Carcassonne - The Fortified Town
43.2122° N, 2.3537° E
Ever since I rode past
Carcassonne in a bus on the way to a ski holiday in Andorra in 1978, I have been
keen to visit the Fortified Town. The
fortifications were first established by the Romans around 100BC, although the
region and the hill on which Carcassonne was built had be inhabited from around
3500BC onwards. The Romans were followed
by the Visigoths and then a period of relative independence until the locals
were driven out in 1209 as part of the Albigensian Crusades (to divert the
Cathars from their heresy) and the city eventually came under the French crown
in 1247.
"In the city, there remained just one small pig and one measure of wheat to feed the population. So Dame Carcass force-fed her pig with the rest of the wheat and hurled it over the walls. The pig burst open on hitting the ground and from its torn belly poured a veritable flood of good grain.
Charlemagne immediately abandoned the pointless siege: there was clearly so much grain in Carcassonne that they even fed their pigs on it!
Before the large army disappeared, Dame Carcass called on Charlemagne to make peace.
She had the trumpets sound (“Carcass sonne..” ) The Emperor retraced his steps to receive her allegiance!"Although this story is only legendary, Madam Carcass still had the town named after her and her trumpet sounds. Her face gracing the front walls of the city. Or it may be someone else entirely, who knows? Here she is.
Carcassonne remains
largely intact, with continuous walls from the Roman Fortification and the
later Medieval fortifications surrounding the town. All is not what it seems,
however, as much of what is visible in the city today is the result of a
restoration by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1853, and he was less than faithful to
the original architecture. Nonetheless,
he deserves credit for saving the now UNESCO Listed Site from becoming a quarry
and giving the modern visitor at least a sense of the scale and style of a fortified
city.
During our visit in
July 2018, the city was celebrating its 20th year since the UNESCO
listing by hosting an artwork by contemporary Swiss artist Felice Varini. Varini, who apparently specialises in
creating illusions on large objects using yellow stripes, chose concentric circles
on the outside of the walls. This is
apparently some reference to the defensive nature of the fortress by covering
it with a target. Who knows what art is?
Maybe this.
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| The Target - Controversial Art work |
Carcassonne has two
significant structures within the walls.
Château Comtal and the Baslique St-Nazaire.
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| The Château |
The Château, like all
castles, seems to have been built over the span of a few hundred years. However, the heart of the building was
established on the site of an old Visigoth fort during the 12th
century by the Trencavels, a very powerful family in the south of France, which
had the misfortune to be Cathars at the time Pope Innocent 3 launched a crusade
against what was described as a heresy.
After the fall of Carcassonne in 1209, the castle became an ideal site
for the local inquisition hearings, and carried on life over subsequent years
as a dungeon. Today the outer walls,
which lead to the ramparts of the town, are intact, and the building is largely
functional. Nonetheless, there are large
courtyards inside the structure which used to be rooms, but no longer have a
roof or a floor!
The Basilique St-Nazaire
was once a Romanesque Style Basilica but was made over in Gothic style later in
its life. The only remarkable feature is
the stain glass window. There is also a
very aggressive ancient nun who roams the corridors of the Basilica chastising
people who are eating, men wearing hats, women under dressed and people making
too much noise. She is very busy.
La Bastide Saint-Louis – Tour de France
43.2124° N, 2.3505° E
After the King (now
Saint) Louis completely demolished the town around Carcassonne in an effort to
eliminate the Cathars, he is now remembered locally as the generous king who
rebuilt the town. It is built on a
square grid between the river and the Canal around the bastide of St Louis. A
bastide is a town built to one plan, usually a grid, by one founder and usually
contains a large central square and small lane between blocks. That describes the town precisely.
For some reason, after
our earlier deliberate focus on the Tour de France, it started following us
around. We found ourselves in Carcassonne
(city) when the tour arrived one afternoon, rested the next day and left the
following morning. The first day finish
was at one end of the grid near the Canal du Midi and started just down the
street using a controlled start through the town streets until the open road
allowed free competition.
