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Couiza is a small town (or large village) on the Salz river, where it flows into the Aude. Village commerce is scattered, without a focal point, but the terrace cafés are popular late into the summer nights.
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Nearby: |
Arques 10 km |
Carcassonne 40 km |
Cassaignes 7 km |
Coustaussa 2 km |
Espéraza 4 km |
Fa 6 km |
Limoux 16 km |
Montazels 1 km |
Narbonne 70 km |
Perpignan 90 km |
Quillan 12 km |
Rennes-le-Chateau 3 km |
La Serpent 7 km |
Serres 6 km |
Below: |
Transportation |
Hiking |
Lodging Hotels |
The southwest parts of town have a somewhat "Medieval" layout, of old houses and narrow streets. The northeast section has the newer houses in modern tracts. At least a sign of growth.
Many of the town's dwellings are row-house style, either harking back to the factory-town days or perhaps more recently to vacationers.
Two days a week, Tuesday and Saturday mornings, there's a market on the Place Denis, a square that's somewhat hidden in the small streets that a visitor isn't likely to be casually strolling.
In the unfocused nature of the town, there's a grocery store, bakery, post office and pharmacy at one junction of the main D118 road. A few blocks away, across the Salz river, is another junction with two good terrace-cafés, a bakery, newspaper-magazine shop and estate agent.
There's a very nice municipal park alongside the main river, L'Aude (the namesake of the department), with a good view of the triple-arched stone bridge across the river.
Years ago this Haute Vallée region of the Aude suffered a decline, when the local industries of felt, hat making and formica largely disappeared. This is visible in most of the villages of the region. In Couiza, derelict factory building are along the road beside the railway: long and low, cement, white. Peering in the windows you see the old felt (feutre) machines coated in dust, bins of different colored felt and a few folded "blankets" of white felt; all as if left as-is when the doors were closed and locked.
Transportation
The railway station in the town, joint "Couiza - Montazels" station. The train runs between Quillan (12 km southwest) and Carcassonne (40 km north). It's a one-hour trip between Couiza and Carcassonne, and there are several trains a day.
Hiking
- Maps:
- IGN (1/25,000) #2347 OT "Quillan, Alet-les-Bains"
Lodging - Hotels
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Photo gallery of One large photo for Couiza
