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62-781: Albert Oustric was born on 2 September 1887 in Carcassonne , Aude. His father ran a cafe in Carcassonne, then became manager of a wine and spirits store in Toulouse . Albert Oustric became clerk to an advocate, then a sales representative of the Cusenier distilled beverage firm in the Aude . When his father died in 1910 he succeeded him as manager of the Toulouse shop, and continued as a Cusenier representative. During World War I he

124-645: A humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification : Cfa ), though with noticeable hot-summer mediterranean climate influence (Köppen climate classification: Csa ), a climate which is more typical of southern France, with moderately wet and mild winters coupled with summers averaging above 28 °C (82 °F) during daytime with low rainfall. Carcassonne, along with the French Mediterranean coastline, can be subject to intense thunderstorms and torrential rains in late summer and early autumn. The Carcassonne region can be flooded in such events,

186-461: A Calais-based consumer bank majority owned by Oustric, was among the subsidiaries that failed. Oustric was arrested and taken to La Santé Prison . The default caused the ruin of many small savers. The Peugeot company lost all its capital, and came close to failing. The news of the default broke at a time when the scandal of Marthe Hanau 's failed bank in which many small investors lost their savings

248-483: A central keep. The walls consist of towers built over quite a long period. One section is Roman and is notably different from the medieval walls, with the tell-tale red brick layers and the shallow pitch terracotta tile roofs. One of these towers housed the Catholic Inquisition in the 13th century and is still known as "The Inquisition Tower". Carcassonne was demilitarised under Napoleon Bonaparte and

310-514: A column near the Narbonne Gate , is of modern invention. The name can be derived as an augmentative of the name Carcas. Carcassonne became strategically identified when the Romans fortified the hilltop around 100 BC and eventually made it the colonia of Julia Carsaco , later Carcaso , later Carcasum (by the process of swapping consonants known as metathesis ). The main part of

372-479: A general election. In January 1932 Oustric was found guilty of fraud, embezzlement and engaging in financial irregularities. Eventually Oustric spent 38 months in prison and was fined 31,000 francs in damages. He was released on medical grounds and took a job as an employee of his former bank, which had reopened, at 3,000 francs a month. He was rehabilitated on 15 May 1945. Albert Oustric died on 16 April 1971 in Toulouse aged 83. Carcassonne Carcassonne

434-471: A historical monument. Later in the year the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc , already at work restoring the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus, was commissioned to renovate the place. In 1853, work began with the west and southwest walls, followed by the towers of the porte Narbonnaise and the principal entrance to the cité . The fortifications were consolidated here and there, but the chief attention

496-651: A plaque affixed to the wall of the prison at the corner of Rue Jean-Dolent and Rue de la La Santé. After the Liberation of France , only common criminals were executed in the courtyard of the prison (except for several FLN activists between 1958 and 1960). Those executed included Marcel Petiot in 1946, Marquis Alain de Bernardy de Sigoyer in 1947, Emile Buisson ("Public Enemy No. 1") in 1956, Jacques Fesch in 1957, and Georges Rapin, known as "Mr. Bill", in 1960. The last death sentences by guillotine at La Santé were those of Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet . They were

558-757: A proud history, having played in the French Championship Final in 1925, and currently competes in Pro D2 , the second tier of French rugby . Rugby league is also played, by the AS Carcassonne club. They are involved in the Elite One Championship . Puig Aubert is the most notable rugby league player to come from the Carcassonne club. There is a bronze statue of him outside the Stade Albert Domec at which

620-773: A silver mine in Bolivia , the Huanchaca . He used announcements of false discoveries to make the share prices rise by ten times their original value, then let them fall, then pushed them up again. With advance knowledge of price movements, he could sell high and buy low, while other investors always lost. He profited from the protectionist isolation of the French stock exchange, cut off from international finance and from other exchanges. In 1926 Oustrick became involved in Snia Viscosa , an Italian maker of artificial silk. The company

