Travelogue - Cathar country

Travelogue - We scrambled over Cathar strongholds in Languedoc, marvelling at the madness that must have existed to make people build and live in places like the castles we visited.

We headed to Carcassone from Toulouse. Carcassonne, the famous walled city is breathtaking from afar as it stands on a hill above a river in the middle of a valley. The walls are entire and there is a whole village inside the walls. Once you get inside the walls it is a bit of a different story - tourist heaven, heaps of small shops selling STUFF and hordes of tourists - it resembles a medieval village but the shops are horrendous. We had a walk around, bought a very over priced beer and left. We spent a few days visiting other Cathar castles and strongholds. ( The Cathars were a religious sect against which a pope declared the only Crusade to be conducted within Europe - it was of course really a conflict over land and power and the Cathars were practically wiped out with a great deal of bloodshed and ash - the believers who refused to convert were burnt en masse.) Queribus, the last stronghold to fall (in 1255), is an isloated fortress built straight up out of the rock dominating the valleys which run to the Mediterranean and to Spain. For a long time it was a French outpost guarding against Spanish incursions. From Queribus we could see Peyrepetuse, another cliff top castle which fell years before Queribus. We were there late in the afternoon alone with the dying sun. You can't escape the powerful feeling which remains as you gaze over the walls and wonder what it must have been like to be there surrounded by a ruthless enemy knowing all the other strongholds had been captured and the Cathars slaughtered. Like Montsegur, a clifftop fortress we viisited earlier in the Pyrenees Queribus resonates still !

The countryside is dry with small trees and rocky hills, grapes in the valleys and tree lined streams and rivers. The area is called the Ariege and is very different to the softer, moister country to the West.

At Puylaruns we visited another hilltop castle that had been occupied by Cathars and used by the French for centuries to guard against the Spanish. We spoke to some Spanish visitors about this and they smiled and said barriers are built these days in other ways and for other reasons.