CARCASSONNE

Carcassonne is a fortified citadel in the Languedoc region of France. It is also the name of a board game.

Carcassonne the citadel is situated on the main route between Narbonne and Toulouse. The unfortified part of the town sits on the river Aude. The fortified Citadel is a dramatic sight, whether by day in the sunshine, or at night when it is illuminated. Within the fortified walls are shops, restaurants, hotels and private homes as well as a castle and the catherderal of Saint-Nazaire.

When I first visited Carcassonne in 1988 the roof cones on top of the towers were covered with grey slate tiles. Historians have since decided that Carcassonne's 19th century restorer Viollet-le-Duc had not used the correct material to be historically accurate, so since then the slate tiles have been replaced by baked clay ones.

Legend has it that over a 1,000 years ago Carcassonne was under seige. The food had almost run our when the Dame of Carcas, ordered that the last pig in the city be fed with the remains of the corn supply. The bloated pig was thrown over the city ramparts where it burst, spilling grain all over the ground. The assailants concluded that Carcassonne must still have large food reserves if the people could still find enough to feed their pigs so well. They withdrew and as a consequence Carcassonne was saved.

The Citadel of Carassonne was used to represent Nottingham Castle, in the location shots for the movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, which starred Kevin Costner.

Carcassonne the board game involves building roads, castles and placing other structures using cardboard tiles taken from a pile. Players place their tiles against other tiles laid by competing players. The aim is to score points by doing things like completing roads or castles. If that can't be achieved on a particular turn, a strategy could be to place a tile which thwarts another player's ability to complete a point scoring construction.