. Travels in the Pyrenees : including Andorra and the coast from Barcelona to Carcassonne. NE I. La Ville Basse The modern town at thefoot of La Cite is scarcelyless attractive and interest-ing in its way than thesplendid fortress on thehill. It is only relativelymodern, for its founda-tions were laid by , and it bore thebrunt of a terrible visitfrom the Black Prince,who burnt it almost to theground. We marched,wrote Sir John Wingfield,one of the companions ofthe Prince, through theSeignory of Tholouse, andtook many towns enclosedbefore we came to Carcassonne, which we also took—a town
. Travels in the Pyrenees : including Andorra and the coast from Barcelona to Carcassonne. NE I. La Ville Basse The modern town at thefoot of La Cite is scarcelyless attractive and interest-ing in its way than thesplendid fortress on thehill. It is only relativelymodern, for its founda-tions were laid by , and it bore thebrunt of a terrible visitfrom the Black Prince,who burnt it almost to theground. We marched,wrote Sir John Wingfield,one of the companions ofthe Prince, through theSeignory of Tholouse, andtook many towns enclosedbefore we came to Carcassonne, which we also took—a towngreater, stronger, and fairer than York. But as well this asall the towns in the country (which we took) were burnt,plundered, and destroyed. At Carcassonne Thibaud de Barbazon the Seneschal hungchains across the streets to stop the rush of the knights, butthe Princes fiery valour bore all before him. Quarter of amillion gold crowns were offered him as a ransom, butrefused, and the lower town was given to the flames. Thiscircumstance is well remembered in Carcassonne to this day. 326. THE CHAPEL, ST. PAUL DE FENOUILLET CARCASSONNE 327 One steps into it from the railway-station, across theCanal du Midi—old seventeenth-century water with itsromantic name*—and is at once in the midst of theJardin des Plantes, with its great umbrageous trees, itssplashing fountains, its flowers, and its light. Here is theold inn of St. Jean-Baptiste, musty and brown, like someold posting inn in England, with its carved wooden staircaseand brass ball heads ; and yet of the South, with its creamytiles, and patio full of palms and figs and lemon-trees. Thesite, as everyone in Carcassonne hastens to tell you, isworthy of a modern grand hotel; but the old inn, whichhas been threatened for years, lingers on. Perhaps the goodcommercial folk of Carcassonne who wish to change it all,will realize in time that structural changes are not necessaryto provide the traveller with good cooking and clean rooms
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfranced, bookyear1913
