So now for part 2!

We thought we would take a few pictures of our little village.  As with many French villages there are some beautiful houses that have been renovated , and others that are literally falling down!

The flower boxes outside some give a little colour to the houses, and as we said the boulangerie is great, and we are still buying fantastic baguettes and pastries (but not every day!)

We thought that it was time to “test out” Greg’s knees again! We decided to visit the 4 Chateaux of Lastours. They are some of the original Cathar Castles.

Three of the four castles were built between 1223 and 1229. They were a stronghold of the Cathars , and the Cabaret Castle became the ” seat for the Cathar Bishop”.

We began our day by visiting the Belvedere , where we were given an amazing view of the 4 castles perched on rocky outcrops. We could see the path up to the castles and decided to give it go!

It was a 45 minute walk up and a 45 minute walk down, but it was amazing to walk through the ruins of these castles, and again one wonders …….how in the hell did they build them????

You will all be pleased to know that Greg’s knees withstood the pressure again, and he didn’t even need to “ice them’ with a beer afterwards! Although he probably wanted to!

We drove to a “semi large” 14th Century bastide town called Revel in our first week , and had just missed their Saturday morning market, so we thought we would return to buy our fruit and vegetables , which are not that great in the supermarkets here!

The impressive Medieval market hall in the town square has been holding markets for over 600 years! It was “fun” trying to buy our radishes , and they were sensational!

We also visited Soreze, a beautiful Medieval small town. It had a lot of gorgeous half timbered houses and a large Bell tower of the Church of Saint Martin. The remainder of the church was destroyed during the Wars of religion in 1573.

We visited the Benedictine Abby of Saint Papoul with its 14th Century cloisters.

So we hope you enjoyed our 2 part Chateaux blog, and were not too bored by photos of chateaux! Now definitely time for a rest , and of course a drink!

So it is that time again , as always!

Greg and Rhonda!