Carcassonne

Carcassonne

It's as if we saved the best for last. We followed the Canale du Midi, which allowed the connection of the Mediterranean with the Atlantic in the 17th century to the fortified Cite of Carcassonne. This fortified town was established in the 6th century BC and its first walls were built in the 3rd century AD. It is probably the best example of defensive medieval fortifications in existence today. The town was quite strategic because it lies in the valley between the Pyrenees and the Black Mountains, controlling the road between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The fortifications were taken during the Albigensian Crusades (the fight between the Catholics and Cathars) on August 15th, 1209. Its downfall was lack of water. At the time, a village of 3000 people lived around the outside of the fortification, but the entire town was destroyed as part of the punishment for the heretics. Following the death of Simon de Montfort, the region became part of France. Now the town became important to defend the borders of France from Spain and Aragon. A second wall was formed outside the Roman walls in the 13th century.

Liste between the walls

As we gazed at the inner walls, you could see that the towers were closer together (50 meters) than the new walls (100 meters) because the invention of the crossbow which could shoot arrows further. The sloping grass leading to the Roman walls was leveled, so we could see the stone placed below the old Roman wall foundation. The liste between the walls would leave any enemy exposed to arrows, oil, and rocks if they managed to get past the first walls. A charge of cavalry between the walls was also a threat. We entered through the Noarbonne Gate and noticed how there were two gates with huge towers between. If one gate was breached the attackers could still be pounded with rocks and arrows as they attempted the second gate. The towers themselves were small fortifications (in gothic style) with water and food inside.

Inner Chateau

The fortification lost its importance in 1659 when the border with Spain moved to the other side of the Pyrenees. The fortification was abandoned in the 18th century and became the poor neighborhood of the city. It was in the 19th century that the fortification was restored over the course of 60 years by the architect Viollet-le-Duc. One of the gargoyles used in the restoration actually has his face! We also toured the chateau inside the fortification built in the 12th century by Vicomtes Trencavels. This has many of the defensive features we've already seen repeated for the castle itself. We walked the streets which used to be dirt with the dirty water down the center, today they are cobblestone, but still have a v shape to them. We were going to tour the Basilica of Saint Nazaire, the former Cathedral for the area, but Pentecost high mass was still being celebrated. This church is a mixture of Roman and Gothic styles and was originally built in the 12th century. We got to view it after lunch. And what a nice lunch - we stopped at one of the cafe's and had a 3 course meal and shared two bottles of the local wine.

Dame Carcas and Noarbonne Gate

So how did Carcassonne get its name? Legend has it, that the town was being besieged by Charlemagne. Dame Carcas suggested that even though they were starving that they overfeed the last remaining pig with grain and then throw it over the wall at the invading force. When they saw this fat pig, the army assumed that there was plenty of food and water remaining in the fortress and gave up the siege. The church bells rang to signal the end of the siege to their hero Dame Carcas. Thus the name Caracassonne, sonne means ring. 

This is the last day of the trip. If you want to see more pictures, there is a narrated 15 minute video on youtube.

So how do I sum up this trip? It's one of the first trips we've had where the highlight of the entire trip was the post-trip: Toulouse, Albi, Lautrec, and Carcassone. The riverboat experience was among the best (other than cabin size). I read the itinerary beforehand, but I was still surprised by how many chateaus and vineyards we visited. If you're interested in Bordeaux wine, this is a great trip. But as is usually the case, the program director and guides make or break the trip. Marie, was superb, she would stop people, tell them that she was leading a group of Americans, and ask them to tell us about themselves or the sites we were seeing. We met two mayors, a Dominican priest, several school groups (one of which sang 'happy birthday' to one of our members), a gardener, and several random folks we encountered. Marie has unique talent at getting people to interact. Our local guides were also superb, particularly our guide in Chartres (we learned a lot about stained glass windows and Renaissance statuary), our guide to Toulouse and St. Emilion, and our guide in Carcassone (who really explained the history and architecture of the place. Finally, our group was great, always on-time, always curious. 

