The Cathars were in the south, interestingly enough. One of the big motives for Catharism was disgust with the lifestyles of Catholic clergy -- sounds quite Protestant to me! And this was in the 13th century, so it seems like a proto-Protestant inclination had already been in place there for some time. The Cathars were, of course, eventually done in by the "brute barbarism" of "knights from across the Loire" (over a million slaughtered, if memory serves).
I have been to France a number of times and it is a greatly enjoyable country. In my early days of travel, the focus was always Paris, but recent trips had me enjoying France outside Paris more (poor Paris, increasingly "same-same" with London and New York and globetrotting bobos and hipsters everywhere, drinking the same coffee and reading the same books, and increasingly the same politics and views and agonizing over remote causes far away while ignoring more imminent but deeply unfashionable local issues). But outside Paris France is resolutely France. And that is what stands out most of all, perhaps: the still pervasive pride in being French + the region. I used to joke the reason Americans and the French got on each other's nerves so often was because we were both equally arrogant and prideful.
"it’s the south which is more Protestant"
The Cathars were in the south, interestingly enough. One of the big motives for Catharism was disgust with the lifestyles of Catholic clergy -- sounds quite Protestant to me! And this was in the 13th century, so it seems like a proto-Protestant inclination had already been in place there for some time. The Cathars were, of course, eventually done in by the "brute barbarism" of "knights from across the Loire" (over a million slaughtered, if memory serves).
I have been to France a number of times and it is a greatly enjoyable country. In my early days of travel, the focus was always Paris, but recent trips had me enjoying France outside Paris more (poor Paris, increasingly "same-same" with London and New York and globetrotting bobos and hipsters everywhere, drinking the same coffee and reading the same books, and increasingly the same politics and views and agonizing over remote causes far away while ignoring more imminent but deeply unfashionable local issues). But outside Paris France is resolutely France. And that is what stands out most of all, perhaps: the still pervasive pride in being French + the region. I used to joke the reason Americans and the French got on each other's nerves so often was because we were both equally arrogant and prideful.
Excellent article. I've requested the book from the library.
Greetings from my terrasse, on the Cotentin. The longer I live here, the more alien (but also homely) France feels to me.