Time traveller

LYING in a gargantuan bed surrounded by oak panelling and under the watchful gaze of a frieze of medieval soldiers, hunting dogs and rotund serving wenches, the lines between bestseller and reality blur.

If I had a lamb shank I would almost certainly hurl its remains at the wolfhound that lies snoring before the open fire depicted in colour above our heads.

Mixed thoughts of medieval and modern France permeate the subconscious so that, even in slumber, I’m embroiled in some sort of adventure in a Kate Mosse-like Labyrinth. If you haven’t read the bestseller, it jumps back and forth between the 13th and 20th centuries tracing the antics of mystery cults and the fortunes of ye olde Alais and contemporary Alice.

So where better to read it than in Orient-Express’s Hotel de la Cite, right next to the citadel in the heart of Carcassonne?

If you are wondering where the movie comes in, then cast your mind back to Kevin Costner in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, for which the old city provided the backdrop.

There is also something very Da Vinci Code about Carcassonne, though it was not a location for that movie.

The time warps continue for the whole stay. Right from the moment you are transported by tiny, battered Opel hatchback from the dusty car park outside the daunting walls, bouncing through narrow cobbled streets to the ivy-covered hotel door, it is easy to lose track of which century you inhabit. Draw back the tapestry curtain in the hotel entrance and it is a welcome blast of very modern air-conditioning that greets the sweaty traveller.

Hotel de la Cite first opened as a hotel in 1907, so Orient-Express Hotels, which took ownership in 1997, has overseen its centenary.

BUILT in the Twenties, on the site of a former episcopal palace and next to the Saint- Nazaire Basilica, it was a fashionable stopover on the roads between Nice and Biarritz and Barcelona. Its heyday came in the Fifties, but it later fell into decline and closed in 1987.

Two years later, an entrepreneur bought it and restored it to its former glory, although it has since undergone a complete renovation by Orient- Express Hotels to justify its listing by the French National Conservation Trust.

The welcome at reception today is very much 21st Century, with the staff typically obliging. The heavy gaoler’s key that is passed to us is a hint of what lies behind the solid oak door of our unique junior suite, room 108.

The heavy curtains and striking frieze have you slipping back centuries, but you are not there for long once you start to explore the sumptuous, tasteful bathroom, dressing room and television which pops out of a chest at the press of a button on the wall.

Other rooms and suites boast stone tiled floors, working fireplaces, original beams and views of the ramparts or basilica.

It’s the same in the rest of the hotel, which combines contemporary and traditional.

The decor in the Michelin-starred Barbacane restaurant, with rich burgundy, gold and dark wood, nods to the medieval, while Jerome Ryon’s menu is definitely modern, although inspired by the founding father of French cooking, Auguste Escoffier.

A secret door leads from the library bar, while the kitchens of the hotel lie in a labyrinth of underground rooms, accessed down a cobbled alley and through a low door.

Here, the work of the patisserie, fishery and other sections goes completely unnoticed unless you are fortunate to be dining privately in the wine cellar – La Cave – which is reached through the kitchens.

Filling the cellar is no problem, as Carcassonne is surrounded by the biggest wine-producing region in France, Languedoc-Roussillon.

Breakfast is across the cobbles in the Chez Saskia restaurant located in a 12th Century building, with an original stone staircase leading up a tower, while informal dinner is served in Le Jardin de L’Eveque, making this corner of Carcassonne almost Orient Express’s own. It even owns the gift shop on the square.

THE hotel has a swimming pool set in lovely gardens that are deliberately not kept private to allow uninterrupted views of the ancient battlements and the Black Mountains beyond. Lazing in the gardens you do not mind the tourists walking the walls, snatching a glimpse of the only luxury hotel within the medieval citadel.

Hotel de la Cite is at the heart of the action and the best place to see the rest of the old city. There are the narrow alleyways, overhanging higgledy- piggledy buildings, the hotchpotch roofline; everything to make you feel like you have spun back in time.

But there are also tourist souvenir shops, cafes and attraction kiosks giving Carcassonne a slightly Disney air. You might actually see a knight or fair maiden wandering around between shows, talking on their mobile phone or eating an ice-cream.

In fact, reality may have become fiction one more time – Walt Disney was one of the Hotel de la Cite’s guests during the last century, along with Buster Keaton, Rudyard Kipling and Princess Grace of Monaco.

We can only guess if the Unesco World Heritage site that is Carcassonne helped to inspire parts of Disney’s fantasy empire.

Either way, it’s the ideal place to indulge in a bit of character acting and to get lost in your own version of Labyrinth.

■ For more information, visit hoteldelacite.com