The name Castelsarrasin appears in the 13th century, when the village of Villelongue was replaced by the present bastide. |
A single house outside the walls of a town was also called a bastide. |
The bastide, or castle town, although not large, is still significant to political and administrative life. |
Friday night is the time to visit this bastide town, when stalls sell fresh produce and restaurants serve everyone together on long tables in the street. |
She told me that there could not be a worthier, honester, better man, than bastide. |
The Merovingian Franks inherited the concept, followed by the Carolingian French but the later French term was basti or bastide. |