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The Eglise Sainte Marthe, an important
historical, religious figure in the region. |
My trip to Tarascon went very well. The city is very nice, and the
weather was beautiful today. There was a market today so the first thing
we did (I went with one of the girls I met on the Student Exchange Association
trip) was go to the market.
After the market, we wandered around town a bit, it was very pretty. I saw the Church of Ste. Marthe, which is built over her tomb.
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| A view of the mythic Tarascon creature. |
The main attraction was of course the castle, the
seat of the kings
of Provence. Outside is a statue of the
Tarsque, the mythical river
monster Ste. Marthe defeated. She showed it a crucifix, then wrapped her
griddle around it and it became tame, allowing the villagers to kill it.
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| A view of the Tarascon castle |
The castle is very impressive; in quite good condition and as 'castley'
of a castle as one could want. It's not too expensive generally, and
it's free to enter for
students of art, art history, and architecture! That's me!
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| Inside the castle walls. |
After Tarascon became part of modern France, the castle was used for
various things, including (as with many of these ancient structures) a
prison. You can still see things the prisoners carved in the walls. It
seems that it was used mainly( or at least these were the ones the
carved the most) for English prisoners. One group was apparently sailors
on the Constantine, which was captured Feburary 1757 on the island
Maninca (I think that was the name) The other group was mainly around
1797, many from Hull, England.
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| A view overlooking Tarascon from the castle parapets. |
Across the river is the town of Beauclaire, which is also quite nice.
Apparently Beauclaire was not part of the Kingdom of Provence. It had
its own castle, which is not in nearly as good of condition now.
A side note: I notice my French is getting better. I've been catching myself writing French words when I'm thinking of English ones! It's strange-- I think in English, but French now comes out sometimes and I don't notice at first. I guess that's the best recommendation for studying abroad for more than a few weeks-- the place really gets into you.
I registered for my DELF exams, by the way. Wish me luck!
