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The citadel of Carcassonne is the finest example of a medieval fortified town left in Europe. Standing on high ground above the river Aude, it gives an impression of magnificent impregnability: 52 pointed towers and gate-houses linked by three kilometres of crenellated double ramparts. As you approach, it shimmers with a dreamy and distant air of romance, a sight that is now usually seen only in the cinema.

Carcassonne was restored by Eugene Viollet le Duc in the last century. In 1850 the citadel was under a destruction order and the stones from the walls were being auctioned off, but in a new spirit of preservation (until that time nothing was restored simply for posterity) the mouldering city was listed by Monuments Historiques. The fortress and the cathedral were repaired, the towers and gates were rebuilt and their conical roofs added once more and new crenellations were added throughout to the walls. Gradually over the next half century Carcassonne was restored to the state of a 13th century fortress.

Once you are inside, Carcassonne is as compact as you would expect of a citadel, with sinewy streets that seek out every crevice. The buff stone and brown plaster walls are topped with their terra cotta roof-tiles, and have a comfortable feeling: in summer the walls and even whole courtyards are covered with vines, a perfect place to rest from the sun. Surrounded everywhere by pointed turrets, you can almost imagine a real knight riding by over the cobbles, or a troubadour beneath a balcony, where a woman stands, her tall conical hennin hat trailing white silk.

Of course it's widely said that Carcassonne is all wrong, that it tips into quaintness. Suddenly the romance has become cinematic sentimentality; restoration run riot. By all accounts, Viollet le Duc worked to an exaggerated and idealized gothic plan - supposedly he went overboard on his crenellations, made the gothic towers too pointed and used the wrong roof-tiles - with the result that Carcassonne ended up more 'medieval' than it ever actually was. It was so controversial that some of the towers were eventually re-fitted with romanesque roofs and tiles.

If Viollet le Duc invented the medieval cliche, he cannot be held responsible for the 20th century's medieval theme-park (Carcassonne is the second most popular place to visit in the whole of France). There are a few quite original artisans at work in the town, but it is mostly tourist shops selling pocket-sized cross-bows, knight-in-armour radios and Carcassonne walls made of nougat. Of course there are some good restaurants, where you can indulge in a little 'restauration' of your own. Beware though - with the carbohydrate content of Southern French food it is unlikely to return you to the ideal state of an earlier age, whether or not it once existed.

In fact Viollet le Duc himself has undergone something of a restoration (to favour) recently. It seems that his work here has been tarred by the brush of other projects, including the Chateau de Pierrefonds, where his idealization of the gothic resulted in a mock-medieval fantasy. In Carcassonne, away from the pressures of Paris, he had time to do all his archeological and architectural studies and apparently had good reason after all for his restorations. The controversial romanesque towers probably did have had pointed roofs in the 13th century - after all, it was northern French King's architects who rebuilt the city and they were establishing his power in the area. The only major thing that is still considered wrong is that he fortified the bell-tower of the basilica.

It is worth visiting the basilica, built in 1095, with gothic chancel and rose windows added in about 1260, and the Chateau comtal (a massive fortification within the town fortifications), but the finest thing about Carcassonne is really the walls, which date from the 3rd to the 13th century.

You don't need to be a historian to work out the different generations of building - the 3rd century Roman stones of the inner wall are smaller and they are topped (and underpinned in places) by larger more regular stones from the late 13th century--these repairs were carried out once it was enclosed by the outer wall (which was built with rough-hewn stones). The outer wall's towers were built further apart (after the invention of cross-bows, which were more accurate than longbows). The few gates all have their machiolations and a corner to make enemy access more difficult. Each of the towers has its story too - Cathar heretics were judged in one (the Justice Tower), models of birds were placed on others for crossbow practice.

Perhaps the best time to see the walls is at night, when both inner and outer ramparts are floodlit, and there is calm after the tour buses have departed. A consitutional walk on the battlements is an excellent way to work off the bulk of a meal, if Carcassonne and restoration have made more of an impression on you (specifically your waistline) than you would like.

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