Albi and Lautrec

Albi Cathedral

We headed to Albi, a city of 500K, known as the "Red City" As we approached the central square, one has to be impressed by what looks like a huge fortress in front of you. This is the 13th century brick Gothic cathedral. Instead of stone buttresses, here the buttresses are circular in brick. To the left is the Palace de Berbie (the bishop's palace). Formerly there was a cloister between the palace and the cathedral. Above it all is the 78 meter tall tower which was also an observation post for defense. This was to be the "Fortress of the Catholic Faith" as opposed to the Cathar faith which believed in a good and evil god. The cathedral was built between 1282 and 1480. What was unique about this church was inside - here over 35000 meters are painted (between 1509 and 1550) with not only traditional religious scenes, but also many geometric patterns. The amazing fact is that most of the painting has not been restored since the 16th century, yet it is quite vivid. Above the present day altar is a huge organ with 3500 pipes played with five keyboards. Just below the organ is the scene of the last judgement. In the choir area are stone carvings from the 15th century. These carvings did not suffer the defacement from the French Revolution that had occurred elsewhere. The timing for our visit was unique - they were about to celebrate confirmation. So we had the young teenagers all lined up in white with their candles. It forced us to cut short our visit to the Cathedral.

Confirmandi

Outside we visited the French Garden of the Palace de la Berbie, right next to the river Tarn. Inside the Palace is the museum specializing in the works of HenriToulouse-Lautrec. For a man who only lived into his 30's, it was amazing how many works he painted and how many of them are displayed at this museum. He painted a lot of the 'seedier' side of life - brothels, bars, dance halls, as well as interesting portraits of people - their mood seems to come across strongly, while most of the backgrounds are muted. The end of the exhibit featured many of the famous theater posters. We had a delicious lunch (a salad with bacon, pate, and vinegar, as well as a delicious piece of veal with vegetables) right next to the Cathedral. Then we had time to explore the city on our own. I crossed the old bridge for the view and to get a closer look at the old mills that used to operate on the river and then visited the church and cloister of Saint Salvi. After the cathedral, this was somewhat of a disappointment.

Albi's bridges and mills

In the afternoon, we headed to the tiny medieval village of Lautrec, in the middle of the region that grows pink garlic. The buildings here were quite charming and we enjoyed walking the streets to see the houses as well as the view of the countryside. The highlight was climbing to the windmill on top with its view of the village on one side and the black mountains and Pyrenees in the other direction. 

The village of Lautrec

Tonight, our Farewell dinner is at L'autan Tic on the Square of the Capitole. Mary isn't very happy, it was a choice between fish and duck. The duck was very good.

Toulouse

Capitole Square

As we walk into the center of the city, all the street are named in both French and Occitan, the original language of this region (Occ means "yes" in that Occitan language). While the buildings are predominantly red, we also see brick colored with chalk to look much more like the stone buildings of Paris. Stone is used mostly in government and church buildings, since it has to be shipped in. The Capitole is a prime example, this is the seat of government (the town hall) for Toulouse. From about 1200 until the French Revolution, the city was run by eight men of property who were elected for one year terms. During this time they made the laws, ran the city, and acted as judges. After their term, they were considered noblemen. The building facade dates from 1750. We entered by the Great Staircase to the halls above. The first major hall had paintings by Henri Martin (1860-1945) including “The Dreamers” with one boat doing laundry and another collecting sand for bricks and four panels, one for each season. The Salle des Illustres is used for conducting weddings typically 20-30 every Saturday. The end panels have paintings representing Pope Urban II entering Toulouse in 1096 and The Defense of Toulouse.

Jacobin's Church

Nearby we visited the Jacobins Church. Marie asked one of the Dominican monks to tell us some of the history. St. Dominic started preaching in Carcassonne to combat Catharism, an offshoot of Catholicism. The pope asked Dominic to begin an order here, the Dominicans, and he ordained two priests in Toulouse in 1215. So the Dominican order is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year. The church here is a Romanesque church built in the 14th century. It was very different than any other church we've seen, built of bricks with central columns. Originally, these columns separated the religious and the laypeople. The walls were painted to look like marble and the windows have red stained glass on the sunny side and blue on the north side. The arches are unique, especially the palm tree arch at the head of the church. The church was intentionally made to look massive to symbolize the power of the church. St. Thomas Aquinas’ relics lie here. After the French Revolution, the church became a stables with two floor above, one for sleeping and the other for a granary. It was only reopened after restoration in the 1970s. Only about 10 masses a year are celebrated, and one will be on Pentecost Sunday (in 2 days) and broadcast across France.

