Day by the families
We thank for the hospitality and kind programme for all French families. Spending the weekend we leart how French people live at home. Families also arranged trips for different places for us, like to Beziers, Canal du Midi, Carcassonne etc.
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Carcassonne
On Sunday some children did a nice trip to a beautiful, unique fortress city Carcassonne together the families.
Lying on the narrowest part of the corridor separating the Pyrenees and the Massif Central, the hillfort of Carcassonne was of mayor strategic importance. It was a site of human habitation in the 11th century B.C. Then came the Gaults and finally the Romans who built a castle and ramparts. In 5th century, the Visigoths strenghtened the ramparts. After falling to the Saracen in 725 A.D, the town resisted siege by the Franks in the 750's. This episode in Carcassonne's history is the subject of a very popular local legend. When theMoorish chieftain died, his widow, Dame Carcas, had straw dummies placed along the battlements, dressed in the armour of dead soldiers. The Franks decided against attack and resolved instead to starve the inhabitantsinto submission. Soon all that remained to feed the besieged population was one barrel of food. Dame Carcas gave it all to a sow which she then threw over the walls. The discouraged Franks began negotiations.
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Beziers, the Canal du Midi
On 5 December 1996 the Canal du Midi was ranked on UNESCO's World Cultural and Natural heritage list. This event of great importance from an importance from a cultural and historical point of view, since it involves the recognition of an unavoidable site, unique of its kind. The Canal du Midi or Canal des deux Mers / Canal of the two seas/, which is the work of Pierre Paul Riquet links the Etang de Thau /S‚te/ to th river Garonne /Toulouse/. Construction of this canal lasted for 14 zears, from 1667 to 1681 and 15,000labourers were employed on it.
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