For many miles a ridge of arid hills runs parallel to the road on the south, and the Cevennes appear in the distance to the north.
Barbaira has a ruined castle bearing the Visigoth name of Alaric.
Some of the hamlets have a strong resemblance to the rock villages of Italy, and it is here that the silvery green foliage of the olive is first noticed on the journey eastward. Soon after passing Moux the low hills come close to the road, exposing layers of soft sand between harder strata, and the soil changes in colour from a light buff to the deepest orange.
Lézignan has a fourteenth-century church, but is not an interesting town.
Passing through more arid hills, one reaches the historic cathedral city of
NARBONNE
The continual silting-up of the Aude has converted the Narbo of the Phœnicians from one of the busiest ports of the Mediterranean into an inland town, connected with the sea by a canal. The Romans, foreseeing this danger, deflected part of the River Aude, and thus kept the seaway to Narbonne open until 1320, when a dyke gave way, and the river reverted to its earlier course, with the consequent rapid decline of the town as a port.
No. 16. CARCASSONNE TO MONTPELLIER.