Our Lady of Grace

In the afternoon, Mary and I visited the Musée des Augustins, a former monastery, which was converted to a museum after the French Revolution. The collections included Our Lady of Grace restored from the 15th century and a collection of polychrome statues from the Rieux chapel built around 1340 at the Cordeliers Convent. Particularly interesting was a statue of Jean Tissendier (a rich bishop) donating the chapel. Next we came upon a series of capital stones from various 12th Century religious buildings from Toulouse. The next section of the museum had sculptures and paintings from the 17th to 20th century. I was particularly intrigued by the Nightmare sculpted by Euene Thivier.

 

Saint Sernin

After a quick rest, we then walked to the Saint Sernin Basilica. At one time this church would see a thousand pilgrims a day on the Way of St. James. The church was built in honor of a 3rd century bishop who was martyred here, dragged through the streets behind a bull. The church was consecrated in 1096 by Pope Urban II. Today, it is the largest Romanesque church still standing. In the crypt are the relics of 128 saints including four apostles. 

Bordeaux to Toulouse

Larressingle

Toulouse is only about 2 hours from Bordeaux if you take the AutoRoute, but we took the scenic route to get there. After days of seeing vineyards, we started going through pine forests harvested for timber. And then rolling hills with fields planted primarily with wheat and corn, a version of Iowa with stone houses and chateaus. Our first stop was the tiny13th century medieval town of Larressingle. An American from Boston fell in love with this village and he financed the restoration of the village which was completed in 2001. This was the ancient site of the Abbey de Condom. We ran into a school group learning their French history and got them to practice some of their English with us. Then we talked to the Mayor of the town about the restoration work here.

Inside the walls

Lunch was in the town of Condom. We wanted a simple lunch and settled for pizza. Afterwards, we walked some of the town square and visited the 14th century St. Peter's Cathedral. We also ran into a group of pilgrims, taking one of the four paths for the Way of St. James ending up in St. Jacque de Composostelle in Spain. They were various nationalities and had met as they walked the pilgrimage. In the town square was a statue of the four musketeers, since this is the region where they were from.

Hikers on Way of St. James

Late in the afternoon, we reached Toulouse, a city of 447,000 inhabitants and famous for its Universities with 90000 students. The first thing we noticed was the change in architecture - most building now are red brick rather than the limestone building we've seen during the first part of our journey, leading to the name "Pink City". The first University was established here in 1229. The University today is known for its colleges of Law, Medicine, and Aerospace. Another key industry in Toulouse is Airbus which employs over 22,000 people. 

Bordeaux

Portable Sundial

This was our day of leisure in Bordeaux. Mary and I took a walk along the quay in the morning and managed to get caught in the rain. At least, we had our raincoats with us! In the afternoon, we took the tram to the Musée d'Aquataine, which provided a great history of the region. The upstairs exhibits which covered the 18th century through today had English explanations throughout. (Unfortunately the videos were only in French.) It focused on Bordeaux’s importance in the 18^th century as a shipping port to Africa, and the West Indies. They had models of some of the ships from the 18th to the 20th century including the Conquerant, a 64 cannon ship that participated in the American Revolution. There was also an interesting portable sundial, different than anything I've seen before. We had a better explanation of the slave trade here than I've ever seen in the U.S. The history focused on the French islands of the West Indies, their importance for the sugar trade, slavery on the islands, and eventually the abolition of slavery. They also had some voodoo dolls from Africa. The most interesting one had chains and two alligator heads which was used to chase evil spirits from people who had to be chained because of the violence of their insanity. It was also interesting to learn about the 300 nobles beheaded here during the French Revolution. 

Voodoo Doll

This was our last day aboard the Chanson. We never got more than 30 miles or so from Bordeaux as we cruised the Garonne and Dordonne rivers. The crew has been wonderful, all of them very engaged with the passengers. The captain was the most outgoing we've encountered. Lastly, the food has been superb. Our only complaint: the lower cabins are pretty tight, with little room around the bed. 

