Sous le pont Miredames

Tableau d’Art moderne ? Non, reflets des maisons anciennes de Castres dans la rivière Agoût qui traverse la ville à peu près au milieu de son cours de 194 km.

Levez les yeux :

Encore un peu:

Depuis le pont Miredames, au nom plus poétique que celui choisi par le Poète sous lequel « passent les jours et passent les semaines…et passe la Seine », on peut voir à gauche le superbe cinéma Art Déco, Le Lido, digne nom pour notre petite Venise du Midi, sur fond de Montagne Noire.

Avancez sur les quais et retournez-vous, sous une arche du Pont Miredames, c’est le Coche d’eau qui se mire dans la rivière en vous attendant pour vous faire découvrir les reflets enchanteurs.

Et patriotiques :

Castres aux couleurs impressionnistes

Petite balade dans un parc de Castres, le temps de surprendre quelques reflets dans l’eau qu’aurait bien aimé peindre Claude Monet.

Nice walk in a green park in Castres, Claude Monet would have liked painting this.

Cherubs

Here is the face of one of the four putti in the fountain of the Jean Jaures square in Castres, standing on the opposite side of the statue of the famous man and the tombstone of Pierre de Fermat I already posted on.

These putti are cute nights and days, under the sun, the rain or the snow…Just come and see them when shopping fresh food at every Saturday morning opened market or when visiting the coming Christmas market (9-27/12/2016).

This cast-iron fountain was built in 1867. Even if smaller, its form refers to the fountains of Sees and Rivers located in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

Goat's music

Last Saturday, we attended the Occitan festival « Camins de crabas » (to be pronounced camis de carbos, meaning goat paths) that takes place every July in Castres.

Many goats were raised in our Black Mountain in the past and their skin were used for many things including amazing bagpipes, named crabas (goat in Occitan).

 

Thirty years ago these crabas as well as local grailes (oboes) were made again to play old songs and dances that were collected in villages to prevent them to disappear. These tunes used to be played during feasts and weddings.

 

 

 

My father’s city I like so much

Close to our Black Mountain, is the nice city of Castres.

From its tormented history (Visigoths invasion, Albigensian crusade, French Wars of religion…) remains are still visible, like those colourful houses on the river Agoût side.

During the 17th century, those houses were owned by weavers, dyers and tanners working on wool, leather and paper.

Close to those houses, on the riverside: the cinema Le Lido, a nice Art Deco building.

In this cinema, in 1967, I saw my first film. My father had the good idea to go with me to see a Disney picture, The Jungle Book. Do you remember Bagheera, Baloo the bear and Louie the King monkey?

Indeed, it is in the same cinema that we went last week with our (already adult) children to see the last Star Wars. Disney again.