Carcassonne is one of the major tourist attractions in France with its Cité, ambitiously resurrected and reconstructed by Viollet le Duc. It's not entirely authentic, but then again the reconstruction hails from the middle of the 19th century. And it's certainly dramatic and impressing from a distance. Once inside, though, you cannot escape the feeling of a tourist trap.

In this picture you can see Cité across the river Aude that separates Cité from Ville Basse, which is the centre of modern Carcassonne. (Modern and modern, Ville Basse origins from the 13th century.) To the right Pont Vieux.