"A road trip in sunny southern France" Top 5 Page for this destination Languedoc-Roussillon by kokoryko

Languedoc, langue d’Oc, Occitania. The northern centralists kings, and then the Jacobin republic gave the name of Languedoc to this area of Occitania where the language is Oc. This page is about the Languedoc-Roussillon Region, a quarter of Occitania where this language, with some variants was spoken by the majority of people until the end 19th century when the Republic sent its new crusaders, the teachers and administration employees to force the locals to adopt French as everyday language.
Crusaders? These modern crusaders came with books, knowledge, new culture, new language, but, if some resistance has been noticed here or there, this modern crusade was rather peaceful.
It was not the case during the famous Cathar Crusade, Cathars wars, Albigeois wars, few centuries before. . . In Languedoc you are in the heart of the area where the Cathar wars were the longest and the most violent.
We all now (at least on this website) speak one language which is very good in the modern global world (I mean, one language, and it happens to be English), but is it not a pity that so many languages get lost, languages expressing our diversity, our different ways to look at world and life? When you learn a foreign language you have less time to learn your parent’s language. . . . , and so one of the richness of humanity disappears for ever or is just kept in books, like many “dead languages”.
In centralist France, most local languages have disappeared or are about to disappear; now French is the mother tongue of all kids in France, which was not the case when I attended my first school day in the place where I grew up: kids arrived at school, not understanding what the teacher told them (I do not tell of myself who spoke only German when I arrived at school) . . . . . I am not backward-looking, we have to adapt to the changing world, but it saddens me a bit that official representatives comply “white sheepy” rules or just fashion in order to speak English, and not their home language during interviews or official speeches, as if they should be ashamed to speak their mother tongue! . . . There are translators, after all, no?
When you discover Languedoc today, when you leave the coast, you will travel through beautiful landscapes where sometimes you will not distinguish the castles from the cliffs, smell the perfumes of the woods and wilds flowers in the shrub lands, discover small villages and their live festivals, open hearted people, and cities full of history and beautiful monuments, history dating back to the Roman who learned the locals to grow grapes and make the wonderful Bacchus’s beverage.

Carcassone and vineyards

The cities of Languedoc are very diverse and have all a strong personality, linked to their history; Beziers, the martyr town of the crusade against the Cathars, Montpellier (not “featured” here), the intellectual city, Carcassonne with its beautiful fortified Cité, Narbonne, the former capital city of the Roman colonies in Southern Gallia, . . . . The villages are a bit more than just villages, there are old houses, castles, rugby teams, cooperative wineries, and ALWAYS a square where the plane trees provide shade to the pétanque players. . . .
Wineyards covering the hills and plains contribute to the characteristic landscape of the countryside, but green oak forests, Aleppo pine bordered alleys, cypresses spotting the hills are giving its character to the countryside too. Driving on the small roads, walking in the villages or the fields, having a drink in the shade of plane trees, discussing the qualities of this scrum half or that prop, talking about the next grape harvest, joking about the last escapade of the local politician,. . . . are more than enjoyable when visiting Languedoc.

PeYrepertuse, citadel of vertigo

And there are the “Citadels of Vertigo” (Thanks to Michel Roquebert, the historian who published “Citadelles du vertige”, in 1966, with photographer J.C. Soula), the Cathar castles, so mysterious and impressive, lighthouses on their cliffs, landmarks in the high waves of the Pyrenean foothills. Only for the Cathar castles, Languedoc is worth a long visit, and visiting them, not only takes into fresh air, history, but also gives a lot to think about humanity, power, “opium of people”, and may sometimes get you in mystic mood. . . . . And in Languedoc is also a Desert, there are cities of Templars, natural wonders and beautifully carved landscapes, areas of wilderness, beautiful cities . . . . Let’s make a tour in that so endearing country. . . . . and meet a strange bagpiper, a virgin you will have difficulty to believe she was one (virgin), have a rest at beautiful waterfalls after looking at breathtaking canyons, hear about funny saints, sleep next to the walls of a famous Cathar Castle, and lots more.
The Cevennes mountains which had a prominent influence on my future life when I discovered them long ago will be presented in a separate page; here we will essentially travel (by road with numerous stops and hikes) in the area where the Cathars left their influence, their famous castles and the cities they inhabited. . . .

• In a nutshell:If you don't visit one day, you will have missed something. .