Mirepoix, department of Ariege

We stopped off here on our way back from Minerve, to discover another small town, so beautiful and steeped in history! The name Mirepoix in Occitan (Oc) the local language, is supposedly Mire Peis, which means " see the fish". 

An 18th century local lord, the Duke of Levis-Mirepoix has been described as an "incompetent individual" (!) but as an Army field-marshal and friend of King Louis XV, he  gained some fame by giving his name to the culinary concoction Mirepoix- chopped celery, onions and carrots (there are apparently endless variants - I'm not going there!), which is used as  a flavour base for many dishes like soups and sauces.

Enough of the culinary anecdotes, the delight of this fortified town of about 3,000 inhabitants derives mostly from its stunning buildings!

Our old friend (!) Simon de Montfort took the castle during the Albigensian Crusade (see last blog for more) after a siege in 1209, dispossessed the Cathar-supporting owners, and gave the town to his loyal lieutenant, Guy de Levis.

Depending on which website you consult, the original town was destroyed in  either 1279 or 1289 (town website says the latter)  after a barrage on the river Hers gave way, and the water flooded the town. Reconstruction, by Jean de Levis (son of Guy), started on the opposite bank of the river in the following year (probably 1290, then!), the streets being laid out in a medieval grid pattern. which remains unchanged to this day!

The shots above and below are of the town centre-piece, the market square or Place de Couverts, built at this time. The design of the facades allowed private habitable spaces to be extended over the public areas, providing more living space and forming sheltering arcades underneath.

These arcades  provide  shading and seating areas for the shops and businesses, including several cafes and restaurants, operating in the buildings behind. It is a delightful spot to stop for a while and have some refreshment!

Once rebuilt, the town recovered its prosperity during the 14th century, but was subjected to raids by armed bands, who sacked the town and set parts ablaze. Thus further defences, including four big stone town entrance gateways, were constructed.

These individually carved decorative gargoyles on joist ends (I saw a note somewhere to say there are 150 of them, but that sounds far too few) are fascinating! Many have been badly damaged by the elements; the most surviving are faces with a variety of facial expressions, ranging from surprise to anguish, and can be studied for some time! And see the owl too! You can just imagine those woodworkers of old sitting carving in that square!

The cathedral of Saint-Maurice de Mirepoix today. Originally built in 1298 by Jean de Levis as a church, it was enlarged over the centuries. It has a 22 metre (70 feet) wide nave, said to be the  widest in Europe  apart from Girona cathedral in Spain! Once the now-abolished seat of the Bishop of Mirepoix, the cathedral is quite rightly a listed monument.

There is also a covered wrought iron market hall adjacent to the square, built in 1885 and undoubtedly replacing, a nearby sign says, an enclosed stone and timber building which was demolished at some previous time. This hall comprises a lantern light roof standing on a wrought iron industrial style structure with 16 columns, a design popular from the 1850's. The roof profile provided enhanced lighting and ventilation beneath it.

See to the left of the above photo.  For some obscure reason I did not take a full photo of it!

 Nigel trying to count the number of gargoyles!!

Just to think these ancient oak columns and beams are still standing today - although one can see the evidence of "running repairs" carried out over the centuries!

One of the streets leading into the square.

Markets are still held each week on the large grassy island in the centre of the square.

Due to its proximity to Carcassonne airport and the budget UK airlines which fly there, the Ariege area has become very Anglicised, with café signs advertising food in English and English newspapers having become quite common. Otherwise, it's still remarkably unspoilt!!!

An amazing (I think!) panoramic view of the square and whole town can be seen HERE  and is  well worth a visit. It also shows clearly the covered market.  

Other sites worth viewing are HERE and HERE

My thanks once again go to Nigel for all his research and writings.

see my daily photo diary  HERE

http://photodiarydps.blogspot.com

and also - My Life Before Charente Updated 12/07/2013 

Visiting Minerve, the Cathars and meeting another friend.

Minerve is the capital of the local wine region and has been selected as one of  the Most Beautiful Villages of France (yes, another one!) and it really is!

I may have mentioned the Cathars in previous blogs and how they were persecuted for their beliefs, but they are closely connected with Minerve, as I will tell!

The history is very complex,  but Catharism was a religious movement which sprang up during the 12th to 14th centuries in areas of Europe, notably northern Spain and southern France. Cathar beliefs were a direct challenge to the Catholic Church, which they denounced  as the "Church of Satan", but it is likely we have today only a partial knowledge of their thinking, because the Papacy probably destroyed most of their writings in the Albigensian Crusade (more later!) of the early 13th century. 

