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FRANCE 2012
Carcassonne to Toulouse
Day 19, Friday, Sept 21
Unfortunately our day started a little early. The phone in our room
rang at 5:00 am. No one was there when we answered it. About 10
minutes later, it happened again. We figured it must have been the last
person’s
wake call that had not been cancelled; however, either one of
us went back to sleep but we didn’t get up until about 8:00. Breakfast
was nice in a beautiful old room. Our hotel was part of the original
buildings inside the old "cite" walls.
BASILICA OF ST. NAZAIRE AND ST. CELSE
The weather was very overcast and looked like rain, and it was
cold. We wanted to see the
Basilica of St. Nazaire and St. Celse
before leaving so
we walked several blocks to it. The first church
there dates back to 925. The present church can be divided into two
parts: the Romanesque nave dating from the 11th and 12th, and the Gothic
transept and choir dating from the 13th and 14th century. The Basilica
was a cathedral church until 1801. The fate of the Cathedral parallels
that of the fortress ,as the lower town grew in importance so the
importance of the upper town or the Citadel declined. It was quite large
on the inside with beautiful stained glass windows.
As we enter the Romanesque nave, we find massive columns
consisting of square appears flanked by four half columns and of massive
circular pillars. The nave consists of six bays. The transepts
and the
choir have pointed arches in the sanctuary vault looks as if it is
supported by stained-glass windows. There are 22 statues dating from the
first quarter of the 14th century attached to the columns of the
sanctuary. There is an arcade running around the sanctuary, which is
roof by pointed arches supporting the stained-glass windows of the
choir. There was a quartet of young men singing- they sang a couple of
very nice tunes. About 15 minutes later they started again. They had
CD’s for sale but we didn’t buy one.
We went back to the hotel and checked out. The little van
picked us up, and took us down to the parking lot which was another
exciting adventure that made us happy that we didn’t try to drive in the
Cite.
Our plan for today was to head further south into more of the
Cat
har country. This part of France borders Spain and the Pyrenees
mountains. Near Limoux the weather began to clear some. Our first stop
at 12:30 was in small town of Limoux the population of 9800. We drove
through some very narrow streets and found a parking lot. The town had
a very large church, with a wonderful spire, right on the town square.
It was locked so we couldn’t get in.
There were several cafes on the square – which was the scene of a
market of purses, fabrics and other things. We each had a quiche and
salad and a delightful sidewalk Café with a view of th
e many activities
taking place in the market.
We drove from Limoux to Pamiers. The scenery was unbelievable plus
the weather had cleared and we rejoiced in nice blue skies again. We
went over another mountain on a narrow two lane road. The vistas were
breath taking.
We soon arrived at a little town, Mirepoix, which has a population
of 3,000. We had read a lot about Mirepoix in our readings on the
Cathars. In the 13th century, many Cathars settled in the town of
Mirepoix, including the seigneur, Pierre Roger de Mirepoix who played an
important role in the defense of Montsegur during the 1243 siege.
However, in 1209 Simon de Montfort had handed the city over to one of
his lieutenants, Guy de Levis. Shortly thereafter Mirepoix was
devastated by a flood from a nearby lake. Jean,
the son of Guy de Levis,
rebuilt the town in a safer place and built the bastide we see today.
We found the Cathedral of St. Maurice , with a wonderful Gothic
spire which was begun in 1343 and finished in 186
5. The cathedral was
located on the town square.
There was restoration being done. The
nave, which is 16th century, is the widest (104 feet) of any of the
French Gothic churches. It felt really large, huge! It was quite
beautiful on the inside with many colorful stained glass windows.
On one
of the side aisles was a display of six wooden m
odels of the various
stages of development of the C
athedral of St. Maurice.
The town square and surrounding streets were very picturesque
with the building painted in light shades of pink, blue, greens etc
with old wood shatters and some decorated iron balconies. It was one of
the prettiest little towns that
we have visited. It looked different
than anything we have seen in France.
We still were half a hour from Pamiers and almost 2 hours from
Toulouse. We came to Pamiers and drove through the town but didn’t see
the cathedral and there was no place to park, so we decided to drive on
to Toulouse.
We made it to Toulouse with our trusty TomTom (GPS) and found our
apartment with a minimum of trouble. Toulouse is the 4th largest city
in France with over 1.2 million people. One of its biggest industries
is Airbus.
Kathleen had booked this apartment, an Adagio apartment
hotel. Most of the other residents of this
hotel/apartments are
training at Airbus, and are here on a short term basis. It is a huge
modern building.
We parked the car in the complex’s parking garage which was
quite an adventure. We had thought about going to a store to buy
breakfast supplies, but we decided that we are only there for four
mornings – the 4th morning our plane leaves at 8:30- that it probably
would be more economical to eat downstairs and enjoy the Adagio's
breakfast than to buy coffee, cereal and things that we would have to
throw away when we left. Last year most of our stops were in
apartments and we carried some food with us.
We had dinner reservation several blocks away at the Colombier a
very attractive restaurant with white tablecloths which seem to be full
of locals. It is famous for it cassolett so for the second night in a
row that was Kathleen's choice. I had wonderful scallops with
risotto. We walked back to the hotel. Toulouse is a very busy town.
