…along the way from Spain to Rome…
…in a corner behind a locked gate…
…where we finally found it:
We have found that Jewish sites are handled differently from town to town, in both France and Spain.
Some Spanish cities seem to maximize the Jewish focal points as good for tourism. Segovia and Girona provide mini-Jewish museums. These are run by Network of Spanish Jewish Sites which primarily promotes tourism. The gift shops offer Judaica items mostly purchased in Israel and also every novel written by Noah Gordon translated into Spanish in hardbound editions. The tourist office in Segovia offers a helpful brochure for walking the Jewish sites, though not all identified by signs or plaques at the sites.
So while we knew that the area of Carcassonne and Narbonne had significant Jewish communities in the medieval period, we were surprised that the local tourist offices had little if any knowledge or record of that history. But then again, they often don’t know about local chocolate either, shops or museums. Only one of the three people at the tourist office in Narbonne knew how to direct us to the synagogue, which was hidden down what was part of the Via Domitia…
…along the way from Spain to Rome…
…in a corner behind a locked gate…
…where we finally found it:
We made our way to Perpignon where we had information about a campsite but Gertrude the GPS could not do any more than drag us around in circles. We left town and found a lovely campsite in Canet-Plage:
…beside a mulberry tree:
and spent a quiet Shabbat walking along the sea.