682-681: A small bank with a capital of one million francs, increased to five million in July 1921 and to fifteen million in 1921 after being transformed into a limited company. In 1921 he married Madeleine de Rigny. The bank had a small amount of capital from the hydroelectric company and the start of a consumer business. It became involved in arbitrage operations with coal and gold mines. Oustric's bank would issue stocks of questionable companies and use false publicity to increase their value before selling them off. Oustric sold shares in an artificial silk company, la Borswich française , in 1923. In 1926 Oustric invested in

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744-590: A total capacity of as many as 2,000 prisoners, divided into 14 divisions. With executions having previously been performed at the entrance to Grande Roquette, it was decided to do something similar at La Santé. The guillotine was erected at the corner of the Rue de la Santé and the Boulevard Arago, on the pavement. The first execution – and the first in Paris for ten years – occurred on 6 August 1909. It

806-744: Is a French fortified city in the department of Aude , region of Occitania . It is the prefecture of the department. Inhabited since the Neolithic Period , Carcassonne is located in the plain of the Aude between historic trade routes, linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea and the Massif Central to the Pyrénées . Its strategic importance was quickly recognised by the Romans , who occupied its hilltop until

868-752: Is now dedicated to Saint Nazaire . In A.D. 508 the Visigoths successfully foiled attacks by the Frankish king Clovis I . In Francia , the Arab and Berber Muslim forces invaded the region of Septimania in A.D. 719 and deposed the local Visigothic Kingdom in A.D. 720; after the Frankish conquest of Narbonne in 759 , the Muslim Arabs and Berbers were defeated by the Christian Franks and retreated to Andalusia after 40 years of occupation, and

930-404: Is spoken. Historically, the language spoken in Carcassonne and throughout Languedoc-Roussillon was not French but Occitan . In July 2021, Carcassonne was the finish city for stage 13, and the starting point of stage 14, of the 2021 Tour de France . It was at the finish in Carcassonne that Mark Cavendish tied the record for most Tour de France stage wins (34) held by Eddy Merckx . Carcassonne

992-807: The Canal du Midi . Carcassonne is also home to the MKE Performing Arts Academy. Carcassonne receives about three million visitors annually. In the late 1990s, Carcassonne airport started taking budget flights to and from European airports and by 2009 had regular flight connections with Porto , Bournemouth , Cork , Dublin , Frankfurt-Hahn , London-Stansted , Liverpool , East Midlands , Glasgow-Prestwick and Charleroi . The Gare de Carcassonne railway station offers direct connections to Toulouse, Narbonne, Perpignan, Paris, Marseille, and several regional destinations. The A61 motorway connects Carcassonne with Toulouse and Narbonne. French

1054-750: The Carolingian king Pepin the Short came up reinforced. A medieval fiefdom, the county of Carcassonne , controlled the city and its environs. It was often united with the county of Razès . The origins of Carcassonne as a county probably lie in local representatives of the Visigoths, but the first count known by name is Bello of the time of Charlemagne . Bello founded a dynasty, the Bellonids , which would rule many honores in Septimania and Catalonia for three centuries. In 1067, Carcassonne became

1116-470: The Restoration , and the fortified cité of Carcassonne fell into such disrepair that the French government decided that it should be demolished. A decree to that effect that was made official in 1849 caused an uproar. The antiquary and mayor of Carcassonne, Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille, and the writer Prosper Mérimée , the first inspector of ancient monuments, led a campaign to preserve the fortress as

1178-661: The Sainte-Anne Hospital Center . In 1899, after the closure and demolition of the prison Grande Roquette , convicts were transferred to La Santé either to await transfer to the Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni in French Guiana or to await execution. Initially, there were 500 cells in La Santé, which was increased to 1,000 cells in 1900. The cells are 4 metres long, 2.5m wide and 3m high. The prison has

1240-670: The Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea has been known since the Neolithic era. The town's area is about 65 km (25 sq mi), which is significantly larger than the numerous small towns in the department of Aude. The rivers Aude, Fresquel, and the Canal du Midi flow through the town. The first signs of settlement in this region have been dated to about 3500 BC, but the hill site of Carsac —a Celtic place-name that has been retained at other sites in

