Top Ten Things To Do With Children In Carcassonne
- Visit Cité de Carcassonne, the largest and best-restored medieval castle in Europe. Begun in the 3rd and 4thcentury, this castle rose in strategic importance in the 13th to 17th centuries.
- Watch jousting tournaments in Cité – see the YouTube video for a sample of the action. Two shows/day during summer months only.
- Tour the inner walls in a horse-drawn carriage or a miniature train; tours depart from Porte Narbonnaise.
- Visit school museum, a reconstruction of a classroom in old times. Exhibition of documents, furniture and school material from the time of Jules Ferry.
- Take a boat tour along the Canal du Midi, and see the operation of a lock up close. Tours run by Carcassonne Croisiere depart 2-8 times/day from the Carcassonne train stations. Or take a walk along the River Aude, just 100m from Maison Juliette.
- Take a swim at “Carcassonne Plage”, officially called Lac de Cavayere. A pretty man-made lake with a sandy beach, lifeguard-protected roped-off swimming area for children, pedal boats, playground, volleyball courts, and picnic area.
- Ride the zip lines through the trees at O2 Adventure, a forest acrobatic park designed for kids of all ages, located to the left of the main parking lot at the lake.
- Visit the Austrailian Park, near the lake. From big kangaroos to emus, from gold prospectors to aborigines, from boomerangs to didgeridoos, come and share in the “Australian dream”.
- Visit a cave.
- Grotte de Limousin, a large developed cave that is open to the public. Open Apr-Oct. About 30 min north of Carcassonne; see our annotated Google map for directions.
- Gouffre Géant de Cabrespine, one of the largest caves in the world that is open to the public – 260 ft long and 720 ft high. Open Feb-Nov, see web site for hours. About 30 min north of Carcassonne; see our annotated Google map for directions.
- Visit a Llama Farm in the Montagne Noire, about 25 mi north of Carcassonne. See our annotated Google map for directions.
- Visit the Dinosaur Museum, displaying 35 different species of dinosaur skeletons. The museum was designed for children ages 6-12, so it’s not boring. Located in Espéraza, about 30 mi south of Carcassonne; see our annotated Google map for directions. More info in French at the museum’s web site.
- Visit Rennes Le Chateau, which was made famous by the movie, The DaVinci Code. More info on wikipedia. About 1 hour south of Carcassonne.
- See prehistoric cave paintings at Naiux Caves. About 1.5 hours southwest of Carcassonne.
- Visit Space Museum in Toulouse. About 1 hour northwest of Caracassonne.
- Visit the African Reserve in Sigean, a huge zoological park is designed to give the animals a territory vast enough to allow nearly the same behavior as in the wild. About 45 min southeast of Carcassonne.
OK, I couldn’t stop at ten things 🙂