Corona stories: Corona stories, number 61 France 1992

Les Bonhommes

Traditionally the French Mediterranean coast is one of Europe’s most popular summer retreats. Millions of vacationers go there for their beach vacation and in July and August it can get incredibly busy. The magnificent walled city of Carcasonne turns into a terrible tourist trap once you are inside. The traffic jam around the lovely medieval port of Collioure is so terrible that it is better to abandon the car and take one of the infrequent trains into town. However, outside the high season the weather is still pleasant and it is far less crowded.

The charming town of Collioure was a favorite hangout of artists

The vacation feeling on parts of the coast and the mostly unoccupied mansions of the super-rich along the grande bleue are in stark contrast to the poverty of some of the population in particular immigrants mostly from former French colonies in the Maghreb and central Africa. Parts of Marseille, Nice, Narbonne or Montpellier look more like busy bazaar neighborhoods in Tunisia, Algeria or Morocco. There is little integration of these mostly Muslim immigrants and it is not really surprising that poverty and despair lead to radicalism. As a consequence the grande bleue has been part of the frontier in the war the Islamic state has declared on the Christian world. How this is supposed to improve their fate is unclear.

Abandoned village in the massif centrale

In September 1992 I had the pleasure to attend a French course at the university of the lovely town of Montpellier. I went there by car. After a most enjoyable number of days of crossing the whole massif centrale from north to south I arrived on the parking lot of the part of the university where the course was to take place. The participants stayed in the student accommodation on the campus. I grabbed my back-pack and went to the reception desk to register and get the key. Waiting with me was a guy in swimming shorts, slippers, a t-shirt and a plastic shopping bag. I made a remark about his light outfit and luggage. He told me that he had, before registering, spent the morning on the beach and when he came back to his car a window had been smashed and all his luggage was gone. What he was wearing and what he had in the plastic bag was what he had bought to not arrive at the campus in only the swimming trunks and bath towel.

One of the typical fragile looking bridges

The university had issued warnings to beware of thieves. They advised to keep doors locked at all times, remove everything from parked cars and avoid walking at night with valuables. I was a bit concerned since I had arrived in a brand new car. I took the ignition cable off and left the doors of the car open. Nothing happened during the stay of three weeks.

However, the poor chap in the swimming trunks was followed by his bad luck. His car, open since the back window was broken, was stolen after a couple of days.

In 1992 the R4, one of the characteristic french cars, was still a common sight

In the weekends I took my camping gear and my ignition cable and went on road trips. Next to the scenic landscape of the southern rim of the massif centrale the area called the Languedoc Roussillon has a wealth of historic landmarks like monasteries, medieval towns and villages and castles. The latter a consequence of a violent history.

The right middle image of the tympanum of the cathedral of Bourges shows what will happen to the infidel and sinner at the last judgment

The south of France has a long tradition of conflicts between people of colliding faiths. What changed from time to time was the definition who the infidels were. In 732, Karel Martell stopped the advance of the Umayyad Caliphate led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor of al-Andalus in the battle of Tours. But although in the following centuries the Moors were driven back into Spain and finally had to leave Europe, the plague of frequent attacks of pirates ransacking the French Mediterranean coast stayed.

Cathedral Saint Cecile de Albi towers above the medieval town

However, the departure of the Moors did not prevent the Christian world from their own, internal religious war. Although they existed allover Europe, in the 12th to 13th century the community of the Cathars had become especially strong in south western France. Originally they were called Albigenser after the town of Albi, where they had many supporters and next to Toulouse, Carcassonne and Agen one of their bishops. The Cathars denied the shameless self-enrichment practiced by the catholic church. They rejected church taxes, but also dogmas and sacraments like baptism, marriage, confession and the eucharist. Starting point for their ideology was the dualism of good and evil. The good god ruled over the invisible world while the visible world was the creation of Satan. On earth, men were imprisoned in their bodies. Salvation was only possible by consolamentum, laying the hand on the head of the moribund. The soul was relieved from the body to allow it to return to heaven to avoid another detention in a different mortal body. These Bonhommes spent celibate, vegetarian lives doing public good to become Parfaits. The parfaits proclaimed strict pacifism.