River Chanson

Cadillac

Chateau Cadillac in 1759

Cadillac is a village of only 2500 inhabitants, but it also had its fortified wall built during the 100 Years War between France and England. We entered by the Porte du Mere (Sea Gate) built in 1315. Here they showed how the floods can affect the town - the worst flood actually reached the top of the gate. This was one of the original four gates. The town is a Bastide - fortified towns created by charter, built in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. Here  people built their houses and then farmed the surrounding land. Inside the walls, the 16th century chateau of Jean-Louis deLa Valette, first duke of Epernon. Henry III had given him many titles and posts, but Henri IV tried to sideline him by having him build an expensive chateau worthy of his rank, far from the capital. It had a traditional U shaped design. It was designed by two different architects so the front and the back are different. In 1818, the state acquired the chateau and it became a women's prison until 1890 and then a reform school for girls until 1952. While it was a prison, it was run by nuns and they enforced silence throughout the day. The prisoners would rise at 5 AM, have time for prayer followed by breakfast and then work in the workshops. Before lunch they could walk in single file around the courtyard. The same pattern was repeated in the afternoon and after dinner. The kitchen was interesting because it contained one of the first dumbwaiters for serving the food as well as a connection to a sewer which ran to the river. The kitchen also served as a workshop for making the tapestries of Cadillac. Only one such tapestry remains in the chateau, the Siege of La Rochelle. So is there a relation between Cadillac, France and the Cadillac car? Yes, both were named for  Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, the founder of Detroit. 

The Seige of La Rochelle

In the afternoon, we visited a family run winery, Chateau Piada, in the region Barsac-Sauterne. The chateau was originally from 1274. The current owner's grandfather bought the winery in 1940 from a cousin. Frederick, the owner, is trying to learn English to better host the Grand Circle visitors. He did pretty well for the several months of practice, but his vocabulary, as you might imagine, is somewhat limited.

We also met his Father, Jean, whose story of World War II we heard. In the early years, the Belgian and French forces were fleeing from the enemy. They would live for over ten years without electricity or gasoline, but continue to farm. One morning, they listened for 15 hours to the deafening engine noise of the German army passing by. Eventually some young SS troops were stationed here. Jean as a 10 year old boy was impressed by their discipline, goose-stepping parade, and singing. In 1944, a room in their house was commandeered for two lieutenants who had been on the Russian front and they heard the stories of the atrocities that were committed between the Germans and Russians. Later, they would have a similar experience in France.

Jean

We tasted three white wines that were very fruity and unique. The fog from the river here encourages a fungus to grow on the grapes , the Botyrtis Cinerea. The grapes are harvested in 4-6 picking choosing the grapes that have been shriveled up the fungus. The wine is aged for one year in barrels and then filtered and kept in stainless steel vats until 18-20 months after the harvest. They only produce about 1100 bottles a year from this winery. 

After our visit, we almost got lost trying to find the Chateau Yquem, one of the top wineries in the region. The gardens of this Chateau were truly magnificent and the Chateau was quite picturesque. On the way back to the ship, our bus broke down, and Frederick and Jean ended up ferrying us in two cars to get back. More of an adventure then we had planned on.

The gardens of Chateau Yquem

The directors invited Frederick and Jean to the Captain's farewell dinner. The meals on this ship have been exceptional. We had some terrific soups, eggplant and mustard soup, which were quite unique and delicious. Tonight’s meal was filet-mignon, one of the best I've ever tasted. Afterwards we had the crew talent show. Of course, there was much more show than talent and had everyone laughing. It didn't hurt that we had a margarita and several glasses of wine beforehand. By the end of the evening we were up dancing the chicken dance and YMCA. 

St. Emilion

St. Emilion

St.Emilion is a medieval village from the 12th century. Here instead of having a wall around the city, the back of the buildings formed part of the defensive wall. We started our visit at St. Emilion church where we could see the damage caused during the French revolution. Remember that at this time, the people defaced many of the properties of the noblemen and the church, cutting off the heads of the statues. This church still had the Roman style domes in the center of the church and then Gothic style pillars and supports on either side. Attached on one side was the Augustine cloister. Here there was a map of the St. Emilion jurisdiction with every chateau marked on it, 800 wineries on 15000 acres. Natalie, our guide pointed to the chateau run by her husband's sister and the one run by her husband.

"Here is my husband's chateau"

One of the more interesting sights is the underground monolithic church. The church was quarried out in the 12th century over 30-50 years, its 8 meters wide, 12 meters long and 12 meters high. The 15000 cubic meters of rock quarried out was used to build the houses around the village. On top is a 4000 ton tower, which is causing problems because of the weight being held up by the limestone columns.

Monolithic Church

We, of course, had to sample wine, this time from Chateau Cardinal Villemarie, a Grand Cru Classe winery. Here the wine cellar was the first that was truly a cellar, carved out of the stone beneath the building. While they had wine from 1930, their advice was to drink the best wines within 60 years.