APRIL 17 TO 19, 2006
Astonishingly enough, I have never been to Carcassonne.
“What?! You’ve never been to Carcassonne!?” my French acquaintances always exclaim, with circumflexèd brows as if to emphasize the incredulity written on their faces. (Eyebrows are the punctuation marks of the language of our eyes.)
Well, I mumble, there are many more places to which I’ve never been than those to which I have, but quite frankly, I suppose they are right.
And, shamefacedly, I crawl back to my studio and get out all the books I have on Viollet-le-Duc and Carcassonne, and travel in my usual fashion, behind the wheel of the well-worn armchair of my imagination, the one that never needs new tires and a fill-up.
But, they are right.
It is inexcusable.
So, this will shortly be remedied.
Feeling positively like a pilgrim of circumstance, I am off to Carcassonne, where I’ll be attending a little children’s book fair on April 18th. And likely as not going for long hikes at dawn and dusk along the ramparts.
For more information, see the Carcassone web site.
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879), by the way, reinvented the Middle Ages back in the 19th century, and took it upon himself to restore, with a certain amount of licence, many of France’s great monuments. Carcassonne is his medieval “cité idéale” and perhaps his greatest achievement (or most resounding disaster if you number amongst his detractors). Much criticized for his unscientific and cavalier approach, much praised for his exhaustive but totally unreliable “Encyclopédie Médiévale”, he is now part of history and archaeology itself, and no matter what reproach one may have for his poetic interpretation of history, much of what he saved would now be road fill had be not intervened.
By the way, I heartily suggest “Viollet-le-Duc, The French Gothic Revival” by Jean-Paul Midant (L’Aventurine, Paris, March 2002 – ISBN2-914199-22-8). It is the only good book I know in English (there is of course a French edition too) on his life and work. At around 20 dollars, with hundreds of colour and black & white illustrations, it’s a perfect introduction to the subject. It SHOULD be on your shelf if you’re interested in the 19th century (alongside Barbara Tuchman’s “The Proud Tower”, amongst others).
And besides, his watercolour paintings are absolutely exquisite.
