Issue No.26

Bar Felix, Place Carnot, Carcassonne
In the Bastide on the other side of the River
Aude, I love Bar Felix in the main square,
Place Carnot. It was the first café we ever
sat in back in 1989 - in fact we had our
wedding party diner there! Sitting outside
under the plane trees with a glass of local
rosé, an amazing salade de chèvre chaud and
watching the market day shoppers is one of
life’s great pleasures. There's been an
amazing restoration programme of the
Bastide in recent years and it's looking as
good as I've ever seen it. Here's the life of
the real Carcassonne. Don't forget to pop
into the great Breithaupt bookshop while
you're there or wander up to the Canal du
Midi at the top of the town to watch the
barges pass through.
Toulouse features in your books – is this
another favourite places?
Toulouse - la Ville Rose - is one of my
favourite cities in the world. I think it has
absolutely everything. Incredible music,
Photo: Rue du Taur,
theatre, art galleries, the wonderful historic
centre, the mighty river and the bridges. I
love the rue du Taur, which I wrote about in
The Burning Chambers and previously in my
2009 Gothic novel, The Winter Ghosts. I like
the mix of grandeur and tiny little streets
that lead out from the Place du Capitole and,
of course, I love the story behind the places.
The rue du Taur gets its name from the
legend of Saint Saturnin being dragged by a
bull to his death along this road in 250 AD
when he refused to participate in a pagan
ceremony. The Basilica Saint-Sernin stands
at the end of the street, a beautiful memorial
in stone to his martyrdom.
If you look up as you walk, above the
modern day shop fronts, you’ll see evidence
of the old city walls. When I was writing The
Burning Chambers and walking in Toulouse,
it was surprisingly easy to imagine the city in
the 16th century – there are still so many
signs of its past.