Cathar Country

Tuesday September 25, 2007

Another day of travels into Cathar Country makes us realize to what extreme ends the Cathars had gone to build in places that no-one (aka the Catholics) would ever find or even care about them, and leave them to practise their unique religion. Traveling in a car has also impressed upon us the area over which the Cathars had spread themselves and how difficult it must have been to get from site to site. Our first destination for today was Queribus. We left the climb to Tony & Jackie since we’d already done it. The day was clear and a good deal windier than our climb last week, but Tony & Jackie made out just fine. When they made their way back to the car, we decided that today might be the best day for a visit to one of the most important Cathar sites – Montsegur. This location is hugely remote, so it was a really good drive to get there and by that time the temp had fallen, the skies had filled and the wind continued to howl. We stopped before Montsegur for lunch in Puivert. Our pique nique plans were abandoned in favour of a restaurant here – good choice.
So…the climb to Montsegur. Challenging! The climb was steep with a very rough, irregular and fairly slippery path. Yesterday was a long uphill slug, but at least the road was a good surface. Today - not so much. This is easily the toughest climb yet and fortunately the last of this trip. But I’m proud to say that all of us made it to the summit and in pretty good time as well. The descent wasn’t any easier, but we did all right with no slips. We then headed for home using the fastest route we could find, which meant going north through Mirepoix to the Toulouse autoroute and then home via Carcasonne. On our way to Fraisse we made a quick stop at the Sigean Intermarche for some breakfast and dinner ingredients. Also, before we returned to the Cachette, we stopped at Mme Gazaniol’s in town – the wine and produce lady - for the eggs she promised us yesterday. She was very disappointed with her chickens and was only able to offer us 6 eggs. Quel domage! Dinner tonight was duck again, this time using a Lucy Waverman recipe from the LCBO’s Food & Drink. I made a little variation using fresh local figs instead of plums for the sauce. It was a hit! The day ended with pics from our excursion. Clearly we’re missing TV, because we all huddle around the little 13 inch Apple screen to view each other’s pics. We’re having a good time so who cares.