“Yet could I these two days have spent. While still the autumn sweetly shone, Ah me! I might have died content when I looked on Carcassonne.”
- Gustave Nadaud
June 25, 2022
In the 13th century, this great walled city, Carcassonne, was the “King’s Landing” of its time. Huge 100 foot tall towers over look a massive fortified wall. They defended within a city almost as large as Paris at the time. Within you would find a Cathedral and a large keep in which the local Lord would rule.
On the way to La Cite, was we left the Dordogne and the Lot River valley we stopped at Cahors to seen medieval bridge Pont Valentré. It was built in 1308 to keep the English out of Cahors. And it worked.
Carcassonne Castle is impressive to see as you approach the city. As we traveled into the Languedoc-Roussillon region of Southern France we noticed the land changing. More fields of grass were now seen and the area was more arid in appearance. . Trees are less dense and from time to time we were rewarded with vast fields of sunflowers.
This region is similar to its more famous adjacent country of Provence. It lacks some of the magic associated with that part of France. It just needs a better publicist.
The pilgrimage site here is the city and the enormous castle city of Carcassonne. In it’s prime this castle ruled this entire area. it was the jumping off point for many crusades. The history here , like most when religion is used as an excuse to kill, is clouded.
The Cathars were a people group that lived in this area. The comprised about 10 % of the population. This was an heretical group of Christians who did not feel allegiance to the Pope. They saw life as a battle between good and evil and considered acquiring material things evil. They called themselves “Friends of God”
Of course, the Catholic church thought the acquisition of things was just fine. But, what sealed it for the Cathars is they stopped paying tithes to the church.
Here is the cathedral in the walls -
The current King of France who wanted more land and the Pope now had a common enemy. Crusaders were sent to this castle.
The Cathars were wiped out and purged from the land. The Pope was happy to have purified the faith and the King now had a new land to incorporate into France.
Everyone wins?
Anyway, we wanted to see the Castle and here we found a disappointment. The Castle and walls are indeed impressive. Painstaking work has been done to recreate the look to its medieval glory. From a distance, the trip is worth it just to visualize the massive edifice.
However, once you go inside all of the inner buildings are now countless tourist shops selling tacky wooden swords and offering overpriced food. The ambience of the walled city is drowned by a sea of commercial enterprise.
So we retreated to areas where we could enjoy the castle from afar and imagine what might have been when this keep was at its zenith.
Tomorrow, we leave to spend several days in Provence. I want to see if the wonderful stories from my book are true.
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