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Catalunya, Cathars and Castles (and vino!)

Catalunya, Cathars and Castles (and vino!)

Old May 23rd, 2016, 02:41 PM
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Catalunya, Cathars and Castles (and vino!)

I just got back yesterday from a great trip to NE Spain & SE France. While still feeling some jet lag and vino withdrawal symptoms, I thought I would at least get a start on a trip report before getting too caught up in work and the daily grind.

OVERVIEW
Our group of 4 women (50s-60s) spent 2 wonderful weeks happily stumbling along in Catalonia Spain and SE Languedoc France. Our itinerary consisted of:
• 5 nights in Barcelona
• Picked up a rental car and drove to Cadaques, on the Costa Brava coast, just south of the French border. Stayed one night.
• Continued on to Limoux France, which was our base for the next 7 nights in the Aude region of France.
• Drove back to Barcelona for a final night before flying back to Toronto

BARCELONA
We spent the days wandering around different areas. Our goal wasn’t to see all the ‘sights’, but rather go with the flow. We strolled through Gotico, El Born, El Ravel, Eixample and Barceloneta. (On our final night, after coming back to Barcelona to fly home, we stayed at a hotel in the Sant Antoni area, so we got to see a bit of that area too.)

Our Airbnb apartment, a couple of blocks north of Placa Universidad in Eixample, was a fabulous find! With 4 separate bedrooms and 2.5 baths it was the perfect setup for 4 friends traveling together. The décor was ‘old Barcelona’, matching the character of the space. And, the best feature of all was a covered patio (blankets and heaters supplied for those chilly nights), where we collapsed each day after miles of walking, for our pre-dinner libation. Our lovely, helpful host was the cherry on top.

The weather was mixed, being generally a bit on the cool side and rainy or spitting on a couple of days -- nothing that prevented us from enjoying the city though. While we did a lot of walking, we also hopped in cabs a few times (reasonable prices; drivers generally seemed more honest than in many other cities I’ve been in) and took the Metro. The subway is clean, fresh, easy and cheap, particularly if you purchase a T-10 ticket.


Highlights:
• Sagrada Familia (no surprise, although one person in our group didn’t like it). We booked a couple of days ahead online and included the audio guide, which was well worth it.
• Our best ‘surprise’ and favourite site (unanimous for the group) was the Sant Pau Recinte Modernista (old hospital). If you like architecture and design or you like the thought that this hospital complex was designed and built in the early 1900’s with the belief that beautiful surroundings are good for the health of patients, then you must check this out. Seeing this complex immediately after Sagrada provided an incredible contrast – from over-the-top gaudy Gaudi, to beautiful, colourful ceilings, rooftops and grounds. It’s an easy 10 minute walk from Sagrada. (Tip: the diagonal pedestrian road between the two sites if chock full of tacky restaurants. There were a couple of good looking café type restaurants right by the hospital though.)
• Stumbling across Mus players in action at a local restaurant. Mus (pronounced “moosh”) is a card game. When we saw several tables playing cards I approached them and asked them what they were playing. One of the players, Anna (who struck me as a stern, but friendly, “Russian” woman), invited me to sit down at the table with them and watch. They were extremely serious in their play and I didn’t have a clue what the rules were or what the strange cards meant. Doesn’t it turn out though that I was sitting at the same table as the World Champion Mus player!! (I know….you’re all incredibly jealous, right?? )
• Chatting with 2 “locals”, on the day of our arrival. The first one was our Airbnb host. She is involved in politics and gave us an overview of the local political scene/background, explained the flags we would see around the city, etc. We then hopped a taxi to Gotico to join a lovely young woman, the daughter of a friend from Toronto, who had lived in Barcelona for the past 7 years. We had a great brunch and got some inside colour on quirky, wonderful Barcelona.
• Our apartment. (as mentioned.)
• Las Ramblas (well, not really. 5 minutes was enough for us to check it out and move on!)

Food & drink:
• The most amazing dark chocolate ice cream! (Xocolat negre). We stumbled across it at a shop in El Gotic and found it later at a second place (sublime, but not quite as good as the first place). We would have eaten it every day if we had seen it.
• “Tomar un Vermut!” - just find a little vermut bar and enjoy this aperitif anytime of day!
• Wine - “yes”. Say no more.
• Tapas – it was fun to check them out at various places. Some were definitely better than others. And, if you are hungry and the proper restaurants aren’t open yet, well, you can always stop in at a tapas bar. Our favourite tapas were at a place called “Tast”, on Para.llel, in the Sant Antoni area. Their Potates Bravas were the best we found by far. We also had a fabulous Tempura cod, balanced on end, in a puddle of rough tomato sauce (with a pleasantly surprising sweet flavour). The “piglets” (in a lush, mild curry sauce) pleased all of us as well. There were a couple of places with a more traditional atmosphere that we enjoyed as well.
• Paella - 3 out of 4 of us had our favourite paella at a restaurant only a block or so from our apartment – Bosque Palermo (on Valencia). Good atmosphere; very reasonable prices and tasty paella – what’s not to like?
• Salads were fabulously fresh everywhere we went, even little hole-in-the-walls.