1302-617: The Vocoret brothers, who killed three policemen in Issy-les-Moulineaux , were the first criminals to be guillotined inside the prison. During the German Occupation of France , in addition to common law criminals, there were also executions of 18 Resistance fighters and communists . Nine of them were guillotined between August 1941 and July 1942. The other nine were shot on 30 April 1944. They are memorialized by

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1364-530: The administration. The visiting rooms for these prisoners are at 1 rue Messier as for other prisoners (where there is nearby accommodation for visiting relatives). The movie Quartier V.I.P. is set partly there. These are the only known escapes from this prison. In front of the exit of the prison there was a cafe called À la bonne Santé (In good health). Relatives of the prisoners would meet there with released prisoners. Scenes from several films took place and were filmed there. The cafe closed in 1980. Currently

1426-573: The authorization. After leaving office, Péret became legal counsel to the Oustric bank six months after the Snia Viscose shares were listed. Oustric moved from arbitrage to ownership of various risky enterprises which he turned around through debt consolidation and partial sale of shares. During the 1920s he helped salvage the textile maker Kahn, Lang & Manuel , the spinner Valentin Bloch ,

1488-491: The authors of an escape attempt with hostage-taking that ended with the death of the hostages in 1971. Sentenced to death at Troyes on 29 June 1972, they were executed on the following 28 November. According to them, those sentenced to death who were from the Île-de-France region were locked in Fresnes Prison (which from 1978 would become the only prison permitted to host executions) but neither were executed due to

1550-482: The city's teams in both codes play. In May 2018, as the project "Concentric, eccentric" by French-Swiss artist Felice Varini , large yellow concentric circles were mounted on the monument as part of the 7th edition of "IN SITU, Heritage and contemporary art", a summer event in the Occitanie / Pyrenees-Mediterranean region focusing on the relationship between modern art and architectural heritage. This monumental work

1612-649: The demise of the Western Roman Empire . In the fifth century, the region of Septimania was taken over by the Visigoths , who founded the city of Carcassonne in the newly established Visigothic Kingdom . Its citadel, known as the Cité de Carcassonne , is a medieval fortress dating back to the Gallo-Roman period and restored by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc between 1853 and 1879. It

1674-552: The east of the Montparnasse district of the 14th arrondissement in southern Paris , France at 42 Rue de la Santé. It is one of the most famous prisons in France, with both VIP and maximum security sections. La Santé is one of the three main prisons of the Paris area, along with Fleury-Mérogis (Europe's largest prison) and Fresnes , both located in the southern suburbs. The architect Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer built

1736-520: The economic heart of the city for centuries. Though once walled, most of the walls in this portion of the town are no longer intact. The Carcassonne Cathedral is in this part of the town. Another bridge, Pont Marengo , crosses the Canal du Midi and provides access to the railway station . The Lac de la Cavayère has been created as a recreational lake; it is about five minutes from the city centre by automobile. Further sights include: Carcassonne has

1798-537: The eventual abolition of the death penalty. The last two remaining guillotines in France are now stored in the basement of the National Centre for Guidance in Fresnes prison. In 2000, the chief doctor of the prison, Véronique Vasseur, published a book in which she denounced the very poor imprisonment conditions. The book was a shock to the public and prompted parliamentary evaluation of the situation. In 2014,

1860-488: The execution was cancelled "in extremis" (twenty minutes before the time scheduled). He was finally pardoned by Albert Lebrun on 13 May – which respected the tradition of pardoning those sentenced to death the first time in the presidential office – and he was sent to prison in Guiana . He was referred to as André Baillard in the book by Henri Charrière . Nearly forty prisoners ended their lives in this place. It

1922-562: The geometry of the circles on the towers and curtain walls of the fortifications. The work was visible from May to September 2018 only. Carcassonne is twinned with: La Sant%C3%A9 Prison La Santé Prison (named after its location on the Rue de la Santé) ( French : Maison d'arrêt de la Santé or Prison de la Santé ) is a prison operated by the French Prison Service of the Ministry of Justice located in