The city walls of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert stretch right up to the fortress on the crest

The pilgrims church of St Guilhem and the market square

The ideology of the cathars was a thorn in the side of pope Innozenz III. In 1208 he announced a crusade and an army under the leadership of Simon de Montfort started moving south from Lyon in 1209. The pope got support from the French king who for a long time had resented the independence of the rulers in the south. In July 1209 Simon de Montfort appeared at the gates of the city of Beziers and demanded to hand over 222 cathars. However, the catholics in the town supported the cathars and refused.

The cathedral of Bezier above the Orb river

On July 21st 1209 the crusaders entered the poorly defended city through the open gates. At the time the city had a population of 10.000-14.500. Some of them might have left before the attack. The invaders plundered the city, set fire on the houses while many of the inhabitants, cathars and catholics alike, took shelter in the churches, in particular the cathedral de Saint Nazaire. However, the churches were not suitable refuges. The crusaders broke the doors open and killed who was inside while

Reports that the massacre of Beziers caused 20000 victims are probably exaggerated. But even the more real number of 7000 is quite shocking. The town was destroyed to such a degree that the invaders left right after the victory. The cathedral burned down. It took until 1215 until the repairs started.

Inside the cathedral of Beziers

The cloister of the cathedral was never completely rebuilt.

From Beziers, the crusaders moved on to Carcassonne and Toulouse. Even the death of Simon de Montfort, who was killed by a stone hurled from the walls of Toulouse by a woman, did not stop them. Count Raymond VI of Toulouse supported the case of the Cathars, but yielded when facing the enemies’ army, to protect his own case. Nevertheless even in 1235 the magistrate of the town was still able to expel the inquisition.

The impressive ramparts of Carcassonne hide the tourist trap in the interior

The palm tree vaulting of the church of the Jacobins in Toulouse was finished at the end of the 13th century, after the Cathars

Meanwhile the Cathars had retreated to a string of remote mountain fortresses and villages between Carcassonne and what now is the Spanish border. Most of these fortresses still exist, however, only small parts actually date back to the time of the Cathars. Most were rebuilt to serve as border fortification against the Spanish kingdom of Aragon. What they all have in common is that they are perched in an impossible position on rugged mountain ridges. Impressive Peyrepertuse was abandoned already in 1209 without a fight since the occupants did not have provisions. The two strongholds closeby did not last much longer. The oldest part of Puilaurens dates back to the 11th century. Neighboring Puivert mainly dates back to the 13-14th centuries. Many Cathars retreated to the castle of Monsegur, high up at 1207 m in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Finally Montsegur fell in March 1244. 200 of its inhabitants ended up on the pyre. However, the Cathars still held out secretly in some places. The last castle they occupied until 1255 was Queribus. However, secretly they survived in some of the hidden villages. One of them was the village of Montaillou. Eventually the inquisition got notice of what was going on. Detailed 14th century records of the ensuing investigations are preserved. The historian and writer Le Roy Ladurie has retold the history in his book Montaillou, Cathars and Catholics in a French village, 1294-1324.

Entrance to the gorge de Galamus on the route de pays cathare

A touristic route, les routes de pays cathare, links the different sites between Beziers and the spanish border in the Pyrenees. Many of the Bonhommes fled across the mountains to what at the time was the kingdom of Aragon, where they felt safer. While passing the string of mountain fortresses the route also takes in some remarkable natural sites. One is gorge de Galamus, where the road is hacked into the vertical cliffs on one side of a narrow valley. There is not enough space for two lanes. Fortunately there is little traffic in September and thirty years ago it was no problem to make frequent stops and take in the view without blocking the traffic. From time to time I pass historic bridges which look so fragile that it is a miracle they did not yet collapse. I stayed at the municipal camp grounds and sometimes was the only guest.