General observations about Barcelona:
- A clean city, with a fairly safe feel to it. We felt very comfortable walking around and using public transit.
- It was sometimes difficult to get the full impression of a neighbourhood if you were there in the afternoon. The shops pull down their graffiti covered ‘garage doors’, creating a more desolute look. If you walked by in the morning or very late in the afternoon then the area would take on an entirely different, and more lively, feel.
- BCN is very bicycle and dog friendly.

I’m starting to fade, so I’ll continue the next chapter (Cadaques) in my next post.
Thanks to everyone who posted so many wonderful tips, information and opinions on Fodors forums. It was invaluable in our planning!!
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Old May 23rd, 2016, 06:13 PM
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Good, let's hear more when you are ready!
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Old May 23rd, 2016, 07:28 PM
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I am eager to read more, too! The Languedoc is next on my wish list of trips...
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Old May 24th, 2016, 03:48 AM
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...creating a more *desolate look. (Told you I was jet lagged.)
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Old May 25th, 2016, 05:44 PM
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Cadaques and the Costa Brava

We picked up our rental car near the Sants train station in Barcelona. That was an adventure! The area around the station is a zoo, roadwise/traffic-wise, and, it turns out, the Avis rental isn’t actually IN the train station like many of the other rental companies, but rather across a large parking lot/bus transit area and across a street. I won’t go into detail here about the specifics and lessons learned about renting and driving in Catalunya and SE France in this trip report as it warrants another thread for those that are solely interested in that topic.

Off we went, headed to Cadaques. Driving out of BCN was a tense challenge, not because the drivers are wild (they aren’t), but rather because traffic is busy, we were getting to know a new vehicle, new traffic flows, and, we didn’t know our way out of town. In any case we arrived at our target without major incident.

We chose to stay one night in Cadaques so that we could experience another facet of Catalunya other than Barcelona. It was a great choice.

Our accommodation was Hostal Vehi, up on the hill beside the church. While it was a challenge to get luggage up to the hotel, in this pedestrian area, the effort was rewarded. The hotel was simple but lovely and clean. Most importantly, the family that ran the place made it special. Monica was efficient and helpful, but her mother, Rosa, took it over the top. You would have thought we were long-lost friends. She wished us well every time we left the building and enthusiastically welcomed us every time we came back in. When we ultimately checked out the next morning there were hugs and kisses all around. (We’d been there less than 24 hours!)

It was a great time of year to visit the town as we were there late enough in spring for there to be some life in this seaside village, but early enough to avoid the ‘crowds’. (I’m not actually sure that this village can actually handle crowds and there aren’t any large hotels there.) We wandered along the seaside promenade, stuck our noses in a few shops (including picking up some brightly coloured ceramics) enjoyed seafood for lunch and dinner. Someone in our party ordered a seafood pizza for lunch, and it came with the seafood on top, still in their shells! Spectacular to look at, but a bit challenging to eat! We watched the local families and regional weekend visitors stroll for their evening family passeggiata (is that what they call it in Spain?). It was a lovely day, if a bit chilly.

Once we checked out we headed over to the next bay to stop in Port Lligat, at the Dali house and museum. Lo and behold, we couldn’t get into the museum since we hadn’t booked in advance and they had filled up their quota. Undaunted, we wandered into the gift shop and proceeded to get in a conversation with the store clerk. It turns out that he was a former tour guide and a passionate Catalonian. Almost an hour later, with a few gifts (melting clocks, Dali-style) tucked away, we were much wiser about the area and Catalonian politics. I’m guessing that this turned out to be better than a museum visit.

At the store clerk’s suggestion, we drove the short distance to Cap de Creus, jutting out into the Med, for a wonderfully windy and scenic walk past the lighthouse and up to a windswept restaurant for a lovely seafood lunch with a spectacular view. (If you go, don’t go to the first restaurant by the lighthouse. We asked to use the restroom and they told us we could only do so if we bought some food. We continued further on to a much friendlier restaurant with even better views.)

