From Esterel we drove west along the motorway and on to Domaine d’Arnauteille which is near a town called Montclar and is around 10 miles south of Carcassonne.  The drive was very easy and it took around 6 hours covering 273 miles.  As you drive along the A61 you can see the beautiful fortified Cite of Carcassonne on the right hand side.

Domaine d’Arnauteille is a very nice site with an excellent spacious main toilet block and an excellent pool complex consisting of a 25m swimming pool, a paddling pool, a river with water massage and a large expanse of seating.  It also has a games room, a shop, a library and a restaurant with take away that unfortunately had closed when we arrived – a little early actually and so we were disappointed.

The countryside of Aude is steeped in history with breathtaking scenery, gorges, Cathar castles and of course Carcassonne which was the main reason that we visited here so that we could explore this Cite.  There are a number of walks that you can take advantage of that you can pick up from the site and there’s horse riding for those of you who enjoy that.  The site also has a few chalets and cottages and these are close to the pool complex but the majority of visitors are motorhomes and caravans.

For us it was an ideal site from which to visit Carcassonne but it also had a number of other good aspects such as the pool complex but apart from an hour or so when we first arrived we didn’t really get much time to take advantage of these.