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1984-571: The issue to Raoul Péret , Minister of Finance, saying he saw no reason to authorize the requested share float. Péret replied that the ambassador had insisted that the authorization be granted. Péret asked the opinion of the Ministry of Commerce, which was against it. He pressed the ministry, which remained cautious and wanted assurances that there would be an agreement between the French and Italian textile industries. Oustric said he would be willing to help obtain an agreement, and on that basis Péret gave

2046-454: The judges. The Attorney General pressed for severe penalties, but other witnesses said they did not think Péret had acted in favor of Oustric. On 23 July 1931, he was acquitted. The court simply found that the methods he had used should be morally condemned. The final report of the commission was completed in March 1932 but remained unpublished for fear of the effect on public opinion on the eve of

2108-519: The last of which happened on 14–15 October 2018. The newer part ( Ville Basse ) of the city on the other side of the Aude river (which dates back to the Middle Ages, after the crusades) manufactures shoes, rubber and textiles. It is also the center of a major AOC winegrowing region. A major part of its income comes from the tourism connected to the fortifications ( Cité ) and from boats cruising on

2170-526: The lower courses of the northern ramparts dates from Gallo-Roman times. In A.D. 462 the Romans officially ceded Septimania to the Visigothic king Theodoric II who had held Carcassonne since A.D. 453. He built more fortifications at Carcassonne, which was a frontier post on the northern marches. Traces of them still stand. Theodoric is thought to have begun the predecessor of the basilica that

2232-470: The minister had been paid for "political services" and that he had abused his power to prevent his client being charged. One of the leading members of the commission was Georges Mandel . The inquiry showed that the Bank of France had been involved in Oustric's speculations, indicating extreme naivety of the central bank staff. The commission drew criticism for publishing names, and L'Ere Nouvelle said that it

2294-661: The new cathedral . Carcassonne became famous for its role in the Albigensian Crusades when the city was a stronghold of Occitan Cathars . In August 1209 the crusading army of the Papal Legate , abbot Arnaud Amalric , forced its citizens to surrender. Viscount Raymond-Roger de Trencavel was imprisoned while negotiating his city's surrender and died in mysterious circumstances three months later in his dungeon. The people of Carcassonne were allowed to leave—in effect, expelled from their city with nothing more than

2356-478: The north of France, he made the error of using slate (when there was no slate to be quarried around) instead of terracotta tiles. The slate roofs were claimed to be more typical of northern France, as was the addition of the pointed tips to the roofs. The ville basse dates to the Late Middle Ages . Founded as a settlement of the expelled inhabitants of the town sometime after the crusades, it has been

2418-587: The paper maker Papeteries de Gascogne and other enterprises. He became involved in companies ranging from oil production to leather goods. In 1929 his holding company acquired Maréchal , a firm in Lyon that made reinforced fabrics. He then acquired Sarlino ( Société rémoise de linoléums ) in Reims, and Athos, a sewing machine company. Through a structure of holding companies the bank in 1929 controlled an empire of enterprises with optimistically priced shares. One of these

2480-471: The prison closed for renovations, which required 5 years to complete The prison features a hub-and-spoke design similar to that which had been implemented previously for the construction of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US. The prison is surrounded by: One of the peculiarities of la Santé is that, until 2000, inmates were divided by geographic origin and ethnicity within

2542-539: The prison, which was inaugurated on 20 August 1867. The prison is located on the site of a former coal market and replaced the Madelonnettes Convent in the 3rd Arrondissement, which had been used as a prison since the French Revolution . Previously, on the same site, was a Maison de la santé (House of Health), built on the orders of Anne of Austria and transferred in 1651 to what is now

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2604-422: The prison. One group of prisoners (those who are studying in particular) are grouped separately but most of them were arranged in four blocks: Block A: Western Europe Block B: Black Africa Block C: North Africa Block D: rest of the world. These blocks have undergone substantial renovation since 2000. The prison was partially closed from 2014 until 2019 in order to be rehabilitated; the parole section, however,

