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It would be fun to leave the Château Comtal by the Western Gate, but it is locked. You must leave the same way you came in, past the ticket office.
Once outside the castle, turn left into rue Viollet-le-Duc, lined with restaurants and shops. Follow the road uphill to the big well at the Place du Grand Puits. Follow the road round to the right and go down past the Chambre d’Hôtes guest house. Take the second left into rue Notre-Dame, a charming cobbled street that leads down to the fortifications on the north side of the city. Make your way through the Porte de Rodez into the Lices – the open space between the twin rings of battlements.
‘The guards on duty at the Porte de Rodez were nodding most local people through without question, but stopping vagabonds and beggars, gypsies, Saracens and Jews, demanding to know their business in Carcassonne.’
The Porte de Rodez originally connected the Cité to the market garden suburb of Sant-Vicens. It was the first area to be attacked by the Crusaders at dawn on Monday 3rd August. Many people died here in 1209. Now, there are just the sharply sloping grassy banks . . .