The town provides many
vantage points to see the old city which towers above it. The connection between
the town and the fortified town is via an old bridge over the river, although
there are now a few other road bridges to choose from.
Limoux
43.0533° N, 2.2181° E
Limoux claims that the
locals developed the method for producing a Champagne like sparkling wine and
still produces Blanquette de Limoux in large quantities today. This sparkling wine was produced in the Limoux region in 1531, by the monks at the
abbey in Saint-Hilaire. We stopped here for lunch, bought the Blanquette de
Limoux and branched out to the local red wine which only found its local identity
after an Appellation d'origine contrôlée was established in 2005.
Limoux has a large square, but it is not the Centre Ville. That can be found in front of the Council Chambers (Hôtel de Ville) with the only discerning feature being a very large disabled parking space. We asked a lady where the Centre Ville was and she simply replied “ici”. We went a little down the road and found that the town opened out into the large square. While the square was impressive and there were many cafés to choose from, it must be the town with the least imagination when naming them. We found the Café Commerce, Le Grande Café, Café de la Terrassee and at least five other names which are found all over France.
It seems that the only
thing in town is the wine, and they sell a lot of it.
Puivert Castle (what’s left of it)
42.9211° N, 2.0553° E
High up a cliff, with
a single lane road to a car park, the castle is nearly derelict. It was possible to walk around inside the
building up and down dark stairs to see rooms not used since the
revolution.
Signs say that there are people living there, so please respect. We only saw a horse.
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| Could do with some work |
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| Showing signs of wear |
Signs say that there are people living there, so please respect. We only saw a horse.
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| The horse waiting to greet us at the entrance. |
The ramparts afforded
a spectacular view of the surrounding valley, and the opportunity to stretch the legs a little!
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| The valley floor below |
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| Stretching - don't lean back! |
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| Location, Location, Location! |
Canal du Midi
Between Trèbes (43.2097° N, 2.4428° E) and Écluse d'Herminis (43° 14′ 14″ N, 2° 17′ 18″ E)
The Canal du Midi was built to provide a transport link across the southern
section of France. Today it provides for
two types of transport – leisure boats cruising up and down riding through the
locks, and bike riders along the tow path.
We set out from Trèbes a small town South West of Carcassonne, and rode
to Ecluse around 10km upstream of Carcassonne along the canal.
Ecluse is a series of locks of a design
exclusive to the Canal du Midi, constructed in 1674. Today there is a restaurant there which
allows leisurely diners the opportunity to watch the tourists struggling with
the process of passing through the locks. We decided to join in the fun for
lunch, and for one of the few times in my life, I could not eat it all. Chastened
by the experience, when I tried to take my bike for the return trip, I could not
find the key to the security chain locking the two bikes together and securing
it to the bike post concreted into the ground.
After some mild panic, the waiter came to our aid and found the keys in the
grass. Lucky, because when we returned the bike to the hire shop, they made it
clear that they would not have been able to help us because they had no spare
key.
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| Riding the Tow Path of the Canal |
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| Ecluse |
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| Trèbes |
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| Meet the happy tourists |
The bike ride covered some of the best tow path and some of the not so good path, for a total of around 38km, at 33°C. We met plenty of boats and everyone was friendly. They are on holidays after all.
I nearly fell in three times.
The only wild life we saw was a flock of very calm ducks and one water rat.
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| Some of the confident ducks |
Rennes le Chateau
42.9270° N, 2.2642° E
Rennes le Chateau in the Aube Valley did find itself in the Da Vinci Code which made it briefly famous, but its greatest claim to fame is the range of conspiracy theories around the local priest Bérenger
Saunière who managed to renovate the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene and construct a tower with no external funding.
He was eventually convicted in an ecclesiastical tribunal of trafficking in Masses, but the locals have promoted the idea that he had a treasure and it was buried in the town. Treasure always pulls the tourists.
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| The renovated church |
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| A statue of the devil who was believed to be guarding the treasure. Someone had a look. |
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| The tower |
For all the pictures of the region around Carcassonne, try here.