The fortress of Queribus was the last stronghold of the Cathars

Even more than in other european countries the countryside in France runs empty. Many of the farms too small to make a living were abandoned and the buildings in ruins. In some of the villages most of the houses are empty. I visit friends who have bought a house in a remote valley in the Cevennes. The only houses still in use have been bought by people like my friends from faraway as a summer retreat and DIY pastime. The only permanent occupants in their valley is a gay couple with a child in the village at the end of the road. The loss of permanent residents has led to the loss of infrastructure and shops. What is left has to live from tourism. In the village of Montsegur at the base of the castle the population has dropped from once around 1000 to 125. Butcher, bakery and vegetable shop have disappeared. In winter when there are no tourists most of what is left shuts down as well.

The castle of Montsegur

View down on the village of Montsegur, where 200 Cathars ended on the pyre

On sunday evenings I returned back to University for the classes. The rooms in the students home were basic and a bit run-down. The locks were solid but not entirely trustworthy. A skilled burglar would know how to deal with them and there were traces of repairs of previous attempts on some doors. But there was a little hotel safe inside the room. Unfortunately it was too small for my camera equipment. Since it was no option to leave anything in the car I left the camera in the garbage bin under the garbage bag. Nobody broke into my room and I didn’t loose anything during my stay.

The castle of Puylaurens

One, pretty, girl had a bit of a problem. Every night somebody came to her door, demanded her to open and whispered obscenities. At a certain point we learned about her problem. I recommended a visit to the gendarmerie. But some tough guys among the other participants of the course were more in favor of direct action. The next night when the guy scratched at the girl’s door, the door opened. But he did not have a very romantic welcome. The guy never came back and was never seen around the campus any more.

The fortress of Peyrepertuse is visible from far away

In the time of the Cathars Peyrepertuse was an entire town on the crest of the mountain

We spent most of the evenings in a bar or brasserie in town and had fun, however, without big success of trying out our newly acquired language knowledge on the local girls. Against all the warnings I usually walked the long way back to the campus and hardly never saw anybody. Obviously everybody else in Montpellier observed the warnings against going out at night. Except of one of those tough guys. One morning he did not appear for the lesson. After some inquiries it turned out that he had been arrested by the police. It took a couple of days until he was released and we learned about what had happened. He had started walking back to university in the middle of the night when a car stopped next to him and asked whether he wanted to have a ride. He got into the back seat and noticed that the back window was missing. After the guys had taken off, a police car appeared from behind and they made for a run. When they tried to cross a roundabout the direct way the car got stuck. The two guys in the front seat got out and fled on foot. The tough guy could not get out fast enough from his back seat and the police got him. The car was stolen. In fact it was the car stolen from the unlucky guy in the swimming trunks. Of course the police thought that our mate was the accomplice of the two guys who got away and probably participated in stealing the car. He did not have an ID on him and their interest was mainly in finding out the names of his companions in the car. Eventually they got the confirmation from the university that they were missing somebody and released him.

The charming castle of Puivert

Like most of the others it was rebuilt after the Cathars were gone

The next religious turmoil came to France with the Reformation. However, with the edict of Nantes, Henry VI guaranteed religious liberty to his protestant subjects, the Huguenots, in 1598. For a while, religious unrest in France was settled. However, already in 1685 the Edict was renounced by Ludwig XIV in the edict of Fontainbleau. Many Huguenots left the country. Since they frequently were skilled artisans they were welcome in other countries. Rulers in Prussia and other protestant parts of Germany and Denmark invited them to settle and cities were especially found for them (see Corona story number 57, https://h-s-coronastories.blogspot.com/2021/02/number-57-germany-2010.html). A good example in history how refugees can be a useful complement and integrate into an existing society.

Entrance to the cathedral of Montpellier

The medieval atmosphere of the time of the Cathars in the 13th century is well captured in Henri Gougaud’s historic novel Belibaste. Guilhem Bélibaste is an inhabitant from Corbières, a Cathar and a simple and honest man. Being threatened with being handed over to the inquisition he murders a man. Bélibaste is an anti-hero, a Cathar "parfait" and a martyr in spite of himself.