Castles in the sky

The storm from the previous night brought blue skies the next day. This was good for us because we planned on taking a daytrip to see some castles high up in the mountains and finish the day at the beach. Carcassonne isn't that far away from the ocean and the Pyrenees mountains and the temptation to spend the day seeing them was too much.

We packed a day bag with plenty of supplies: couple guidebooks, water, binoculars, sunglasses, hats, suntan lotion, bathing suits. Before leaving, we stopped for a typical French hotel breakfast: coffee, tea or hot chocolate, few slices of baguette, croissant, plain yogurt (but with jelly packets that you can mix in), and some type of packaged fromage. If you're lucky sometimes you get slices of ham, turkey and fresh fruit, but we were staying at a "budget" hotel this time around so no such luck.

Here was the planned route for the day. Carcassone is (A), Castle Peyrepertuse and Queribus are (B), and Collioure is (C). We planned to take the country roads the whole way there and then zip home on the highway in the evening.

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Let me attempt a brief history on the castles and region to give a little context. Like many ancient things we saw during our trip, the castles of Peyrepertuse and Queribus were first established by the Romans. Their history is somewhat vague until the Cathars used them for refuge during the Crusades starting around 1000 AD. The Cathars based their beliefs on Christianity, but were critical of the Catholic church and preached about tolerance, freedom and non-materiality. Doesn't sound too bad. The Cathars moved into this region between France and the Kingdom of Aragon (modern day northern Spain) and inhabited and probably improved the castles. Since they were built high up on rocky edges of mountains, they were nearly impossible for anyone to overtake. That is, until the Crusades around 1250. Queribus was the last to fall and the Cathars were nearly all wiped out. The King of France recognized the strategic importance of these high outposts overlooking the Kingdom of Aragon and rebuilt them completely. Five of these satellite castles outposts reported back to the main castle in Carcassone and protected the southern border of France until a treaty was signed with the Kingdom of Aragon in the 1600s that moved the borders south of the Pyrenees. The importance of the castles was diminished with the border shifted to the south and they fell into a state of ruin.

These photos give a better perspective than I could get from the ground. You can see both how high up they are and the commanding views that they have.

This is Queribus...

And this is Peyrepertuse... While these are probably the two most famous castles in the area, there are many others that you can visit. This link highlights some of the other castles in the Aude region.

We stopped first at Queribus after a somewhat harrowing drive up tight mountain roads. At some point you have to get out and hike up. Jen decided to take in the view from a lookout near the parking lot and I hiked up to the top. It was probably a good thing that she didn't make the attempt as it got very steep, windy and a bit dangerous high up. The Cathars didn't believe in hand rails or high walls and with a 1000 ft drop off the backside it wasn't for the faint of heart.

The view from the road The protective barrier that was only waist high. In the distance, you can see the Med. The Pyrenees in the distance. Nice view from your bedroom window. Pretty amazing views. I could have stayed up there for a couple more hours except for the fact that Jen was patiently waiting below. I hiked down, we jumped back into the car and drove a few short miles down the mountain and back up the next to Castle Peyrepteruse. The hike up was much easier this time around so Jen and I made our way up the hill to the plateau where the castle was built. We took it slow to make sure Jen didn't trip and I didn't get busted for wearing her out too early in the day. Note the smile on her face! Castle Peyrepteruse was much more substantial than Queribus but perhaps not as good of a fortress since the geography was less steep. We wandered through the ruins admiring the views. The wind was starting to pick up and dust and small rocks started to fly all over. We took that as our cue to maybe start the hike down and head to the beaches!

Our final stop for the day was the little beach town Collioure. It has a great location where the Pyrenees meet the Med right at the border of France and Spain. We thought that we were heading to a relatively undiscovered gem, however, we found the town absolutely jammed. Apparently some of that traffic from the Grand Jour de Vacances was heading here and probably a good number came up from Barcelona (only 100km south) as well.

We stopped at a gelato stand and ordered up a couple double cornets with chocolate hazelnut goodness and then proceeded to stroll around town. Walking around this town with a cone in your hand is the easiest way to blend in with the French and Spanish tourists. We really liked the town and the laid back atmosphere (probably the Spanish influence!). It would have been nice to stay the night in Collioure and have a nice dinner oceanside and then walk along the beaches. Wouldn't that be so much better than sitting through another crappy rainstorm for dinner in Carcassone? I think if our day pack had included toiletries and a change of clothes we might have actually done it. Instead we'll just add Collioure to the long list of places that we plan to return to someday.

Languedoc

(click for rest of our photos)