After our leisurely lunch high on the cape, we were well behind schedule to check into our French villa in Limoux. We were going to have to boot it! But that’s the next chapter. So long Spain. Hello France.

https://goo.gl/photos/4D1yBkDs5XNSviHA7

(To be continued.)
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Old May 25th, 2016, 07:41 PM
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Enjoying your TR!
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Old May 25th, 2016, 07:50 PM
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Yes, still following along. Lovely photos and what a wonderful area!
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Old May 25th, 2016, 11:50 PM
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Enjoying your report with great interest as this is where I will be going on my next adventure.
Can u post a link for the apt you rented in Barcelona.
Also,I keep reading that the road to Cadaques is quite curvey-how bad was it?
And I have made a note to make sure rental car pickup is actually at the train station for ease and to have xocholat negre whenever I have the chance.
Thanks for posting.
I look forward to reading more
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Old May 26th, 2016, 10:22 AM
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@thanks Leely. Yes, it was nice to go to a seaside area that wasn't over-touristed.
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Old May 26th, 2016, 10:30 AM
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@FabulousFrance

Here is the link to our Barcelona apartment: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/2097353?...s=4&s=FYFg8rg6

Yes, the road to Cadaques if fairly winding, but paled in comparison to some of the roads we took the following week in the hills and mountains of southern France. If you're a moderately confident driver you should have no problem.

Regarding the rental cars at the train station, I don't think you should necessarily pick one of the companies that are based in the station. If we had known the exact location in advance, and how to get there and how to get to the return spot, it would actually have been easier than if it had been in the train station. We rented from Avis (though AutoEurope) and they were helpful and friendly, unlike some of the car rental horror stories you hear about (for just about any rental firm, depending on location). Budget was also based in the same location.
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Old May 28th, 2016, 06:53 PM
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Limoux or bust!

With more of a diversion than planned in the Cap de Creus area of Costa Brava, we were under the gun to get to Limoux to check in at our rental villa. We quickly became confortable with the winding roads of Cap de Creus and the many roundabouts of both Spain and France. We finally arrived around 6:45 pm at “Clercy”, our rental villa.

We rang the bell at the nondescript doorway. When the door opened we were blown away. We had seen photos of the villa ahead of time, but walking into the stone archway, and into the medieval courtyard was still awe inspiring.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/cjpx88kcz...OyiUMOncefSz3a

Once we were welcomed at the villa by a lovely couple, Charles and Ann, we realized that we had to hustle to the grocery store. It was Saturday night….much was closed Sunday, and Monday was a holiday in France. We followed the house couple, in our car, to the grocery store, and had less than 10 minutes until closing time. We were a sight to behold, grabbing fruit, fresh vegetables, cheese, meat, and, of course, vino. Included in our wine purchase was a bottle costing around 2 euros, which, upon tasting, was very acceptable!

Now we had to find our way back to the villa. Due to one-way streets we couldn’t go back the same way we had gone, so we ended up in the very narrow streets of the town centre of Limoux. We’d hit a corner, see a sign with a giant red “X” in a red circle, and realize we couldn’t go forward. Turn after turn, it was a maze. Some of the turns were almost impossible. How could they expect us to turn up that tiny little laneway without scraping our car??? Of course, in the end we made it back to the villa, and luckily with nary a scratch. Phewww!

After having driven for over a day, I suggested that it made sense to look up online the street signs for France. Lo and behold, the signs that we had presumed meant “no entry” had simply meant “no stopping” or “no parking”. We had created our own nightmare driving scenario! Doh!

At least we were now settled and more knowledgeable about driving in French towns and ready to conquer the Aude region of France.

To be continued.
(Next post: Touring Languedoc.)
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Old May 28th, 2016, 07:23 PM
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Hmmmm....not sure if the link to photos in the above post works. Just in case, here's a link to another photo grouping:

https://goo.gl/photos/DTtsNBPFzxKEWgCf8
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Old May 29th, 2016, 01:43 AM
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That's the way to experience Barcelona, a great trip report!
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Old May 29th, 2016, 01:33 PM
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I google-searched the villa you rented...oh my!! Gorgeous! Eagerly awaiting to read more about the Langedoc!
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Old May 29th, 2016, 07:09 PM
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Yes, the villa was definitely stunning! My photos clearly don't do it justice. The owner has done an absolutely fabulous job renovating the property. With 4 bedrooms and 4.5 baths, 2 living rooms, a lovely terrace overlooking the river and unique furniture and art pieces throughout, it was a pleasure just hanging out there.

