My friend Leigh came to visit me last week. Leigh has been my friend since the 1st day of 1st grade when patent leather shoes with buckles were things that only little girls wore to be cool. Now, my life in Montpellier has been pretty laid back this summer. I’ve really been telling myself (and the world) that I consider my time here to be like a long vacation - as if my life has been one long job and this is the equivalent of my two weeks a year. I mostly go to the beach, have picnics, eat a different cheese every day, write, and read french books for 12 year old girls (because I can understand them without consulting a dictionary for every other word).

But for my friend Leigh, who’s parents lovingly spent many many credits on her flight, I thought we should see a little bit more of the country. So off we went for day trips to Avignon and Carcassone in the Languedoc region of France (the region where I live) and The Rhone Valley.

To understand these little places in France it’s important to understand one basic idea that we all know but never thought about - France was not always ‘one country’. Unfortunately in the US (and anywhere else for that matter), we never learn world history before World War I. So, most of us are a little clueless. And as the history of Europe dates back to roman times, to me it is completely daunting to try and begin to understand the history of these varied countries.

The best way to learn history, I think, is just to go and see things for yourself. So, when you go to Nimes to see the roman aqueducts and the Pont du Gard, you can understand better how vast and impressive the Roman Empire really was. Living in Montpellier, I can understand the history and culture of the Catalans and Occittanes - two groups of people living in the now France and Spain with their own language and their own history.

And when you see a lovely castle or fortress in France, you can imagine yourself back a couple of hundred years when you lived in the protection of a great lord or family who spent most of its resources defending your little town from invaders.

If it’s a little difficult for you to make your way over to Europe in the near future, try just watching Lord of the Rings or something and pretending it’s France. It’s a similar idea. (okay, not really, but I LOVE those movies!)

Carcassone

Carcossone is a little bit like Jamestown, Virginia. It’s claim to fame is an old fortress called ‘Cite’ that was rescued from ruin a few hundred years ago and now seems like a little theme attraction - crowded with tourists but still fun and inspiring. After the wars of the “Cathars” the town was split into two, ville basse built near the the river, and the ‘Cite’ - a fortress stronghold built to ward off invaders.

Leigh and I took a rather expensive ($70!) train ride to Carcassone and wandered through the ville basse until we walked over a large lovely river to climb up to the fortress ‘Cite’. To say the place was crawling with tourists is an understatement (we went in the afternoon on a Monday and it was still packed). But, WE are tourists ourselves so we just had to accept rampage of tourist shops and little whining kids.

I highly recommend a guided tour of Chateau Comtal as our tour guide was so informative and could tell you where all the slippery steps are (i fell anyway). .

Here’s a link to the photos on my Picassa site -

Avignon

Avignon is also a little tourist stop in Southern France, although you’ll find yourself surrounded by far more Italians than anything else. Avignon can be labeled as an ancient “Rome” - 9 Popes of the Catholic Church built a huge palace here and lived for many years in the 13 and 1400’s. If you didn’t know, anywhere the popes install themselves is called “Rome”. (Nice little display of power). The popes built a huge
palace and owned the city for some time after they bought it from Joanna of Sicily who needed some dough to defend the rest of her territory.

Now, in addition to the Palais, you can visit a number of other museums and parks, or you can just walk around the little city as Leigh and I did, shopping for specialty woven table cloths and perfecting the art of wandering.