translate English to French: The man generally credited with getting the bastides started was Raymond VIIth, Count of Toulouse who needed to shore up his power base after the ravages of Simon de Montfort and his violent, destructive repression of the Albigensian heresy. On the death of Raymond VII in 1249, Alphonse de Poitiers, the brother of St. Louis, took possession of the County of Toulouse and was a major force in the development of the bastides.
Les bastides se situent normalement en hauteur (sur un pech dont les pentes fournissent une enceinte naturelle) ou près d’une rivière (respectant à la fois l’axe parallèle à la rivière et l’axe perpendiculaire à la rive à franchir).