Aix-en-Provence, Marseilles and Carcassonne

Betsy took another “rest her foot” day. The good news is that it is getting better. The bad news is that she missed Aix-en-Provence and Marseilles. Fortunately, Rick did visit Aix. Aix has interesting architecture, some dating back to the Romans in the 4^th century. Aix is also known for its most famous resident, Paul Cezanne.

The first picture is along the Grand Cours Mirabeau, a wide avenue built where the city’s ramparts stood. It is shaded by 200-year-old trees. This is a 17^th  or 18^th century mansion with a wonderful entry. Most of these mansions now house banks and restaurants.  The wide streets are home to beautiful fountains, as shown in picture 2, which is located at the end of the boulevard shown in picture 1.

But the city also has many narrow streets from older times that are great for wandering. The next picture shows a gate into the older, or Mazarin, Quarter, which dates from the 17^th century.

The following 2 pictures are from St. Sauveur Cathedral. It has many contrasting architectural styles from its many additions and renovations from the 5^th to the 18^th centuries. The second picture is from the Baptistry, which incorporates Roman pillars from the 4^th century.

The last picture from Aix shows electric taxis/tourist cars that carry tourists about the city.

While Rick wandered off to Aix, the ship remained in Marseilles and the next picture is a view from the deck, of a 19^th century church—Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde—that sits 500 feet above the city and was built on an ancient fortress. It is known for its beautiful mosaics. Next time….

The next day our ship docked at the small port of Sete, which cannot be accessed by ships much larger than ours. We chose to leave the area and take the lengthy bus ride to Carcassonne—great choice!

There are walled cities and there are WALLED CITIES. This was the latter. It is intact, although the inner city has been spoiled by souvenir shops and restaurants. But it still gives you a wonderful medieval feeling. It was built over the ruins of a former Roman fortress and served as a center for launching crusades in the 13^th century. The “new city” surrounding the fortress was added in the 14^th century, when the common folks were kicked out by the powers at that time.

The fortress has a double wall plus moat for protection. With gates and portcullis’ and a crooked drawbridge to slow attackers down, it was pretty impervious to attack. The first picture is the triple-towered Narbonne Gate, which is the main entrance. Picture 2 shows both the inner and outer walls.  Pictures 3 and 4 show 2 of the many towers, both containing part of the original Roman wall.

The next picture shows the bust of Dame Carcas, town heroine (and obviously the butt of schoolyard jokes, given her name). Charlemagne laid siege to Carcassonne in the Middle Ages for 5 years. Her husband, a Saracen King, was killed during this lengthy battle, so she was left in charge. She put together straw dummies and fired longbows herself to make Charlemagne’s army think there were many people left. When the food got down to a small pig and a small amount of grain, she killed the pig and filled its stomach with grain. She then threw the pig from the ramparts and it burst open upon landing. When Charlemagne saw that the people under siege were feeding their pigs precious grain, he gave up the siege because he assumed they still had lots of grain. Dame Carcas summoned Charlemagne and peace was made. Truth or legend? It makes a good story!

The next 2 pictures show the decommissioned Cathedral and one of the really great gargoyles. The bishop has moved to the town below, so this is no longer a fully-functioning church. It has beautiful stained glass and really gloomy interior.

Finally, we had Cassoulet for lunch. The area is famous for this version, which contains duck and pork sausage, along with the traditional white beans. It was a cool, gloomy day that felt like fall and this dish was perfect. Note: the vegetarians only tasted the meat—it tasted pretty good!!!!