Guided walking holidays in Aude, Languedoc Roussillon, South West France
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NarbonneAll in all, Narbonne is not a bad destination. True, it has none of the grandeur of Avignon or Carcassonne, but it’s still a pleasant place to wind up for a couple of days wandering around the old medieval core and its lively streets. Narbonne’s glory days though, when the town was the capital and steaming metropolis of the entire Languedoc region, are long gone and today the town is a compact and satisfying sort of a place that’s home to just 47,000 people. The local economy is based squarely on the wine industry making the most of the renowned nearby vineyards of Corbières. Narbonne also functions as a transportation crossroads: at the junction of the A9 and A61 motorways, it’s easy to reach from Toulouse, Barcelona and all points east along the Mediterranean. Built by decree from Rome in 118 BC as a trading post along the newly constructed Via Dolmitia, Narbonne (then known as Narbo) grew to become the capital of the Roman province of Narbonensis and one of the most important cities in southern Gaul. Following the departure of the Romans, it became the capital of the Visigoths when they moved in during the sixth century. However, a series of disasters during the Middle Ages took their toll: dykes burst, the port silted up and the plague hit. Things only really improved during the mid-1800s when the railway arrived and the wine industry began to have success. |
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