#carcassone

[publicobsessions]

[acheseustabuleiros]

[zimpenfish]

Messing about with wave function collapse using some scanned Carcassone tiles. Oddly fascinating to watch.

[mindrat]

ppl talk abt financial liquidity but nobody talks about carcassone meeple liquidity which is an important factor in deciding to commit your unused meeples to new resources.

[xavierbautistagarcia]

La Cité, the fortress

The Citadel of Carcassonne (Ciutat de Carcassona in Occitan) is a medieval fortress located in the town of the same name in Occitania. The fortress is a symbol of the region and one of the most visited tourist attractions in France.

The history of the Citadel of Carcassonne dates back to the Gallo-Roman period, when the Romans established a military camp on the site to protect the region from invasion. The camp was subsequently abandoned and the site remained unused for several centuries.

In the 12th century, the fortress was built by the Viscounts of Carcassonne, powerful feudal lords of the region after the extinction of the county whose holders were the sovereigns of Barcelona, whose first counts originated from this fief. It was conceived as a bulwark against the invading French forces during the Albigensian Crusade, a military campaign launched by the Catholic Church against the Cathar heresy, which had settled in the region.

The fortress was built in two parts: the inner castle, known as the Château Comtal, and the outer ramparts surrounding the town. The castle was built first and was intended to be the residence of the viscounts. Later the outer ramparts were added to protect the town and the castle.

The fortress suffered several sieges. One of the most famous of these took place in 1209 during the Albigensian Crusade, when it was besieged for several months, after which it fell to the French.

The fortress was further reinforced in the 13th century, during the reign of the saintly King Louis IX of France. The king ordered the construction of several additional towers and fortifications to protect the town from attack.

However, after the incorporation of the semi-independent Occitan fiefs into the Kingdom of France, the fortress lost its military importance and was gradually abandoned. By the 19th century, it had fallen into disrepair and was in danger of being demolished.

In the 1850s, the French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was commissioned to restore the fortress to its former splendour. Viollet-le-Duc supervised the restoration and added several new elements, such as the pointed roof of the towers, which were not part of the original design.

The restoration was completed in the early 20th century and it was opened to the public. Today, the Citadel of Carcassonne is one of the most visited tourist attractions in France, attracting millions of visitors each year. It has also been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its historical and cultural importance.

[anexogeek]

Chew vol. 2 e lançamentos da Devir de fevereiro/março!

Chew vol. 2 e lançamentos da Devir de fevereiro/março! @DevirBrasil #lançamentos #boardgames #hq #novidades

[dknuth]

Toulouse & Carcassonne

This morning I took a train the one hour to Carcassonne. The attraction there is the ancient Cité de Carcassonne, a medieval walled city.

There aren't many medieval cities with their intact fortifications, especially not adsorbed into a larger city. The Cité of Carcassonne sits on a hill across the river from the modern city. The Cité has lost its defensive value by the 16th century, largely because it was no longer on a border. It's not easy living in a fortified town and gradually the Cité was essentially abandoned. In the early 1800's parts of the defensive walls were sold off as cut stone and used to build modern industrial buildings. It was proposed to demolish the entire town.

In 1845 the architect Violett-le-Duc became interested and promoted restoring the Cité as an historical monument. Between Violett-le-Duc and his students over the next 60 years the work was completed.

By the 1970's with tourism increasing Carcassonne became famous and saw vast number of visitors. The tourism is certainly responsible for the continued work to maintain the town, but it also means that it isn't really a town any more, but a tourist attraction. There do appear to be residents of the town, but mainly the owners of the many shops and restaurants I would think. Even in October there were large groups of tourists in town and the shops and restaurants were doing a decent business. It must be a madhouse in mid-summer.

Taking the train to Carcassonne I was near the Canal du Midi the whole time. In fact the canal passes in front of both train stations.

Renting a boat and cruising the Canal du Midi was on our to-do list for a long time, but it's never happened.

There's a great old bridge, now pedestrian only between the modern and ancient towns.

Then the fortifications are on the hill above.

One disadvantage of being on foot is that wandering around over large distances to find the best perspectives of the town is more than I wanted to do.

This aerial shot from wikimedia shows the town best.

It's always a little mind boggling to me to see the amount of defensive walls, towers and other fortifications compared to the size of the defended town.

You still enter through one of several gates.

There are two layers of walls separated by a wide open space with towers on both sets of walls.

Some of the towers and walls date back to the Roman period.

All of this did not stop Simon du Montfort from besieging the city and taking it during the Albigensian Crusade, claiming the city for himself and turning all the inhabitants out with only the clothes on their back.

A little pause here to reflect on the wars of the time where towns were conquered. By comparison to some of the other towns in the Albigensian Crusade and the cities in Central Asia where the whole population was massacred or sold into slavery, I guess this taking of all their property and leaving them alive was considered very civilized and "christian."

