Things are getting desperate; start feeding the pig.

View from the castle at Carcassonne: along the wall and down the hill.

Oh, PS, I went back to France.

First stop: Carcassonne. Carcassonne is an impressive walled city in South-central France. This spot has been inhabited since about the 6th Century BC. You know the rub: Iron Age folks, Romans, Visigoths, Francs. It's had quite an interesting history. I'm sure some very scintillating things happened here during the Iron Age, but my favorite anecdote is the legend of how the city got its name.

Once upon a time, there was a lovely city on a hill with high, strong walls and a prime location. Now, along came the day when Charlemagne decided to try to conquer the city. Charl and his troops besieged the city for months and months but couldn't penetrate it's walls. However, they figured that eventually the surrounded city would run out of food and supplies, and the inhabitants would give up. Indeed, after a while things started to look pretty grim inside the city. In the eleventh hour, however, one of the city's illustrious citizens, Dame Carcas, had an idea. She asked that the city's last pig be fattened up with the last bits of grain and then tossed over the town walls onto Charlemagne's troops. Charl and the boys beheld the porcine missile and drew some conclusions. If the townspeople still had enough provisions to keep their pigs porky and toss perfectly good food over the wall with reckless abandon, then they were probably not going to be starved out anytime in the near future. So the army gave up and went home. Well, of course the townspeople were just thrilled, especially Dame Carcas, who ordered that the town bells be rung in celebration. Which brings us to the naming of the city: Carcas Sonne (Carcas Rings).

Castle walls and ramparts as seen from the ditch between the castle and the rest of the walled city.

Medieval altar. Even if you were a total stranger to the story of Jesus, I think you'd be able to look at this sculpture and determine that the outlook does not look good.