A picturesque French medieval town occupied by Romans, Vandals, and Visigoths. The ancient walls and castle and chateau was built during 1202. The views from the top of the castle are magnificant sweeping over the valley.
ST GUILHEM
Guilhem was the subject of several popular 12th century "Chansons du Geste" that combined his career with that of a dozen real and legendary warriors. According to legend after he lost a bit of his nose in battle with a giant Saracen. It is a pilgrimage destination even before Compostela, it is a gem of a honey-stoned village with narrow cobbled lanes and flower filled balconies surrounding the Abbey de Gellone.
The valley with the acqueduct linking two stone highways.
NIMES
The ancient Nemausus, is one of the finest places in the world for wandering among Roman relics. The city grew to prominence during the reign of Caesar Augustus (27BC - 14AD). It has one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters in the world and a perfect Roman temple. The city is more like Provence than Languedoc, where it lies.
By 1860, the togas of Nime's citizenry had long given way to denim, the cloth of Nimes. An Austrian immigrant to Nimes, Levi Strauss, exported the heavy fabric to California to make into work pants for gold-rush prospectors. The rest is history.......
The Maison Carree built during the reign of Caesar Augustus. Consisting of a raised platform with tall Corinthian columns, it's one of Europe's most beautiful, best preserved Roman temples. It inspiried Thomas Jefferson to build Montecello.
Amphitheatre Romain de Nimes is a better preserved twin of the one at Arles, and far more complete than Rome's Colosseum. It's two stories high, each floor has 60 arches, and was built of huge stones fitted together without mortar. It once held more than 20,000 spectators who came to see gladiatorial combat and wolfe or boar hunts.
Jardins de la Fontaine - one of the most beautiful gardens in France, and the Temple de Diane, opening up near the colosseum.
CARCASSONNE
Evoking bold knights, damsels, and troubadours, the greatest fortress city of Europe rises against a background of the Pyrenees. When one views Carcassonne from a distance it suggests fairy - tale magic.
Shattering the peace and quiet were battering rams,grapnels,a mobile tower - inspired by the Trojan horse.
The city served as a backdrop for the 1991 movie "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves".
The fortications consist of the inner and other walls, a double line of ramparts. the visigoths built the inner rampart in the 5th century. Clovis, king of the Franks, attacked it in 506 but failed to breach the fortifications.
The epic medieval poems "Chansons de Geste" tell the tale of the origin of the town's name. During a siege by Charlemagne, the populace of the city was starving and near surrender. A local woman, gathered the last of their grain, fed it to a sow, and then tossed to pig over the ramparts. The pig burst, scattering the grain. "Carcas te sonne" - Carcas is calling you. The Franks concluded that Carcassonne must have unlimited food supplies and ended their siege.
Basilique St Nazaire - dating from the 11th - 14th centuries and contains some beautiful stained-glass windows and a pair of rose medallions. The 16th century organ is one of the oldest in southwestern France. the 1266 tomb of Bishop Radulphe is well preserved.
THE CAMARGUE - "France's Cowboy Country"
The Camargue, where the cowboys of France ride the range, is an alluvial plain inhabited by wild horses, fighting black bulls, roaming Gypsies, pink flamingos and many types of various cowboy hats and boots stacked in stalls.
The cowboys (Gardians) wear large felt hats, and their ancestors may have been the first American cowboys, who sailed on Franch ships to the port of New Orleans, where they rode the bayous of Louisiana and east Texas rounding up cattle in French!! The proud snow white horses run freely through the marshlands with hoofs so tough, they don't need shoes. The breed was brought here by the Arabs. The small black bulls that are reared for the course Camarguais, a type of bull fighting where men in white run through the area with nothing but a knuckle-duster to protect them. Do we really believe that the French were cowboys before Texans were? What would John Wayne say to that?
--------AIGUES-MORTES----------
In the middle of swamps and lagoons, it is the most perfectly preserved walled town. Louis IX and his crusaders once set forth which was a thriving port, the first in France on the Mediterranean. The ramparts, Tour de Constance is a model castle of the Middle Ages.
Eglise Notre-Dame des Sablons. Constructed of wood in 1183, it was rebuilt in stone in 1246 in the ogival style. Its modern stained - glass windows were installed in 1980 as replacemnts for the badly damaged originals.
Ornithologique Parc de Pont de Gau-A good representations of the wildlife of the Camague is in this park. 148 acres of natural marshes. Nature trails through the bird sanctuary and hides allow an unusually close approach to many wetland spaces. The flamingos are particularly stunning and numerous.
----------SAINTES-MARIES DE LA MER-------
Capital of the Camargue. The city of three Mary's - Magdalene,Salome,Jacobe, these relics are the focus of devotion to the church and the city. Bob Dylan composed the song "One More Cup of Coffee" on his album "Desire", which he wrote during the annual "Roma" Gypsy festival.
The sea and the promanade along the coast are crowded with tourists during the summer months.
The weather in November was perfect. This area of France has 300 days a year of sunshine. The temperature in November was 55-60 degrees and sunshining - just like Dallas weather in the winter.
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