointment was at one point there was a barrier, it looked new perhaps some updating would help
Really useful and interesting talk/tour and good app. Just frustrating we could not do all of it due to the festival de carcassone and jousting area. Helped a lot we did this before the Chateau Comtal
We could not upload the program and local friends guided us anyway. Wasn't needed. We walked the entire castle and walls. It was beautiful.
This was a really excellent tour. The technical/IT aspects worked and the commentary was delivered in an easy to follow manner, the content was extremely interesting. It enabled you to pause the app to take in sights and undertake photos whenever you liked which you couldn’t do with a guided group tour. High recommend.
Excellent in every way - presentation, content, ease of use, etc. Clearly done by an expert. No entrance fees or other hidden costs.
Skip the $130+ guided tours and buy this audio guide! Two hours of easy to understand and fascinating information. Worked exactly as it was supposed to. Highly recommend!
Highly informative and well paced. Would recommend it to anyone with an interest in mediaeval warfare and defence, as well as those just interested in the history of Carcassonne. Would suggest doing this tour before the castle, as it sets up a lot of useful information to make the castle tour more interesting.
Great Quality information - interesting and entertaining. The time flew by. And no waffle! The most bizarre thing is that the majority of tourists simply miss the most interesting things to see. They walk straight through the Narbonne Gate without a second glance and end up in the interior of the Cite where there is nothing of interest at all - just shops. This is far better than any other guided tour we found - they are much more expensive and far less informative. And you can do this tour any time, any day, at your own pace, and even do it twice!
Self-guided tour of the castle with headphones. Worked very nicely and the castle is really worth the trip! Come early, when it opens, then it is a completely different experience!
After some hesitation, we chose to take this "excursion". Do not hesitate… it is interesting and fascinating. The commentary explains the history of the city well. It is also a good walking exercise. Security is ever-present and reassuring.
To do once in a lifetime is a beautiful place you still have to have good health for walks meals and drinks correct compared to 12 euros for parking c is too much
A nice visit however without much interest. An empty and unwarm castle in short not extraordinary! Be careful the ramparts have quite high steps.
Excellent!! A trip back in time!!! I advise you 👍 Restoring nice, a Magnificent view of the Pyrenees in snow
If you want to see the best restoration work of a medieval lock by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Carcassonne is your place
Carcassonne is an amazing tour, the Tour is Wonderful, the Tour must be. All visitors will be completely in love with its beautiful medieval architecture!
Beautiful experience, a very nice medieval village, full of shops and restaurants The beautiful castle Highly recommended
Excellent visit to the castle and the ramparts of Carcassonne. Self-Tour without Audio Guide. Very well indicated, atypical course of the castle and well explained. Various shop at the end of which our purchases contribute to the heritage as well as to the maintenance of the places
Very nice view, free for pmr and 1 companion. Many steps but we can land in the meantime. It is very beautiful!! We also visited by carriage where the lady was very kind and explained the history of this beautiful city!!!
Superb historical monument, not to be missed under any circumstances. Don't hesitate to book your tickets in advance. The official guides will offer you an enriching and exciting experience of this citadel which has had many lives.
A visit supervised by the city’s tourist office. A guide named Rémy managed to capture all the attentions of the 26 participants. A most interesting visit I recommend it
The installation and launch of the app and the code was a bit bumpy, but the Service great; now for guidance: The concept is awesome! You can walk along the route in peace and quiet and the information is detailed and instructive without getting bored or incomprehensible. It was great fun to follow the narrator's remarks when pointing out details and explaining connections. The references were not only historical, but also related to linguistic developments, for example. Super great!
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