Tarascon Part II

So I walked up to this ginormous castle. I figured I should go in and so I walked over the empty mote to the center of the castle. Now this castle was not grand or decorated fabulous like Ludwig’s but for whatever reason, it impressed me much more. Perhaps because I felt it was more authentic, I mean Ludwig’s castles were just for hobby. They were magnificent inside but it was all from his imagination and not made as a real place to defend your city…but this was.

I made my way up to the entrance and looked at the many French books. I wish that I had more room, I would be bringing Zavi and Zia lots of material to read back home. I found a cute keychain with the Tarascon monster but figured I could go back for it later. I bought my ticket and got my English brochure and began to walk around.



Side Story:
The town is called Tarascon after the legendary sea monster of The Rhone. As legend has it, there was a sea monster called Tarascon living in the Rhone. The village people hated Tarascon, their children were afraid to play in the water and the fishermen feared him. One day some ballzy (sp?) town’s lady had had enough and went to fight Tarascon. She wound up winning and she brought his head into the village; all of the town’s people rejoiced. They town still celebrates this each year (I won’t be here for the festivities though). It looks like the Chinese New Year where people are under the monster’s body and they walk around town.



The castle was huge. I went into the kitchen, the garden and then everywhere else. I actually liked going alone as I could take my time. I had a few questions by the end but I kept them in the back of my mind to ask later. The king’s toilette was on the top floor so that everything could flow down the pipes to the bottom floor.



My favorite was learning that the castle was turned into a prison in the 1800’s for over 100 years. You could find carvings that the prisoner’s had made. You could see the days carved by the window and even their names and stories. I found a John Silver and a funny little riddle.



The last room that I went into was the Graffiti Room. It had HUGE carvings all over. One of the castle, ships, all sorts of things. I was not sure if this was from the prisoners or the castle era but it was wonderful nonetheless. At the end I asked the lady how many prisoner’s stayed there, she said that they do not have records of that. I found out the story of the Tarascon monster later in my day. I was curious how the prisoners had been able to carve things into the walls as they carvings were very neat and deep, I think I can find that out on my own though.



Anne called and said that we would be meeting up in 30 minutes, perfect timing. I went back to the market and got some bread to hold me over until lunch and then explored the church. The church was old, nothing I have not already seen though…except for the man who was sitting on the stage meditating! I took a picture – but did not make it too obvious (I hope).



In the basement of the church there is the tomb of Jean de Cossa. It was creepy. I met up with Anne, got some fresh fish from the market for dinner and we headed home.