As an engineer the constructions are fascinating. The wars that created the need for all this work is depressing. We'd like to think the time is past when the desire to take another's property and lives because you disagree with their religion, or just because you want their land and property is enough to go to war with them, but clearly that isn't the case.

How much of our human efforts have been expended on war, preparing to defend from war, recovering from war. How much better off we would all be if that effort had been expended on productive endeavors.

The restoration done by Violett-le-Duc was quite extensive and well done, especially for his time. He had to make decisions as to exactly what period he was restoring to, as fortifications had been built and expanded over hundreds of years. Here are old photos of one area before and after his work.

He did some things for esthetics that would not be done today (and were frowned on by some at the time), such as the pointed tops of towers, roofed with slate instead of the local tile. But overall well done and ahead of his time.

I didn't see much else of interest in Carcassonne so took the train back to Toulouse in the afternoon.

There I visited the Basilique Saint-Severin a Romanesque style church a little older than the Gothic ones. The whole front of the church was swathed in scaffolding. But the side and the tower were still visible.

Inside the central nave was roped off for prayer, so I could not get close to the front of the church. With my vision that meant I really couldn't see what was above the altar until I got the photos on my laptop.

The church has a huge collection of the relics of saints I've never hear of. (Not that I am at all an expert on minor saints.) There were dozens of fancy casks surrounded by displays in gold and silver.

Nearby is the Musée Saint-Raymond, a museum of ancient relics (mainly Roman) from around the area. Most of it was fairly standard statues, caskets and architectural items, but there was a special exhibit on the Mithra religion. This was an Eastern Religion (think Persian) imported into the Roman world, with a lot of modifications.

Most of the descriptions were in French, and way too technical a French for me to labor through. But I got the general ideas and was familiar with the general history. What was interesting was some of the imagery that made its way into Christian imagery. In particular the portrayal of Mitra with light beams coming from his head. Doesn't this look familiar?

For dinner I decided I should finally have cassoulet, a famous dish from the area that I really like. But the restaurant that is particularly famous for it doesn't take on-line reservations and by phone in French is just too hard. So I went there at opening time of 7:30, and they were booked for the night, but I was able to get a reservation for tomorrow night.

So I went to a bistro in the area. Bistros seem to be less insistent on selling a set three course meal. There I got a wonderful salad with roquefort cheese and lardons, which was wonderful.

The square it was on was covered by tables from cafés and restaurants, full of people; most of them still just having drinks at 8:30.

[bouncinghedgehoglikestotravel]

[whosname]

Some lazy brush practice. Zura has BIG Noel Fielding energy.

[byunbaekhyunie]

JEONGHAN ÉTAIT À MONTPEUL?????

[publicobsessions]

[keendaanmaa]

Learning the new game @bluesidedown and I gave our dad for Christmas

[bookwormwinnetou]

My brother wants to play monopoly after lunch…..pray for me

[elodieunderglass]

Hey bestie whats a narrow boat? I saw you tag that on something you reblogged and I'm pretty curious now!

- Terry Darlington, Narrow Dog to Carcassone

A narrowboat (all one word) is a craft restricted to the British Isles, which are connected all over by a nerve-map of human-made canals. To go up and down hills, the canals are spangled with locks (chambers in which boats can be raised or lowered by filling or emptying them with water.) As Terry says above, the width of the locks was somewhat randomly determined, and as a result, the British Isles have a narrow design of lock - and a narrowboat to fit through them. A classic design was seventy feet long and six feet wide. Starting in the 18th century, and competing directly with trains, canal “barges” were an active means of transport and shipping. They were initially pulled along the towpaths by horses, and you can still see some today!

Later, engines were developed.

Even after the trains won the arms race, it was a fairly viable freight service right up until WW2. It’s slow travel, but uses few resources and requires little human power, with a fairly small crew (of women, in WW2) being capable of shifting two fully laden boats without consuming much fossil fuel.

In those times the barges were designed with small, cramped cabins in which the boaters and their families could live.

During its heyday the narrowboat community developed a style of folk art called “roses and castles” with clear links to fairground art as well as Romani caravan decor. They are historically decorated with different kinds of brass ornaments, and inside the cabins could also be distinctively painted and decorated.

Today, many narrowboats are distinctively decorated and colorful - even if not directly traditional with “roses and castles” they’ll still be bright and offbeat. A quirky name is necessary. All narrowboats, being boats, are female.

After a postwar decline, interest in the waterways was sparked by a leisure movement and collapsing canals were repaired. Today, the towpaths are a convenient walking/biking trail for people, as they connect up a lot of the mainland of the UK, hitting towns and cities. Although the restored canals are concrete-bottomed, they’re attractive to wildlife. Narrowboats from the 1970s onward started being designed for pleasure and long-term living. People enjoy vacationing by hiring a boat and visiting towns for a cuter, comfier, slower version of a campervan life. And a liveaboard community sprang up - people who live full-time on boats. Up until the very restrictive and nasty laws recently passed in the UK to make it harder for travelling peoples (these were aimed nastily at vanlivers and the Romani, and successfully hit everyone) this was one of the few legal ways remaining to be a total nomad in the UK.

