Chapter XVII: Section XV: Carcassonne to Montpellier,

94¼ MILES

(152 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

Kil. Miles. =Carcassonne= to Capendu =18= 11¼ =Capendu= to Lézignan =17= 10½ =Lézignan= to Narbonne =22= 13½ =Narbonne= to Coursan =7= 4½ =Coursan= to Béziers =18= 11¼ =Béziers= to Pézenas =22= 13½ =Pézenas= to Mèze =18= 11¼ [=Béziers= to Mèze by Agde =42= 26] =Mèze= to Montpellier =30= 18½

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

Practically a level road as far as =Béziers=; after that hilly to
=Mèze=.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

=Carcassonne.=--A dual town: the ancient one, generally called La
Cité, is the most perfectly preserved medieval walled city in
France; fifty-four towers in the walls and castle; Cathedral of St.
Nazaire, twelfth to fourteenth century--a lovely building; one of
the bridges across the Aude medieval also. Modern town founded in
thirteenth century; churches of--(1) St. Michael, now the
cathedral, and (2) St. Vincent, fourteenth century.

=Barbaira.=--A village with ruined château.

=Moux.=--Is not interesting.

=Lézignan.=--A small commonplace town; church, fourteenth century.

=Narbonne.=--A large town, with great wine business; Roman remains in
museum; Cathedral of St. Just, an enormous unfinished building,
consisting of a thirteenth-century choir, a fragmentary nave,
chapter-house, and cloisters; Archbishop’s Palace, now the Hôtel de
Ville, has fourteenth-century towers; the museum is in the
Benedictine house of Lamourguier; churches of--(1) St. Paul-Serge,
(2) St. Sébastien.

=Coursan.=--A small town, with busy wine trade; bridge of fifteenth
century.

=Béziers.=--An important town; the centre of the wine trade of the
Midi; stands on raised plateau above the Orb; thirteenth-century
bridge; aqueduct of the Midi Canal, and churches of--(1) St.
Nazaire, (2) St. Jacques, (3) La Madelaine, (4) St. Aphrodise.

=Pézenas.=--A small town, with fifteenth-century gateway and several
old houses.

=Montagnac.=--A dreary little town in a pleasant, hilly country.

=Mèze.=--A town on the Etang-de-Thau; fourteenth-century church of no
interest.

=Gigean.=--An uninteresting village.

Carcassonne was for a long period a dual town, and even to-day, when the original city is mainly an historical monument, it contains a considerable

number of people within its ancient walls. A glance at the plan will reveal the position and relative sizes of the two towns, and it need scarcely be stated that the original city is the one standing on a raised site east of the river. Because of the great antiquity of the “Cité,” the large town beneath it is too often regarded as a mushroom growth. It was, however, founded in the thirteenth century by the people of the original Carcassonne,

Seen from a gorse-covered common near Pamiers.]

who, according to some writers, were condemned to leave the town by St. Louis (IX.) for having supported Raymond Trencavel, the last Vicomte of Carcassonne, in his unsuccessful efforts to regain the city which his father had lost. The new town was called the Ville Basse, and its position being more suited for commercial expansion than the feudal one, it took a comparatively short time to outgrow the ancient Cité. Being entirely separated from each other by the River Aude, the growth of the new town did not mean the disappearance of the old, as at Tours and Périgueux, and thus in the twentieth century it is possible to see a practically perfect medieval city, completely encompassed by massive tower-studded walls. Within them the beautiful Church of St. Nazaire, the former cathedral, still stands; the castle also remains in complete preservation, and probably a resurrected townsman of the thirteenth century would find his way through the streets and along the defensive walls without the smallest difficulty.

The story of the Cité is told in its walls, for the lower portion belongs to the Roman occupation in the fourth century. Immediately above comes the different work of the Visigoths, into whose sinewy hands the place fell when the Gallo-Roman power had weakened. In 713 the conquering Saracens took the place of the Visigoths, but Pepin-le-Bref, the founder of the vast Frankish Empire over which his son Charlemagne was to reign, drove out the Mohammedans in 759.

Great building activity took place in the eleventh and twelfth centuries under the powerful dynasty of the Vicomtes Trencavel, which was only terminated by Simon de Montfort (father of the leader of the English barons), who, by treachery, was enabled to seize the young Vicomte, Raymond Roger, during the fierce fighting in the Albigensian War.[I]

As already mentioned, the efforts of Raymond Roger’s son to recover Carcassonne led to the founding of the new town, which outgrew the ancient city, which has now become a source of revenue as an attraction to visitors from all parts of the world.

