During your stay, immerse yourself in the typical atmosphere of our southern villages. Between history, traditions and modernity, a living together to share is invented here.
Live together
In addition to a formal geography of villages, with squares, streets, alleys, there is above all a human geography where certain places take on another dimension. The meeting points that could be the washhouse, like that of Talairan, or the fountain have lost their role.
In each village, we will find a safe place where the elders meet to talk about current events in the village and elsewhere: the Senate, the club. And there, they make the rassega: "- Sabes pas, Un tal .. - E well, aquela empega… Me'n diràs so much…".
The spirit of solidarity and community are still often observed in villages. It is the extra salad that we give to the neighbor, a few picked mushrooms, a helping hand, often without waiting for a return.
Don't be surprised if people greet you with a " Farewell ! Sound. Because, here, in the land of Òc, although sometimes disbelievers, we recommend ourselves to God both at the time of meetings and reunions as at that of separations.
The local festival
La local party, often linked to the patron saint of the community, was a great moment of family reunion and also of expression of rivalries between villages; The balls allowed meetings between girls and boys. But the light weight of rurality, exile for work, remoteness reduced the strength of these meetings where orchestras scoured the region and made dance to the music heard on the radio stations. The wider distribution of audio-visual media, the development of nightclubs and permanent dancing have gradually reduced the social and societal importance of local festivals which endure despite everything, in especially during the summer season.
In each village, a Festival Committee continues to perpetuate these moments mixing games for children, games of pétanque, big meal / taulejada, balls. THE Carnival was also a major festive event of the year. If he has retained a certain vitality in Limoux, in the Haute-Vallée de l'Aude and in a few villages here and there, it is not the same in most of the other territories and with it a pronounced form of self-mockery has disappeared. It is towards other types of meeting that the festive atmosphere is found: the evenings of sporting victory, the launch of the new wine in October in Lézignan-Corbières, the wine festivals, the Total Festum programs (with regard to the Occitan expression).
These meetings are numerous, go to theagenda !
In the garden
The geography of each village determines the garden square : near houses or by the river where béal systems bring the water necessary for watering each garden according to old modes of operation and distribution. A hedge to protect from the wind, a cabane where to store tools (the aisada, lo bigòs, lo rastèl, lo palabés, asagador), sometimes aviary or rabbit hutches. Gardeners and planters consult the calendar, refer to the saints, monitor the evolution of the Moon to choose the best time to plant.
The garden, which provides the vegetables for the household, is the object of an attentive, almost daily care to pull out any weeds or to protect oneself from any insect or other animal that could harm the harvest. Geometry of the garden squares, rows drawn with a line, some spanish to frighten or serve as a perch for birds (less poetically replaced by CDs hanging from the branches),… A few flowers to brighten up the whole.
E cadun e caduna to bring in sas patanas, sas favas, sos favòls e sas mongetas, sas tomatas, sas ensaladas, sas cebas e sos pòrres, alh e lo jalverd, sos viet-d'ase e sas cogordetas, sos naps e sos rafes, sas carròtas e sos caulets, sas cojas (that siague may gròssa only the del vesin!); but also its fruits: las majofas (strawberries) and those of some fruit tree: cherry (cherry tree), pomièr (apple tree), perièr (pear tree), perseguièr (peach),…
Flowers (roses / ròsas, lilac / lillac, tulips / tolipas, elderberry / sambuc, iris / cotèla, gladiolus / glaujòl, peony / peony,…) brighten up the flowerbeds and hedges are the pride of gardeners and especially planters.
After having experienced a period of abandonment, we see in recent years, a return to the maintenance of gardens, to requests for allocation by newcomers, relying on local produce to find a healthy and tasty food where the vegetables and fruits are consumed at the time of their maturity natural.
A Villerouge-Termenes, un herb garden was built next to the town hall square. You will discover all the essences that were used to to heal and cure in the Middle Ages : thyme, sage, lemon balm, lavender… To see on the way visit the castle !