Pope Innocent III, elected in 1198, resolved to try to convert the Cathars to Catholicism and sent out his Papal legates into the countryside to facilitate that, but in 1208, one of the legates, Pierre de Castelnau, was murdered nearby. Innocent III responded to this crime by sending a Papal army to wipe out the Cathars wherever they could be found! This exercise was called the Albigensian Crusade, was extremely cruel and vicious, drew in people from all over France and  lasted for 20 years!

Back to Minerve....! It was one of many hill-top forts in the area, but it sheltered  a group of Cathars who had sought refuge there, so it was besieged in the year 1210 by Simon de Montfort (Earl of Leicester - an Englishman!), a commander in the Papal army. Giant rock-throwing machines (trebuchets) were used to batter down the  stone defensive walls, thus the town garrison commander was forced to negotiate a surrender after 6 weeks of bombardment, when the town water supply was destroyed. 140 Cathars were among those captured, but they refused to give up their faith, so were burned at the stake on 22 July 1208. Terrible times!

I have tried to keep this concise and hope I haven't bored you, but history is so important to this area! There's plenty more to read on the internet if you want to do that.

The village today could not be more quiet and peaceful and only residents' cars are allowed into its streets over the main bridge. One can, however, almost sense the atmosphere of violent history associated with this settlement and the surrounding deep rocky gorges of the rivers Cesse and Brian, which meet nearby. Of all of the original fortifications, only a slender octagonal tower, known locally as the Candela, survives and it can be seen in the photo below.

 Our first view of Minerve.

and a shot taken from the other side of the town, showing the main route over the bridge into the village.

 Narrow streets above and below!

The 11th century church dedicated to Saint Etienne, but unfortunately locked up on that day. Its altar has been dated to the year 456, thanks to an engraving on one of its sides. This altar was retrieved from an older church nearby, which had been on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

We had an excellent lunch here at the Pizzeria La Terrasse, the only restaurant open! Too cold for anywhere else to bother opening for the few tourists!

Photo credit Brendon Sweetman

As you can see it was a very cold day in May, especially on this hill-top!  Myself, Emma and Fi.  We last met at school in Rhodesia about 55 years ago!!

Photo credit Brendon Sweetman

The three of us in front of the gorge of the river Cesse

 A happy and smiling Fi.

The gorge, without us blocking the view!

My thank once again to Nigel for the research and the write up.

see my daily photo diary  HERE

http://photodiarydps.blogspot.com

and also - My Life Before Charente Updated 12/07/2013 

Meeting some old friends plus a visit to Rennes-le-Château

The view from our friends' house near Carcassonne. Imagine looking out on such tranquil scenery every day!

A typical French tree-lined provincial road. The flickering effect generated by a low sun shining between the trees when driving along these long, very straight, roads in early morning or late afternoon can be disconcerting, as we can testify!

The hill-top village of Rennes le Chateau is featured in Dan Brown's blockbuster novel "The Da Vinci Code" and its extensive and fascinating history goes back to the 10th century and beyond, into pre-history and Roman occupation (far too much to relate here - I suggest you use the search engine on your computer if you want to know more!!). The history includes rumours and fanciful theories of hidden underground chambers, buried treasure, links to Mary Magdalene, lost religious artefacts and a host of other mystic conjecture! Why did important political figures like former French presidents Chirac and Mitterand, plus former German chancellor Schroeder all make a point of coming here? Is there really something of substance behind the rumours???!!!

The first  of the two restaurants we came across in the village, Le dragon de Rhedae,  was closed. Perhaps too early in their season to bother opening?  We picked a quiet day, and were thankful that we were able to look round the village before the main holiday season, when hordes of  tourists will arrive! When the Da Vinci novel was very popular, upwards of 100,000 people visited the village every year, and it's only a very small  place!

Detail of the restaurant sign. "Rhedae" is the name for Rennes le Chateau in Oc, which is the regional language . Not at all being an expert, the written words of this separate language look like a mixture of French and Spanish. Oc speakers are spread around the south-west of France, not just close to Spain. In fact, our neighbours up here in the Charente speak it at home, but it's hard enough learning French, without taking on Oc as well!

Simple but effective sundial used by the populace long before more complicated timepieces injected time constraints and deadlines into our lives!

Above and below, four shots of the last, and now ruined, chateau Hautpoul, built in the 17th or 18th century. Nothing remains above ground of all the earlier structures built during the preceding 800 years.The village was originally called plain Rennes (or Rhedae in Oc)  and castles were built there from the year 1002, but the "le Chateau" suffix was only added to the name at some later time. The French are fond of long village names!

 You can judge the height of the walls by the size of the people walking below! Lots of stone and lots of people needed to construct this monolith! Impressive!

This spooky Devil sculpture, standing about 3 feet high, is just inside the entrance to what has been described as the "garish" interior of the village church, dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene.

