ghbourhood may go and study it all out for
themselves. It will be worth whole volumes on history and
architecture for the earnest student to see these things. Among all
the authorities who have proclaimed the magnificent attractions of
Carcassonne the words of Viollet-le-Duc are as convincing as any. He
says: "In no part of Europe is there anything so formidable, nor at
the same time so complete, as the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
century fortifications of Carcassonne."

We stayed a full day at Carcassonne, and reached the frowning
battlements of the Eglise St. Nazaire, at Beziers, at just two by the
clock. This is the hour when all the _commis-voyageurs_, who may have
taken lunch at the Hotel du Nord, are dozing over their _cafe_ and
_petites verres_, and the _patron_ and _patronne_ of the hotel are
making preparations for their early afternoon siesta, an attribute of
all the Midi of France, as it is of Spain.

Nothing loath, the kitchen staff, spurred on by the _patron_ (all
thoughts of his siesta having vanished), turned out a most excellent
lunch, _hors d'oeuvres_, fresh sardines, omelette, _cotelette
d'agneau_ with _pommes paille_, delicious grapes, and all you wish of
the red or white _vin du pays_. All for the absurd sum (considering
the trouble they were put to) of three francs each. No "_doing_" the
automobilist here; let other travellers make a note of the name!

Beziers is altogether one of the most remarkably disposed large towns
of the south of France. Its storied past is lurid enough to please
the most bloodthirsty, as is recalled by the history of its
fortress-church of St. Nazaire, now the cathedral. For the rest the
reader must hunt it out in his guide-book. We were doing no lightning
tour, but we were of a mind to sleep that night at Perpignan,
approximately a hundred kilometres farther on.

Southward our road turned again, through Narbonne, which, both from
its history and from its present-day importance, stands out as one of
the well-remembered spots in one's itinerary of France. It is full of
local colour; its bridge of houses over its river is the delight of
the artistic; its Hotel de Ville and its cathedral are wonders of
architectural art; and, altogether, as the ancient capital of an
ancient province, one wonders that a seventeenth-century traveller
had the right to call it "_cette vilaine ville de Narbonne._"

All the way to Perpignan the roads were terrifically bad, being cut
up in