Day 70: Carcassonnne - Toulouse, France

Today was another great day of being a tourist.  We woke up pretty early, at 7am, to eat breakfast so we could be ready to go a 9:30 am, right when the chateau opened. 

Here is a picture of our hostel.  It had 6 beds, and it only cost us 13€ each!

At 9:30, we went on a tour of the fortified chateau built primarily by the powerful Trenceval family, who ruled over the city for 3 generations.  The tour also included the North Ramparts, built by the Romans, and some of the other defenses. 

Today the weather actually was beautiful, and there was a great view from the top of the castle.  The red rooftops in the distance are the lower city.

There was a lot of great detail in the stone carvings.  This was probably a very nice place to live.

The courtyard of the Trenceval family home.

Looking across the roof of the rampart to a tower.

The first major fortifications of Carcassonne were built by the Romans in the 4th century.  The constructed what is now the inner defensive wall, and four defensive towers.  These defenses eld for many years with some expansion and reconstruction.  After the city fell in siege in 1209, the cities new owners, the Trenceval family set about bolstering the defenses.  The chateau was built inside the inner wall.  A taller keep was raised, and additional towers were added to the inner wall.  The second, outer wall was also built.  There was also an arm of the wall extending from the city to a defensive structure near the river.  This round structure prevented enemy movement on or control of the river.  

The tower is one of those built by the Romans in the 4th century.

Basically, by the mid 1200's nobody dared attack Carcassonne.  The city could not fall and everybody knew it, so these reinforced defenses never saw any major military action.  Ironically, this also spelled death for the city.  Because the city was no longer a major military target, the garrison housed there shrunk and the city lost power.  Around the same time, Carcassonne, and it's land was given to the King of France, and it was no longer directly on the Spanish border, greatly reducing the cities significance.  The gentry began moving out of the city and into the more modern Lower City. 

By the mid 1800's the city was falling apart.  The space between the walls was filled with a shanty town, the structures were being used as a stone quarry, and the French government was considering demolishing the entire city.  This led to a large public outcry, and a massive, 50 year restoration project to bring the city to its former glory. 

What was the great hall of the Trenceval family.  You can see rafters sticking out of the wall, and the bases for support columns.  This explains the fireplace that now sits 12 feet off the ground. 

After the tour, we spent some time doing a little shopping in the town.  I BOUGHT PRESENTS!! We then headed towards the train station.  We found a massive market in the Lower City.  There were two squares full of vendors.  One was for people selling merchandise, and the other was a farmer's market.  It was an incredibly vibrant scene.  In Toulouse, we had a two hour wait for our train to Pau, so we set out to explore the city.  We weren't actually that adventurous.  We went to see St. Sernin's Basilica. It is a really beautiful building.  The oldest parts of the structure were built in the late 4th century.  It was greatly expanded during Charlemagne's reign (768-800).

I think it is an interesting mix of regional and Gothic architecture. 

Vaults in the transept.

 This building was also restored under the direction of the same architect who oversaw the restoration of Toulouse.  Many of the alterations he made here are being undone to restore the buildings original appearance.  Across the street, Forrest noticed a sculpture museum, and we decided to check it out.  Entry was free for us because we are French university students, so we went in. 

Le musée St. Raymond

It turns out Toulouse was the site of a major Roman city, and the museum houses a collection of Roman sculpture, mosaics, architecture, and artifacts.  It is not very big, but the collection is very cool.  Most of the artifacts came from the museum site, or very nearby.  In the basement of the museum the museum building, a crypt was discovered.  It has been added to the museum, and there is a collection of stone carved sarcophagi.  It was very cool.

One of the galleries in the museum. 

 When we finished at the museum, we head back to the gare and caught our train back to Pau.  We had a compartment with 8 seats to ourselves, so it was nice to relax and sleep and chat and whatever else we did.  It was a fantastic day and a fantastic trip.