This strikingly elaborate, decorative (and very expensive) alcove in the church is an example of the "money no object" interior. It seems inappropriate to spend so much money in a humble village church on top of a mountain, but this is another puzzle in Rennes le Chateau. To make a long story short, the humble and low paid 33 year old parish priest named  Berenger Sauniere, arranged renovations to the church between 1887 and 1897,  the cost of which amounted to 660,000 francs - €2,500,000 in today's money. Sauniere earned only 900 francs per YEAR! His bosses, the parish bishops, demanded that Sauniere  reveal, at trial, the source of the funds. He refused to reveal this information and the secret is buried with him! Some say he discovered buried treasure! You can read more HERE (many other sites are available!!) but all conclusions drawn are  merely possibilities!

Nice mural at the other restaurant in the village - the Queen of the Castle; fortunately it was not only open but had plenty of empty tables!

Above two photos, the spectacular views we were privileged to enjoy from the terrace of our "elevated eating eyrie". You can see snow on the Pyrenees on the horizon - and that was May. There was still some to be seen in the TV coverage of a Tour de France mountain stage held there yesterday!

Walking back to the car after lunch, we gained a distant view of  the 4,000 feet high Bugarach mountain, the so-called "Mountain of God". It is very unusual in that the rock strata at its top are OLDER than those at the bottom! It's  also France's answer to the Bermuda triangle - UFO sightings reported, unexplained happenings, disappearance of climbers, planes are not allowed to overfly it, etc. When the "end of the World" was said to be predicted by the Mayan calendar last December, this mountain was reported to be the only place to survive! The French police had to close all the roads leading to Bugarach village (population 179) and keep many anxious travellers away until the deadline had passed!! The only restaurant there was advertising a 4 course "end of the World" dinner at €30 a head. What marketing!

Finally, the cute little stone marker we saw when driving out of this spell-binding place.

My thanks to Nigel for all his research and writing this post for me to go with my photos.

The start of our amazing holiday begins at Carcassonne

I apologise for the long break from my blog, but we had an amazing holiday and I am still going through the many photos which we took, therefore posts will still be slow for a while!  Furthermore, to those that follow me because of the Charente region, I apologise, but we will be in several different regions of France for a while, plus a trip to Spain, a cruise in the Mediterranean and a week in the UK.

We left home in mid-May, driving south to Carcassonne.  We were to meet, and stay with, a former school friend of mine who lives close to the town, and who I have not seen for more years than I like to remember!   We arrived in the area by late morning so we decided that we would see the city itself, before proceeding on to our friends.

Carcassonne is a medieval fortified city in the French department of Aude. The first signs of settlement in this area have been dated back to 3500BC.   It was founded in the Gallo-Roman period, but has developed over the centuries into a much larger town.  

The following is what is written on the  sign as you enter the medieval area :-  

After the Albigeois crusade, in the XIII century, the Seneschal representing the King of France occupied the town.   In September 1240, Raymond Trencavel tried with the help of the local lords to recapture the town by laying siege to the 'Cite'.   Helped by the occupants of the 'bourgs' (market towns), besiegers finally reached the ramparts of the fortress which nearly fell into their hands.   The siege finally failed and the King of France asked the local authorities to have the houses which had betrayed him pulled down.   In 1263, King Louis IX 'Saint Louis' decided to create a new bourg on the South side of the river Aude in order to give back to the 'cite' the defensive potentialities.   This is the way the "Ville Basse of Carcassonne" called "Bastide" was born on the present site.  The new town was characterised by an orthogonal plan forming 1000 square metres.  In 1355, during the 100 Years War, the Ville Basse, hardly fortified was completely destroyed by the "Black Prince".   Two years later, Carcassonne was rebuilt on the South side of the river as a smaller town, but surrounded by ramparts and towers.  

For further information on the town see Here

In 1849, the city had fallen into such disrepair that a decree was passed by the government to demolish it.  This caused such an uproar, that in 1853 restoration was started.  There is a double ring of ramparts and 53 towers.

 It was added to the UNESCO list of world heritage sites in 1997.

The restoration is excellent, and it is wonderful to walk around the site and imagine you were there many, many years before! The wooden sections atop the walls are to protect defenders standing on the battlements.

 The church is undergoing restoration at the present time, but here are a couple of photos without signs of scaffolding.

There are also a few active shops in the centre. I am sure they do very good business with the tourists, especially during the summer months.

You can clearly see here the double ramparts.

and from the outside looking up.

I just loved this little bridge which was on the outside of the old city.

The river Aude, with the more modern part of the city  on the left, on the opposite side of the river to the older fortified city.

The dome in the newer part of the city under which I believe they hold events and performances. 

I loved this doorway in the new area

and this fountain, which sadly was dry!

This is a beautiful city and I would love to return and spend more time here and surrounding areas. I hope that you enjoyed this first day of our trip, I will try to keep up to date a little more often now!!