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My First Foray into Cathar Country Belatedly Illustrated in 2003 |
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Leaving La Grasse I disobeyed the warnings to not take the rout i showed the hotel propreitor and gas sation attendants.
As a consequence I never got the Peugeot out of 3d gear fro the first few hours of tortuous, single lane road
going up and down and around hills with no benefit of bridges or cut-and-fill smoothing of grades.
Hours later, through beautiful grand gorges and bypassing quaint villages,
I saw on a distant peak what looked like the profile of Peyrepertuse castle (link to a French site with photos) as I had seen it in pictures (there is a single cloud in the entire sky, and it is sitting on the castle as I drive up:
The road goes up to within 300 feet of elevation from the castle. From the castle, the nearby village looks like it is a long way down: it is.
If you look carefully at the central hill on the horizon in the above picture, you will see a little thumb to the right. That thumb sticking out is the castle of Queribus (click for photos on a French website).
These castles were built and used as frontier defense outposts until a treaty redrew the border between what are now France and Spain. The new border was very practically placed into the highest divides of the Pyrenees rather than down here north of the base of the Pyrenees.
It was after the official use for these castles had ended that the Cathars took refuge in them. They were allowed
to do so by sympathetic local nobles who owned these places.
Peyrepertuse is built on a narrow ridge, so it is built on several levels, here is the main or lower part:
This is a view up to the higher levels:
Finally a view up to the third level:
From that level, it is a nice view out over the lower portions of the castle:
The surrounding country is beautiful, despite the smudge on the photo:
From the top there was an impressive, green panorama with an occasional village and farm (grapes and wineries everywhere). The vegetation along the trail was high and thick and provided merciful shade. Some parts of the castle were cool, with shade and a little wind. Heavenly. But most was climbing, in full sun, glorious views in the castle as well as out.
My quietest moment was when I shared this Romanesque chapel with a smal bird, who left in a hurry when I began to sing it a song:
After this moment of quiet, I hurried down and drove to Montsegur.