The restoration of the Cité was carried out by Viollet-le-Duc with that thoroughness which characterizes the archæological undertakings of the French, and in the buildings-up and pullings-down

One of the most complete medieval towns in the world.]

one feels that more regard for the marks of time and less speculative roof-making would have preserved the spirit of antiquity, which, it must in candour be admitted, has been destroyed in the enthusiasm for reconstruction. When this fact has been recognized and the first disappointment has gone, the Cité becomes, as it cannot fail to do, one of the most thrilling of medieval survivals. There is a continuous double line of walls from 50 to 60 feet in height, made strikingly picturesque with no less than forty-eight towers. Several of these are the work of the Visigoth successors of Alaric, and merely to gaze upon them for a few moments in making the circuit of the walls with the guide gives one a more real and true impression of what the invasion of Gaul really meant than one gets from reading the sketchy account of those times which is all the smaller histories supply. Six more towers make the three inner sides of the castle formidable. The Porte Narbonnaise, on the east side of the Cité, was built by Philippe le Hardi, who continued to strengthen the defences of Carcassonne until his death at Perpignan in 1285.

The Church of St. Nazaire is a building of exceptional charm and beauty, the choir and transepts being regarded as the most perfect example of thirteenth-century work in the South of France. They were added during the reign of St. Louis, to whose generosity the church was deeply indebted. The Romanesque nave dates from about 1100, when an earlier one was rebuilt. In the south aisle a most remarkable bas-relief is let into the wall. The subject is the Siege of Toulouse in 1218, when Simon de Montfort was killed. There are some exceedingly interesting effigies and tombs of early bishops, and that of Simon Vigorce, Archbishop of Narbonne, who died in 1575. The glass ranges from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, and some of it is very beautiful.

Good plans of the Cité are sold in the souvenir shop in the main street leading from the Porte d’Aude, which faces the modern town. The old bridge across the Aude is an interesting medieval survival, and makes a good foreground to the first near view of the old city, with its many towers and conical roofs cutting into the sky-line.

The streets of the later town are all narrow, and as they run at right angles to one another, the American visitor must almost feel at home. There are two churches which should not be overlooked. They are St. Michael’s, now the cathedral, a thirteenth-century building, with a painted nave, and St. Vincent’s, belonging to the fourteenth century, with a west portal enriched with statuary.

THE ROAD TO NARBONNE

goes straight out of Carcassonne towards the east, crossing the Pont Neuf. In fine weather this road is white and dusty, like all the roads in the South of France, and motor-cars appear as clouds by day and fire by night.

Looking back on the ancient Carcassonne, the medievalism of the place is quite fantastic, and exactly what the early school of Italian artists depicted as backgrounds to their pictures.

For many miles a ridge of arid hills runs parallel to the road on the south, and the Cevennes appear in the distance to the north.

Barbaira has a ruined castle bearing the Visigoth name of Alaric.

Some of the hamlets have a strong resemblance to the rock villages of Italy, and it is here that the silvery green foliage of the olive is first noticed on the journey eastward. Soon after passing Moux the low hills come close to the road, exposing layers of soft sand between harder strata, and the soil changes in colour from a light buff to the deepest orange.

Lézignan has a fourteenth-century church, but is not an interesting town.

Passing through more arid hills, one reaches the historic cathedral city of

NARBONNE

The continual silting-up of the Aude has converted the _Narbo_ of the Phœnicians from one of the busiest ports of the Mediterranean into an inland town, connected with the sea by a canal. The Romans, foreseeing this danger, deflected part of the River Aude, and thus kept the seaway to Narbonne open until 1320, when a dyke gave way, and the river reverted to its earlier course, with the consequent rapid decline of the town as a port.

The pillars of timber have curiously carved gargoyles. (_Page 252._)]

It stands at the southern end of a plain which is a vast vineyard, and produces great quantities of wine.

The martyr St. Sebastian, whose death took place in 288, was born at Narbonne, and also the Roman Emperors Carus, Carinus, and Numerian. Carved stones of the Roman period have been discovered in great quantities in the city.

The Cathedral of St. Just was begun in 1272 on a most ambitious scale, but the choir alone

came into being. Had the great undertaking been completed, Narbonne would have possessed one of the vastest cathedrals in France. As it stands to-day, the choir, with its two towers of the fifteenth

A picturesque town in Southern France.]

century, rises up above the roofs of the city, after the fashion of Chartres. In the eighteenth century an effort was made to complete the nave, but the unfinished masonry in front of the west end of the choir is all that was accomplished. The swing-doors lead into what might be called a ‘narthex,’ which is without windows, and the darkness is profound until one has stumbled cautiously into one of the aisles. There are fourteenth-century windows in the apse, and round the sanctuary are some interesting tombs, including those of Cardinal Briçonnet, Prime Minister under Charles VIII., and La Borde, President and General Treasurer of France (1607).

Over the door to the sacristy there are magnificent tapestries of the early Renaissance, and one should see the beautifully vaulted roof of the fifteenth-century chapter-house.

