Exploring and climbing

Beautiful calm, blue sky, sunny day. We were heading across to Tarbes to look at some houses, so decided to take a day driving through the mountains rather than going along the motorways. Wonderful scenery - all craggy peaks and autumn foliage. Although our local 'Pyrenee' (Canigou) has had some snow on the top for a few weeks now, the central Pyrenees look to have a very good covering already - locals think this will be a fantastic ski season.

We had a lovely stop for lunch, eating bread and saucisson sec on the banks of the Aude, then continued on through Quillan and stopped at Montsegur to walk up the hill and look at the castle. As you can see, it's on top of a rock and quite impregnable. It was one of the last strongholds of the Cathars, a religious sect persecuted by the Catholic Church as heretics in the 12th and 13th centuries. What we had understood was that the castle you see is the original Cathar castle - half demolished when the castle was finally taken after a 9 month siege in 1244. We've since found out that the ruined castle you see is a 17th century fortification - the Cathar buildings having been completely demolished after the castle was taken. All occupants who surrendered at the end of the siege refused to recant their beliefs and were burnt alive at the foot of the hill.

There are persistent rumours that some Cathars escaped and took valuable treasure away to safety - possibly the Holy Grail.

Anyway, it was a hot day and a long steep climb. By half way up, with no asthma inhaler, I wasn't sure it was such a good idea; by the top, I knew it wasn't! But the views were spectacular, even if the heights and lack of safety rails were a bit intimidating for me. We almost lost Conor over the side in one heart-stopping moment, but all was well.

Onwards to Tarbes and a roadside hotel with a small and very odd restaurant. The staff were all just sitting smoking inside when we arrived, and were all (bar the chef, thankfully) drunk. Still, the food was great and the wine seemed less ropey by the time the second carafe arrived. And it sure beat Macdonalds.