Vacation Day 4: Narbonne

Narbonne, located about half way between Perpignan and Montpellier, on the Mediterranean coast, is a city that was established in 118 BCE, when France was known as "Gaul" and the Romans were constructing a road from Rome, through the Alps, across Mediterranean France into Spain.

Via Domitia

This road connected Rome with its colonies and was the first road through Gaul. Narbonne was named the capital city of the provincia of southern Gaul, Gallia Narbonensis. Narbonne was also important because it was here that the Via Aquitania started and ran all the way to Bordeaux, on the Atlantic.

Via Domitia running through Narbonne

La Maison des Trois Nourrices
The House of the Three Nursemaids

Basilique Saint-Paul

One of the oldest gothic churches in Mediterranean France. It's built on the site of an early Christian cemetery, dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries.

Cathédrale Saint-Just-et-Saint-Pasteur through the cloister

This cathedral, begun in 1272, had construction paused in 1355 when the city was invaded, and construction was never resumed. Now, you can see on one side where two round towers go up, and then abruptly stop. At 41m, the cathedral is the 4th tallest in France (after Beauvais, Amiens and Metz).

Polychrome detail in a chapel

Elaborate, completed, side of the cathedral

My day in Narbonne finished with a picnic on the beach until sunset