Saturday 5/18/19 – Well I had an incredible “It’s a small world” experience today but I’ll save that for the end. Let me start with some history!
This region is called Languedoc-Roussillon (long-dohk roo-see-yohn) and from the 10th to the 13th century it controlled most of southern France. The name Languedoc comes from langue (language) that its people spoke. Langue d’oc (“language of Oc” or Occitan – Oc for the way they said “yes”) was the dialect of Southern France; langue d’oil was the dialect of northern France (where oil later became oui, or “yes”).
The Moors, Charlemagne, and the Spanish have all called this area home, with the Roussillon part corresponding closely with its Catalan corner, near the border with Spain.
As for Carcassonne, it is truly Europe’s ultimate walled fortress city. Medieval Carcassonne is a 13th century world of towers, turrets, and cobblestones. I thought I was in Hogwarts with Harry Potter!
Locals like to believe the town got it’s name as follows: 1,200 years ago, Charlemagne and his troops besieged this fortress-town (then called La Cite) for several years. A cunning townsperson named Madame Carcas saved the town. Just as food was running out, she fed the last few bits of grain to the last pig and tossed him over the wall. Splat! Charlemagne’s bored and frustrated forces, amazed that the town still had enough food to throw fat party pigs over the wall, decided they would never succeed in starving the people out. They ended the siege, and the city was saved. Madame Carcas sonne-d (sounded) the long awaited victory bells, and La Cite had a new name: Carcas-sonne!
As you’ll see from the pics it is all walls, castles, and turrets. If you look closely at the first picture, the pillar to the right has a bust of Madame Carcas. The rest are just pics as I wandered around the village and castle.
The last pic is the “It’s a small world” experience. I took a guided tour of the village and I kept looking at this one woman thinking… I think I know her. Then I’d say no, no way. How ironic would it be if it was her. There were about 40 people on this tour and it went on for 1.5 hours so I didn’t want to interrupt the tour to ask her. So I waited until the end and… YES! It was Janet, a woman that I played pickle ball with in the tiny town of Lincolnton outside of Charlotte. How crazy is that?? It’s funny because we would always talk about travel after we played pickle ball because her and her husband loved to travel too. And I had told her all about my 2.5 month trip last Fall thru Central Europe and I had not been back to Lincolnton to play pickle ball since I left for that trip. She laughed and said all the pickle ball players were wondering if I ever came back from Europe! That was really cool to see her and her husband in Carcassonne. The last pic is Janet and I. Small world!!
OK, tomorrow I’m off for the west coast of southern France to a town called St-Jean-de-Luz. Even though it’s still in France, it’s right on the border of northern Spain so they consider it part of the Basque region. Should be fun! Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Enjoy!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 