Over the course of several evenings we held an 'art tour' for ourselves, doing one floor at a time, making up stories about the background of different pieces and highlighting the themes that tied them together stylistically. Silly fun.

It's one of the reasons why we picked Limoux as our base....just for the reasonably priced spectacular villa.

I hope to post our Languedoc touring highlights tomorrow evening. Sorry I'm taking so long!
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Old May 30th, 2016, 05:56 PM
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Touring Languedoc

As with our time in Barcelona, our goal wasn’t to see how many sights we could see, but rather head out in the car each day with a place in mind and simply take it from there. We always “accomplished” less than we expected to and that was just fine. Thank goodness for our Michelin map for Languedoc and for our GPS, otherwise we would still likely be driving around in the wilderness!

Our day trips included:

• Mirepoix/Camon/Quillan: We did the easy 40 minute drive to Mirepoix for the Monday morning market. Excellent and highly recommended! Afterwards we did the short drive to Camon (one of the Plus Beaux Villages). They had had their major rose festival the day before, so the village looked particularly cute. We wandered into the Abbey to discover it has been turned into a lovely atmospheric B&B. One of the owners was kind enough to show us around. Next stop was for a quick lunch in Chalabre for a modest lunch. Our final stop of the day was Quillan. The afternoon was warming up a bit and the sun peeked through, so we sat on a terrace near the old bridge, eating ice cream and watching some kayakers/body boarders come down the marked course. It looked like fun.

• Les Corbieres in search of a winery. Our “ambitious” plans for the day were to see Lagrasse, continue on to Abbaye de Fontfroide, and follow up with a visit to a small winery…possibly two. As usual we fell short. We managed Lagrasse and a winery. We took a very winding route from Limoux to Lagrasse (another Plus Beaux Villages), which took much longer than we had anticipated.

• Carcassonne for half a day….avoiding the crowds and enjoying a lovely lunch in the Cite.

https://goo.gl/photos/Cj6dniA7owUpmm158

• A trip to the coast, stopping in Narbonne on market day (we were there on a Thursday) and then traveling on to Gruisson, to visit the salt flats. (Gruisson itself was much too snowbird-touristy for us. It reminded me of Florida.)

https://goo.gl/photos/9h5wAnmMCLSGhoDj7

• A wandering exciting drive to Peyrepertuse and on to Cucugnan, before driving back through the Gorges du Galamus. This was a totally exhilarating day!


The highlights for me were:

• The Mirepoix market. The market is huge and lively, and, of course the town is beautiful. While the morning was quite cool we enjoyed a coffee on the square and had a oh-so-French light breakfast in a boulangerie/café. Vendors sold flowers, produce, sausage, crepes, antiques and clothes. It was simply wonderful to wander around.

https://goo.gl/photos/BguPbeijWFhNXpiw8

• The winery. We couldn’t go to France and not visit one, could we? We had stopped in at a winery on our way into Lagrasse, but it wasn’t open. The server at the snack bar told us about another winery just out of town. No luck. Not open. Our final hope was a tip from the tourist office and we hit pay dirt -- Chateau Villemagne. When we arrived we interrupted a group of Patenque players in the midst of their game. The owner, Roger, stepped forward to show us in. What a lovely time we had. Roger was entertaining and witty and his wines were flavourful. This is a family business, involving his wife, daughter and son-in-law. Upon leaving (after purchasing some lovely bottles of wine, of course) we asked to use the washroom. We had to walk by the courtyard where the Patenque players were still engaged in their good natured competition. As each of us waited in turn we were offered a chance to toss the ball. Another lovely local experience. Why doesn’t this place show up on Tripadvisor??

https://goo.gl/photos/XJawm9CK1XgTu1aMA

• Peyrepertuse. Glorious. Spectacular views. Well worth the winding, vertiginous drive and the modestly difficult climb. (Only difficult if fairly out of shape or if have any modest mobility issues – like one of our party with a bad knee.) We rented the audio tour and it was worth it.

https://goo.gl/photos/HQtpyqYyBusKetHm8

• Cucugnan. A lovely village on a small hill, with a windmill at the top. There is a little bakery that uses flour from the mill to bake artisan bread. Worth a stop. While there are several more upscale restaurants (one of which is usually open at any one time) we chose to stop in at the local sports bar/café. We had a fabulous time, sitting with a small group of locals/tourists, watching hikers walk by, other locals stop in and hug others. The old restaurant dog laid right in front of the door, amidst the tables, before wandering a few steps out into the street and lying down. The cars simply drove around him.

https://goo.gl/photos/59GqWJhyKwf3F8YD9

Next post: Thoughts on Limoux and the region.
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Old May 30th, 2016, 07:04 PM
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Limoux and region

Limoux is a lovely moderately-sized town. It is large enough to have everything a tourist would want (a number of restaurants, a couple of pre-made gourmet food take-out places, a great wine shop, a couple of grocery stores, a few churches (not that I visited :/ ) and a number of clothing shops. There is a market in the square on Fridays.