2666-592: The property of Raimond-Bernard Trencavel, viscount of Albi and Nîmes , through his marriage with Ermengard, sister of the last count of Carcassonne. In the following centuries, the Trencavel family allied in succession with either the counts of Barcelona or of Toulouse. They built the Château Comtal and the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus . In 1096, Pope Urban II blessed the foundation stones of

2728-457: The shirts on their backs. Simon de Montfort was appointed the new viscount and added to the fortifications. In 1240, Trencavel's son tried unsuccessfully to reconquer his old domain. The city submitted to the rule of the kingdom of France in 1247. Carcassonne became a border fortress between France and the Crown of Aragon under the 1258 Treaty of Corbeil . King Louis IX founded the new part of

2790-410: The south—became an important trading place in the sixth century BC. The Volcae Tectosages fortified it and made it into an oppidum , a hill fort, which is when it was named "Carsac". The folk etymology —involving a châtelaine named Lady Carcas , a ruse ending a siege , and the joyous ringing of bells (" Carcas sona")—though memorialized in a neo-Gothic sculpture of Mme. Carcas on

2852-659: The town across the river. He and his successor Philip III built the outer ramparts. Contemporary opinion still considered the fortress impregnable. During the Hundred Years' War , Edward the Black Prince failed to take the city in 1355, although his troops destroyed the lower town. In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees transferred the border province of Roussillon to France, and Carcassonne's military significance

2914-445: The upper walls of the fortress through square holes in the face of the wall, providing protection to defenders on the wall and allowing defenders to go out past the wall to drop projectiles on attackers at the wall beneath. The fortified city consists essentially of a concentric design of two outer walls with 53 towers and barbicans to prevent attack by siege engines. The castle itself possesses its own drawbridge and ditch leading to

2976-473: Was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997 because of the exceptional preservation and restoration of the medieval citadel. Consequently, Carcassonne relies heavily on tourism but also counts manufacturing and winemaking as some of its other key economic sectors. Carcassonne is located in the south of France about 80 kilometres (50 mi) east of Toulouse . Its strategic location between

3038-473: Was against the current policy of the Ministry of Finance, which did not allow listing of foreign companies in the French stockmarket. However, the responsible official asked the opinion of René Besnard , the French ambassador in Rome. Vidal went to Rome and met the ambassador, who wrote that he had no objection to introducing shares of Snia Viscosa on the French stock exchange. The Ministry official then submitted

3100-578: Was also at this site that the second-last public execution in France was performed, for burglar and double murderer Max Bloch on 2 June 1939. Fifteen days later on 17 June, Eugen Weidmann , guilty of six murders, was guillotined in front of Versailles prison and on 24 June the decision was made to ban public executions. In the same decision, the death penalty was made dependent on the Court of Appeal of Seine (either Seine-et-Oise or Aube ), with prisoners executed inside Prison de la Santé. On 15 March 1940,

3162-458: Was controlled by the Italian financier Riccardo Gualino , who was assisted by Benito Mussolini and the Bank of Italy , and had become the second-largest rayon manufacturer in the world. On 26 March 1926 Gaston Vidal, a former deputy and secretary of state and now a director of the Oustric bank, asked on behalf of the bank for authorization to list 500,000 shares of Snia Viscosa in France. This

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3224-697: Was done to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Carcassonne's inscription on the World Heritage List of UNESCO . Exceptional in its size and its visibility and use of architectural space, the exhibit extended across the western front of the fortifications of the city. The work could be fully perceived only in front of the Porte d'Aude at the pedestrian route from the Bastide . The circles of yellow colour consist of thin, painted aluminium sheets, spread like waves of time and space, fragmenting and recomposing

