The train pulls in to Moux
Vendangeuses - Paul Sibra. Text J. Lebrau 'Ceux du Languedoc' 1946
Moux looks north out over the valley between two ranges of mountains : the Montagnes Noires which are the last slopes of the great raised upland of France's Massif Central - and the Corbières range which run south until they form the foothills of the Pyrenées.
I'm giving this geography to explain why the village has at various times in its history offered lodging to kings and queens of France, and a pope, at its inn. The valley is the only route possible for transport. Road and motorway, river and Canal - all had to squeeze past Moux.
Moux is situated on the voie Aquitaine (or voie Royale) - a comfortable day's ride exactly halfway between Carcassonne (mediaeval centre of the wool-trade) and the erstwhile Roman port of Narbonne. Thus it was that during a relatively peaceful period in the Wars of Religion - between 1563 and 1567 - Catherine de Médicis undertook a voyage in Languedoc at the end of 1564 - start of 1565. The cortège was impressive: the queenmother was accompagned not only by the young king Charles IX (13 years old), but also by the future kings François II and Henri III, Marguerite de Valois, (the future queen Margot) plus Ronsard, official poet of the court. 'Tout cet équipage passa donc la nuit à Moux, le 11 janvier 1565.'
That was quite enough excitement for one century. Eighty years later the village gave the next VIP a warm welcome. In October 1632 Louis XIII passed the night at Mous (Moux). During the night a fire - started possibly by enemies - threatened the chambers where he lay sleeping. The king, his daughters and the queen, were all forced to run from the building at midnight, and take shelter with a neighbour.
Then in December of 1664 experts working for Pierre Paul Riquet, Baron de Bonrepos, stayed in Moux while surveying possible routes for the Canal du Midi, to link Bordeaux on the west coast to Narbonne on the Mediterranean. Their study found however that there was too great a rise to overcome here, and the channel was cut a few kilometers away. The whole project nearly bankrupted the visionary Baron, who died shortly before the canal opened, in 1681. It remains a masterpiece of construction, has needed very few repairs in 250 years - and is rightly a World Heritage site.
Next along comes the Pope. On February 2nd 1814 Pope Pious VII passed one night at Moux. ' Qu'on se figure un vieillard de 72 ans, d'une taille élevée, un peu courbé, le teint pâle, mais animé d'un regard le plus doux, par la physionomie la plus vénérable.'
' Picture then an old man of 72, tall but slightly stooped, with a pale complexion - enlivened however by the most gentle expression, in the most venerable of faces. (my own rather creaky translation). He had been encountered, on his way to Moux, by the Innkeeper - who hadn't recognised him.
It was the arrival of the Voie Ferrée that had the greatest effect on the village. The line linking Bordeaux and Marseille was the brainchild of two brothers: Emile and Isaac Pereire. The inauguration took place on 22 April 1857 of the line joining ' l'Océan à la Méditerranée' - with the brothers travelling from opposite directions to shake hands. Fortunately not at Moux - there might well have been a head-on crash.
Jean Lebrau, one of our village's many poets, wrote in Images de Moux: 'Sur la page d'un vieux dictionnaire, mon grand père avait consigné en une ronde impressionnante (set down, in impressive script) : "La locomotive est passée à Moux pour la première fois le 18 fèvrier de l'année 1857 à 9 heures du matin et à 3 heures de demie du soir".'
Moux station 1900
All over europe Steam was driving the industrial revolution, powering factories, conveying goods and people to cities and ports. This train would make the fortunes of some farmers : traditional crops such as olives (Moux was one of the major suppliers of plants for export to South America), wheat, mulberries and lucerne, were progressively abandonned in favour of vines. By 1900 small farmers had become rich - rich ones, millionaires.
And the sons and daughters of the rich were sent out from their little villages to boarding-schools in nearby towns. Thus we would find, on Sunday afternoons on the platform at Moux : Jean Lebrau, sensitive schoolboy poet and Claire Escourrou, whose mother had just died, waiting together for the train that would take them away to their schools in Carcassonne.
Trains don't stop here anymore.