Fat Dogs and French Estates - Part 1 by Haslam Beth

Author:Haslam, Beth [Haslam, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs
Publisher: Ant Press
Published: 2015-01-14T22:00:00+00:00

16

A Morning Swim

Hacking down the traffic-free autoroute to our hotel in Perpignan was a pleasure and was enhanced by Jack’s mood which improved considerably after he’d finished moaning about my general ineptitude.

I did concede, with less grace than I probably ought, that he was possibly right on one or two points but, not being in possession of a crystal ball, I couldn’t be held responsible for the unheralded surprises.

So with my mind happily distracted by the passing views I pretended to acknowledge his opinions with great patience. The dogs were comfortably settled too. Biff was absolutely exhausted but otherwise unharmed after his morning’s work and had joined Sam in a power nap.

Our journey took us along the A61 towards the A9 and as we rounded another corner my eye was suddenly drawn to an incredibly spectacular view. I’d read about it but never seen it. The scene that gradually unfolded was more evocative and majestic than anything I’d imagined.

Silhouetted against the blue sky on a hill above the river Aude was a seemingly endless number of towers interspersed with rows of pristine battlements. The sun’s rays jumped and danced in a dazzling display as they reflected off each tile of the slate roofs. It looked too perfect to be true, almost like a scene from a fairy tale. This was Carcassonne, Europe’s largest fortified medieval city and today a very worthy UNESCO world heritage site. I gasped in wonder.

I knew that Carcassonne is divided into two separate ‘towns’: the Cité and the Ville Basse. These evolved as a result of the wars against the desperately devout and somewhat persecuted Cathars. But the genesis of this quasi settlement was much earlier than that. The rocky outcrop had been occupied by man since the 6th century BC, first as a Gaul colony then as a Roman town in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.

Much later, in the 12th century, the castle was built by the Viscomtes Trencavel family. The ruling families then progressively added to the construction which helped protect both themselves and their city from invaders. However, in the early 13th century, Carcassonne was taken by Simon de Montfort during the Albigensian Crusade and annexed to the royal estate.

Fortification works continued throughout the 13th century, with the construction of the outer wall and the ‘modernisation’ of the inner rampart, making it a near impregnable fortress. The result was further protection from would-be invaders with the construction of 52 defensive towers. These were originally arranged along a huge double row of garrisoned walls measuring nearly three kilometres and encompassing the city.

Eventually the centuries of battle and strife took their toll and the great city started to crumble. Various building and renovation efforts were made to save it, the greatest of all coming from Eugène Viollet-le-Duc who rescued it from ruin in 1844 by masterminding a hugely significant restoration project, the fruits of which are splendidly visible today.

Today the City of Carcassonne is an icon, representing one of the most successful examples of European military architecture of its era.

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