3286-454: Was for Georges Duchemin, who had been convicted of parricide . On 7 May 1932, Eugene Boyer, a 27-year-old criminal who had been denied a presidential pardon the previous day by President Paul Doumer , was to be executed by guillotine. Doumer was assassinated the day the execution was scheduled: in France, the president could reverse his decision until the last moment and obviously Boyer could not benefit from this potential "ultimate mercy", so

3348-404: Was kept in operation during this time. Prison de la Santé is now the last intra-muros prison in Paris. The other large prisons (in all categories) dependent on Paris are Poissy , Fleury-Mérogis , Fresnes , and Melun . The imprisonment of convicted "personalities" is one of the features of La Santé Prison. The area where these well-known people are imprisoned is termed the "special area" by

3410-474: Was mobilized as an accountant in a shell-making factory. He was released from the factory to exploit a legacy of his father, the rights to a waterfall in the Gripp valley of the Hautes-Pyrénées , by building a hydropower plant. He raised the funds needed to float the Force & lumière des Pyrénées company for this purpose. He also floated the Electro-Métal company to produce ferro-silicon in Haute-Garonne . In June 1919 Oustric founded Oustric & Cie ,

3472-414: Was muck-raking. Péret resigned, as did Henri Falcoz and Eugène Lautier, two undersecretaries of state who had also been paid by Outric. The government of André Tardieu was defeated and resigned in December 1930. On 25 March 1931, the Chamber of Deputies voted to impeach Péret before the High Court. The Senate sat as High Court on 20 July 1931, with Albert Lebrun as president and Joseph Caillaux among

3534-481: Was now Minister of Justice, delayed the indictment for twelve days while the bank's shares were plunging in value. They were finally de-listed on 31 October 1930. On 2 November the minister told the attorney general and state prosecutor that an inopportune indictment might trigger a serious financial crisis. On 4 November 1930 the attorney general withdrew his request for immediate indictment. The Oustric group failed with debts of 125 million on 5 November 1930. Banque Adam,

3596-474: Was paid to restoring the roofing of the towers and the ramparts, where Viollet-le-Duc ordered the destruction of structures that had encroached against the walls, some of them of considerable age. Viollet-le-Duc left copious notes and drawings upon his death in 1879 when his pupil Paul Boeswillwald and, later, the architect Nodet continued the rehabilitation of Carcassonne. The restoration was strongly criticized during Viollet-le-Duc's lifetime. Fresh from work in

3658-490: Was reduced. Its fortifications were abandoned and the city became mainly an economic center of the woollen textile industry, for which a 1723 source quoted by Fernand Braudel found it "the manufacturing center of Languedoc". It remained so until the Ottoman market collapsed at the end of the eighteenth century, then reverted to a country town. Carcassonne was the first fortress to use hoardings in times of siege . Temporary wooden platforms and walls would be fitted to

3720-520: Was still current. The newspapers claimed that Oustric had drained cash from the Banque Adam taking the money of depositors. On 21 November 1930 the Chamber of Deputies appointed a commission of inquiry to determine if there had been any improper political involvement. The commission of inquiry found that Péret had been involved as counsel of the Oustric bank and of the Paris Foncier and Holfra companies that it controlled. He had received large fees but had provided no legal services. The commission found that

3782-572: Was the Banque Adam , a long-established bank in the Pas-de-Calais . The operation was respectable, supported by other banks, and known for its success in salvaging troubled enterprises. When Gualino quarreled with Mussolini, the value of the Snia Viscosa shares fell. The general decline of stock prices in 1929 also undermined Oustric's business. He used funds from the Banque Adam to buy shares in his other companies so as to keep their prices from falling. The attorney general became aware of this and asked for an indictment. In October 1930 Raoul Péret, who

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3844-479: Was the finish city for stage 15, and the starting point of stage 16, of the 2018 Tour de France . Previously it was the starting point for stage 11 of the 2016 Tour de France , the starting point for a stage in the 2004 Tour de France , and a stage finish in the 2006 Tour de France . As in the rest of the southwest of France, rugby union is popular in Carcassonne. The city is represented by Union Sportive Carcassonnaise , known locally simply as USC. The club has

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