Le Tour de L'âne (The Donkey Tour)

In the midst of the summer tourist crush, an easily overlooked aspect of the old cité in Carcassonne is that people actually still live there. Today, of course, they have electricity, running water and central heating, not to mention satellite TV and high speed Internet. Yet, medieval traditions survive.

Le Tour de L'âne dates from the middle ages, and was originally held on the 28th of July as part of the feast of Saint Nazaire, one of the patron saints of the city. Currently it is held in October, this year on Sunday the 5th.

Traditionally, the most recently married male resident of the city was dressed in black and adorned with a horned cap from which vegetables were hung, then paraded around the town on the back of a donkey while the kids danced circles around him singing and old song that went "You've been cuckolded, poor man . . . ," while the women of the village kissed and pledged fealty to the horns. Supposedly this was to drive evil spirits away, but then as now it seems really to have been just a warmup for a dance and supper at the Narbonne Gate of the city that evening.

Although the celebration is said to be tamer now than in days gone by, the residents are determined to see it survive. This year there had been no marriages among the residents of the old city, so the most recently retired man rode the donkey instead, in full traditional regalia and to the great amusement of the tourists who were lucky enough to happen upon the event. Any evil spirits remaining at the end of the day were rapidly quaffed by the celebrants.

Much of the information in this post is excerpted from from http://mescladis.free.fr/tour-ane.htm, which has a bit more detail for those who can read French. A link to the newspaper account of this year's tour will be posted here when available.

Speaking of donkeys, one evening this summer we came round a bend in a little country road near home -- fortunately at a leisurely pace, because on one side was a steep dropoff into a cornfield and on the other side an even steeper dropoff into a canal -- to find ourselves behind a donkey carrying all the gear for two cross-country hikers who were a short ways ahead. It was obviously a donkey with a sense of humor because mounted on its rear was a regulation French license plate no. 642 ANE 23. The hikers were dressed in standard hiker gear, so it must also have been a donkey with considerable powers, because when we got home we could find no evil spirits in the house for our aperitif.