A Day in Beziers

Besiers (pronounced bez E A) is the closest city to me. It is only about 15 minutes away now that the nearby freeway #75 has been completed. For no particular reason last year I really spent no time there other than going back and forth to the train station. So yesterday I decided to check it out a little more closely and I liked what I found.
Beziers is a mighty old city. It has been inhabited since Neolithic times and later was an early Roman settlement. From 720 – 752 the Moors ruled it. But the most well known part of its ancient history is what happened in Beziers in 1209 during what is known as the Albigensian Crusades.
This region was not part of France at that time. The area which stretched from the Southern Pyrenees on the west, Toulouse to the north, the Mediterrean to the south and Montpellier to the east was known the Midi and ruled by several different counts in various places (e.g., Beziers, Carcassone, Montpellier, and Toulouse). Although it was generally Catholic it was very tolerant of other religions. There was a substantial Jewish population. A new Christian religion, Catharism or “The Good Men”, was growing quickly.
The Cathars believed in the doctrines of Christianity but objected to Papal rule and many formalities of the Catholic Church. The favored more simplicity and direct prayer between the people and God. I always assumed that the Crusades of the Middle Ages were focused on non-Christian religions. Not so, what happened in Southwest France I find quite shocking.
A large army of French soldiers, led by a papal legate (the Abbot of Citeaux) traveled south to kill the “heretics” (the Jews and Cathars). When I was a child and heard the hymm “Onward Christian Soldiers” this is certainly not what I envisioned. What happened in Beziers was ordered specifically by the Abbot.
The ruler of Beziers was told the City would be spared if he would send all the heretics out to be killed. The ruler refused the offer and stood alongside the Jews and Cathars who were an integral part of the Beziers community.
First the city was attacked from the outside and French soldiers overwhelmed Beziers quickly. Inside they began slaughtering all the people they came upon men, women, and children. When the soldiers asked the Abbot if they were supposed to treat Catholics any differently the Abbot reportedly said, “Kill them all, God will know his own.” While the Beziers men were attempting to defend the City, the women and children took refuse in the Cathedral. It was set on fire by the soldiers and eventually collapsed killing everyone inside. All inhabitants of the city were killed – estimated at 20,000 and this dreadful day.

A pretty courtyard and a set of commercial paella pans. Paella is a big thing here - actually as much if not more so than in Spain. When you look back at the history it is easy to see that the south is more associated with Spain than it is with the North of France. The culture is very different.

This is the main square of the city. It is a busy and attractive place.

Most of the cities here have a merry go round near the main square.

Most old cities have these covered open markets where vendors sell all manner of food items. I saw a large one in Barcelona and one in Riga, Latvia. The french call these Les Halles. There was one in Paris and the name remains but it is now an underground shopping mall.

The yellow sign indicates that they have bull meat on sale today.

There is a lot of space isn't presently occupied. Probably means things are looking too good for this type of business now. People go to supermarkets.

I had a nice lunch of oysters in a café on the large central square. The actual food preparation was done across the busy street in a storefront location. This meant that the wait staff had to run back and forth through traffic to deliver the food. I’ve never thought of food service as being a dangerous profession but at this place it was. However, my oysters didn’t come through traffic. I saw the waiter bringing them from the small shellfish stand across the square. I probably could have gotten them a lot cheaper if I had purchased them directly from the vendor.

Here is the stand where my waiter got the oysters.





My next posts will be from Spain. I am taking a vacation from my vacation by driving over the French Pyrenees to the Atlantic coast and then driving southwest along the coast in Spain. I’m looking forward to it as I’ve never been to this area before. A new adventure. It seems time to do it. It feels like summer is ending and the vendange is in full swing which is actually very noisy at “my house” since I’m on the main drag through town and the harvest here is done with huge and load machines.