Skip to content

Where I Stayed at and Ate in Carcassonne: Restaurant & Auberge des Lices

If you have not read my first night in Carcassonne, please do go here: First Night in Carcassonne

Basically, the auberge has a fine dining restaurant and 2 room suites above it. Only 1 suite was occupied and that is by me. This meant that when the restaurant closes and the manager and staff leaves, I am the only person left in the building. The building is also located on a narrow out-of-the-way pedestrian-only street.

This is not the first time I slept in a lodging inn or a boutique hotel alone. A year ago I had a similar experience in Porvoo, Finland: My lovely boutique hotel in Porvoo and I could not sleep. But unlike in Porvoo, I did not lose sleep here. I slept soundly =)

This is my little suite at Auberge de Lices, the blue and ochre room:

The bathroom though has an odd odour that reminds me of old buildings and houses. The ceiling was gorgeous I think.

I prefer a double bed even if its just me sleeping. I need the space.

I also prefer to have the curtains drawn, all the time so natural sunlight wakes me up =)

The view from my bedroom is the inner courtyard of the restaurant and the Saint Nazaire Church.

Compliments from the auberge. I ate them for breakfast.

The room was okay, a bit spacious but I can smell the trace of age which I somehow quite expected when staying at places like these, so that was not a surprise really.

The manager (he could be the owner as well) was a very affable man who was very quick to service me with anything I want. He was the only one as well who spoke a bit of English. I truly salute him because he really tried his best and that is quite a handful coming from a French man. The rest of the staff were very young and they were mostly working at the restaurant. None of them dared to utter a single English word to me, but they were very polite though, they just kept smiling.

So I promised them that I will eat at the auberge’s restaurant the second night. I am glad I did because the restaurant served very good food. I also noticed locals coming in to eat here, which of course is a good sign. In fact it was the taxi driver who told me (he drove me from the Carcassonne train terminal to the La Cite) that the auberge is a restaurant, which got me thinking if I made the right accommodation booking, haha.

Here is my scrumptious dinner:

The restaurant is quite cosy and nice.

I am having an aperitif here at the bar, a glass of Hypocras, which is a local drink I was told. It is a sweet alcoholic drink made from wine mixed with sugar, spices and cinnamon. 

The wine cellar under the restaurant.

The butter reflects the medieval theme of Carcassonne fortified city: cross and religion.

This was a lovely starter from the house. It was something like a soup with cream. I cannot remember, pumpkin perhaps.

My main is a scrumptious seafood dish: big prawns, some liver I guess and squid served on a very hot sizzling pan. This was delicious.

I cannot wait to dig in. This is one of my best dinners. Glad I ate at this restaurant! 4.4 stars out of 5 in my book.

Panna cotta and chocolate, and espresso.

Because I had the sweet panna cotta from the house, I needed a not so very sweet dessert, some lemon ice cream and cookie with lemon fresh whipped cream garnished with a slice of carambola (star fruit). I could not even finish this.

Travel Period: November 2013
Destination: Carcassonne (Languedoc-Rossillon), France

Keep in touch and follow me on Facebook: Travel & Lifestyle Diaries by Dutched Pinay Travels
Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *