Le Sud de France 4.9: A Passion For Pézenas

We are moved again, this time into our own house. As we settle in we decide that since the weather has finally cleared, we'd take a stroll through town and get a better feel for its streets and neighborhoods.

 

Pézenas is best known for its Renaissance mansions and palaces. The town boasts that the playwright Moliere, who wrote comedies and farces-very fitting for Pézenas--often brought his troupe here to perform and enjoy the city. 

The town’s name probably comes from the Latin for fishpond but the town’s exact origin is lost in Roman times or earlier. But the role it’s played in history is not lost. It was an open city, tolerant of different beliefs and lifestyles.  Like other parts of the Languedoc it was a city in which Roman Catholics, Cathar Catholics and Jews all lived together as one community. 
Then in the early 13^th century the city was conquered by the French army from the North and the Cathars were wiped out. 

Walking through the old streets we passed an archway bearing the sign “Le Ghetto” which means that this was the Jewish quarter.  It reminded me that several meters below our feet there exists a centuries old system of tunnels that run from the houses to the fields outside the town. One recently discovered tunnel entrance starts a building which was used for Jewish ritual baths. These tunnels were used during WWII by the French Resistance. 

Naturally any place that supports freedom of thought requires escape routes to evade whomever the current forces of intolerance are. And there’s always some variety of the thought police ready to clamp down on people for just trying to live their lives.

photos c 2011 steve meltzer photographe

Walking through Pezenas, I found myself taking pride in living in a place where freedom was so highly valued and its one of the reasons I have a passion for the place.

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