Liveaboards can moor up anywhere along the canal for 28 days, but have to keep moving every 28 days. (Although sorting out the toilet and loading up with fresh water means that a lot of people move more frequently than that.) you can also live full-time in a marina if they allow it, or purchase your own mooring. In London, where canal boats are one of the few remaining cheapish ways to live, boats with moorings fetch the same prices as houses. It can be very very hard for families to balance school, parking, work, and all the difficulties of living off-grid- but many make it work. It remains a diverse community and is even growing, due to housing pressures in the UK. Boats can be very comfortable, even when only six feet wide. When faced with spending thousands of pounds on rent OR mooring up on a nice canal, you can see why it seems a romantic proposition for young people, and UK television channels always have slice-of-life documentaries about young folks fixing up their very own quirky solar-powered narrowboat. I don’t hate; I did it myself.

If you’re lucky, you might even meet some of the cool folks who run businesses from their narrowboats: canal-side walkers enjoy bookshops, vegan bakeries, ice-cream boats, restaurants, artists and crafters. There are Floating Markets and narrowboat festivals. It’s generally recognised that boaters contribute quite a lot to the canal - yet there are many tensions between different kinds of boaters (liveaboards vs leisure boaters vs tourists) as well as tensions with local settled people, towpath users like cyclists, and fishermen. I could go on and on explaining this rich culture and dramas, but I won’t.

Phillip Pullman’s Gyptians are a commonly cited example of liveaboards - although they were based on the narrowboat liveaboards that Pullman knew in Oxford, their boats are actually Dutch barges. Dutch barges make good homes but are too wide to access most of the midlands and northern canals, and are usually restricted to the south of the UK. So they’re accurate for Bristol/London/Oxford, and barges are definitely comfier to film on. (Being six feet wide is definitely super awkward for a boat.) but in general Dutch barges are less common, more expensive and can’t navigate the whole system.

However, apart from them, there are few examples of narrowboat depictions that escaped containment. So it’s quite interesting that there is an entire indigenous special class of boat, distinctive and highly specialised and very cute, with an associated culture and heritage and folk art type, known to all and widely celebrated, and ABSOLUTELY UNKNOWN outside of the UK - a nation largely known around the world for inflicting its culture on others. They’re a strange, sweet little secret - and nobody who has ever loved one can resist pointing them out for the rest of their lives, or talking about them when asked to. Thank you for asking me to.

[itsagrimm]

Dad! König

aka a bit of german speaking parenting traditions

when his kids were young he was one of those parents that always sat around the playground with a coffee, watching his kids climbing and doing tricks. naturally he nodded supportively and hummed tiredly every time they showed him a trick.

was the default parent to go to parent's conference days when he could meaning he somehow managed to fold himself up on tiny kids chairs while listing to a teacher talk about school life and his kids progress

always dragged his kids into the outdoors on the weekend to make them work off some energy as he is a firm believer of the classical german "leaving the house once a day"-rule. it gracefully also doubled as giving his partner a bit of alone time.

the parent to push for games night. From Uno to Ludo to Carcassone - an evening playing with his kids, is a good evening.

does not baby his kids. if they get hurt, that's unfortunate and he will try to comfort as much as possible. but getting hurts happens and it's part of growing up. he is not too worried after checking for injury and blowing away the fright with a kiss.

as such he allows for independence and leaves kids to play on their own a lot with a trusted adult being only somewhere in the area depending on the kids age and needs.

the parent to be pleaded with. with enough puppy eyes his kids could get anything from him.

will always push for education over work and as he has the means he will finance whatever is needed for that.

is one of those dads that insists on checking homework when his kids were younger as well as practicing multiplication tables with them.

insists on living in an area where kids can go to school or visit friends on their own from a young age.

limits screen time until they get a bit older.

however they have a phone so he can reach them especially as he travels a lot.

generally regretful on how much he misses and tries to make up on it once he is back.

def the parent to watch kids cartoons with a passion. he can sing along to the bluey intro song at this point.

really bad at crafts with the kids.

will def become a bit awkward once his kids grow older.

will not put up dating rules for his kids no matter the age. they are old enough (and he would also feel weird about it). plus, as he comes from a pro-sex education culture and insists on the same for his kids, he is not too worried about kids doing something they don't understand the consequences of.

he will however insist on his kids telling him where they are once they are older and be home on time.

the parent to call at night to pick up from an escalated party who doesn't judge alcohol consumption. he had his fair share of mishaps and is sympathetic. he will however make some teasing jokes the next day.

will feel lost and uncomfortably old once his kids have moved out but maybe, maybe... one might have grandkids one day and he is patient enough. He has things to do after all. The house needs to be kept up. And the garden needs work. And what about his partner always wanting to travel more?