The Archbishop’s Palace is a huge fortified building, joined to the cathedral by a mutilated cloister. A portion of the palace has been adapted as the Hôtel de Ville, the new work by Viollet-le-Duc being in the style of the thirteenth century. The large turreted tower was built in 1318, and the central one in 1375.

The museum is in the buildings of what was formerly the Benedictine Convent of Lamourguier (thirteenth, fourteenth, and eighteenth centuries). On the same side of the canal--that is, on the opposite side to the cathedral--is the interesting Church of _St. Paul-Serge_, with a Romanesque nave, and a choir in the ogee style of Gothic, built early in the thirteenth century.

North of the cathedral is _St. Sébastien_, a church with fine fifteenth-century vaulting.

‘At Narbonne have been found “monumental stones” with small caps
carved upon them. When a Roman left in his will that certain of his
slaves should be liberated, a cap was carved upon their tombs, and
so it has become “the cap of liberty,” the symbol of a freedom
greater than the freest Roman ever dreamt of.’ (Mona Caird.)

From Narbonne to Béziers the road crosses the flat alluvial ground to the little wine town of Coursan, on the Aude, which has a fifteenth-century bridge. The rest of the way is through a slightly undulating country, with scarcely more than a village on the road.

BÉZIERS

is one of the busiest centres of the great wine industry of the Midi, and has been famous for its wines from Roman times until now. It was the scene of considerable excitement and rioting during

the crisis in the trade depression of two or three years ago. The site is a raised plateau, with steep ascents from the River Orb, and during the feudal period it was a place of great strength, first under its own lords, and then under the Viscounts of Carcassonne. In the latter period the town was besieged by Simon de Montfort, and was taken in July, 1209, a large proportion of the inhabitants being massacred, the lowest figures of those who perished being given as 20,000. Although Béziers has a healthy site and a wide, tree-shaded promenade named after Pierre-Paul Riquet, who was born in the town in 1604, and was the creator of the Canal du Midi, between Toulouse and Cette, yet the streets as a whole are narrow, and the atmosphere one breathes in passing through them is generally very unwholesome.

There is a thirteenth-century bridge of seventeen arches, which should be seen, and four churches, of which St. Nazaire, formerly the cathedral, is the most important. It was burnt in the siege of 1209, so that there are only slight remains of the early building. The transepts belong to the thirteenth century, and the choir, apse, and nave to the next. The façade has a fine rose-window, and in the choir the fourteenth-century windows are protected externally by wrought-iron grilles. The cloister, also of the fourteenth century, is a beautiful piece of work.

The other churches are--(1) St. Jacques, with a beautiful twelfth-century apse: (2) La Madelaine, where many of the townsfolk were killed in 1209, is a Romanesque building, altered and restored in the eighteenth century; (3) St. Aphrodise belongs to the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, and has a Romanesque crypt. The font at the west end is an early sarcophagus of marble, with a bas-relief, showing two infuriated beasts in combat.

The Canal du Midi crosses the Orb at Béziers on a big aqueduct, and considering that it was built as long ago as 1668, it should be looked upon with the deepest respect. Arthur Young, who was inclined to run down most of the things he saw in the South of France, grew enthusiastic over the Canal du Midi. ‘The Canal of Languedoc,’ he says, ‘is the capital feature of all this country.... Nine sluice-gates let the water down the hill to join the river at the town--a noble work! The port is broad enough for four large vessels to lie abreast.... This is the best sight I have seen in France.’

A fairly hilly country is passed through between Béziers and Pézenas, but there are no bad gradients on the road.

PÉZENAS

stands in a narrow plain, of such great fertility, owing to the volcanic properties of the soil, that it is called the Garden of Hérault. It was a Roman colony, and Pliny mentions the excellence of its woollen stuffs.

A bust of Molière reminds the passer-by that the famous playwright represented his first works in the town during the winter of 1656, and that it was here that he wrote ‘Les Précieuses Ridicules.’

A fifteenth-century gateway survives in the town, and there are some interesting houses of the same and the following centuries.

Leaving Pézenas, one crosses the railway twice, and then goes to the right for Montagnac, crossing the River Hérault.

Montagnac is a sad-looking town, with gloomy and dirty stuccoed houses; and one is glad to leave it behind, as one goes through the sunny hills towards Mèze, having, as one approaches that town, a great panoramic view over the land-locked Etang-de-Thau, with the Mediterranean showing beyond Cette. It is in this neighbourhood that one begins to notice the swords of the cactus, and the olive is seldom absent from the views. Aleppo pines grow picturesquely here and there, and a solitary cypress appears now and then.

It is hardly worth while to linger at Mèze, as there is little to see, and there are many places farther east where the time would be valuable. There is a pleasant run by the side of the sparkling blue waters of the Etang, followed by a rather uninteresting stretch of country to Montpellier, which is entered through a fine avenue of sycamores.