Over the past week , we have been visiting lots of Chateaux and Abbeys, so word of warning……if you are not interested in the above, we suggest you skip this blog!

We did a day trip down south into the Pyrenees to specifically see more of the Cathar Castles.

Our first stop of the days outing was the magnificent Abby of Fontfroide , began by Cistercian monks in 1145, and some history for you…..it was the assassination of one of the Fontfroide monks which triggered the beginning of the Crusades against the Cathars. Life in the Abby from the 15th Century began to “slide”, and… shock,  horror “the monks began to eat meat and chocolate , and even began to play billiards”. The Abby was privately bought in 1908 and still remains in the same family today.

 

 

The Church is one of the highest Cisterican Churches built in the 12th century, and the monks prayed here between 2am and 3am, at dawn, the 1st , 3rd , 6th and 9th hour of each day, and dusk and before bed! One must ask…..was there time for anything else??

 

 

 

The cloisters were beautiful, a place where the monks would walk, meditate and read, and apparently wash their feet every Saturday….so the guide said!

The rose garden was stunning and the perfume coming from the roses was lovely.

Here endeth the first lesson!

Then we continued on, in 35 degree heat, (thank God Louis has good air conditioning) to a couple of “WOW” moments.

We visited the stunning Cathar Chateau of Queribus, which was one of the last strongholds of the Cathar resistance in 1255 and you could see how they held out! It is perched on the narrow rocky peak at 728 metres altitude. We drove to the car park and then decided to walk up to the Chateau , and Greg’s knees survived!

The view from the top was stunning. You could see for kilometres!

We then continued to the next Cathar Chateau , 5 kilometres away, the Peyrepertuse Chateau at 800 metres altitude.

From a distance, it was difficult to see the magnitude of this Chateau. It is built amazingly along the cliff top. Again we drove to the car park, but this time decided not to walk up to the ruins with the temperature now at 39 degrees……surely you can understand why we didn’t! The view was just as good from the car park!

Our last stop on the tour was the Chateau at Villerouge -Termenes, surprise surprise , another Cathar Castle, and it’s claim to fame…….this  is the place where the last known “high order Cathar Monk” was burnt alive in 1321 on the orders of the Catholic Archbishop.

By this stage Greg was rather parched and was definitely in need of a refreshment, however , as we have found when driving around, in the small villages, if there is a bar, they re usually “fermee”, (closed) which is  rather annoying at times! It was a fantastic, albeit long day!

Of course , there are always days available for us to “do lunch”. We did one of those in Carcassonne this week  and it was fabulous. We started off with a nicoise salad (sorry no photo , we were too hungry!)

This was followed by a filet de loup (fillet of sea bass) in a broccoli mousse with cauliflower foam and a wilted endive.Sensational! this was followed by an apricot tarte tartin and all washed down with a bottle or 2 of local rose! We may have to return!

The Carcassonne Cathedral, Saint Michel , is in the process of renovations, however the outside is pretty stunning. It dates back from the 13th century and became a Cathedral in 1803.

 

Of course, there is always time for coffee and Place Carnot in Carcassonne is always a great place to sit, drink and people watch.

 

So that’s it for Part 1 and again if you are bored by the Cathar Chateaux, don’t bother to read Part 2 which follows this.

Until Part 2!

Bye for now

Greg and Rhonda