We ate out for dinner three times….all were enjoyable, even though we didn’t go to the high end spots. We went to:

Ici & La: We stopped in “late” on Saturday night. I use the term “late” loosely. After being in Barcelona we didn’t think twice about showing up just after 9:00. It turns out that, according to TA, many restaurants in town close at 9:30 pm. After a week of being early for dinner, we were now late! Luckily, there was live entertainment that night and they were staying open late. The English/American duo who were performing, stopped by our table to say hello during their break. We had a lovely chat. All in all the food was good, and, who could complain about free entertainment!?

Le Grande Café: We had dinner one night at the well-known institution overlooking the square. Coincidentally there was a group of Canadian women at the next table. (They were much louder than us, if I must say!) We Canadians were taking over. The restaurant is tacky/quirky and the server, at first gruff, but then warmer, added “character”. We had moules et frites (mussels and fries) as we hadn’t had any yet in our travels. It was very tasty. Another morning, before our daily adventure, we stopped in here for pastry and coffee, sitting outside, watching activity in the square. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

La Tantina: Also on the main square, we stopped in here for a lovely meal. I had Cassoulet and it was wonderful. I don’t have any other Cassoulets to judge it by, but the duck was huge, the beans, sausage and sauce were all very tasty and savoury. This restaurant has an upscale sibling, but, well, we didn’t hit the top spots in town. Not that we felt we missed anything.

We stayed in and cooked for ourselves at least a couple of nights and we picked up some tasty items at a gourmet take out shop on another night.

Another great find….was the wine shop on the square (near the Pont de Neuf corner)…Ateliers du Vignerons. The owner of our villa had recommended that we go there and mention her name. When we arrived at the shop, Richard was on duty. Well, it turns out that Richard is quite a character. Picture Ricky Gervais singing show tunes! We had many a wonderful discussion with Ricky, ahem….I mean Richard (who took offense to us saying he reminded us of Ricky, in spite of his English accent). On subsequent visits (even if we weren’t buying) he would hail us in to play some great jazz tunes on the CD player for us. And yes, we actually joined him in song.

All in all, we had a wonderful time in Limoux. Don’t stay here if you are a big city person. It’s at least a 20-30 minute drive to the highway to even get you on your way to a bigger city, which would be another hour drive. The town, in spite of its size, is quite quiet. Not many tourists find their way here in May. There are a number of expats living either in Limoux or in outlying towns.

Having said that, Limoux is absolutely lovely as a base if you love rural drives and quiet untouristed villages. This was my first time in France, so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I would guess that this region is much more rugged, slightly less “pretty” and more isolated than Provence and other popular regions in France. The people we met were very friendly (in contrast to the stereotypic Frenchmen) and willing to help. They willingly tried to speak English with us or to communicate with us in our broken French. How sweet!

Not surprisingly, the food in the region was fantastic (with one exception at a snack bar in Lagrasse)…and, as in Spain, the salad was amazingly fresh, even in low end restaurants. If I didn’t have so many other places in the world that I have yet to visit, I’d definitely come back to this area.

Next: Back to Barcelona
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Old May 31st, 2016, 05:09 AM
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Wait...Slow down! Let's go back to France for a bit. Can you tell us about some of your day trips? Which Cathar sites you saw? Were all of you able to visit and climb the ones you decided to see? How about the Gorges de Galamus? Did you make it to Collioure?

Please come back and fill in a few of the blanks!
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Old May 31st, 2016, 05:35 PM
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@kansas, sure...put me on the spot...having to confess that we would be the worst crusaders ever!

We didn't see that many sites. We saw:

1) Carcassonne - plenty of others have commented on line. We went in the morning to avoid the crowds. I'm glad we went, but once was enough.

2) Chateau de Puivert. We stopped in here between Camon and Quillan on our Mirepoix day. The drive up was 'interesting' in that it was a very rough, very narrow track. We prayed that we wouldn't bump into anyone heading the opposite way. That would have been extremely tricky. Once parked, it's a modest hike up to the Chateau. Even our group member with a bad knee made it without too much difficulty. We just had to take it slow coming back down to the car park. Once at the top the views were lovely. The entry fee was 5 euros, and, without much in the way of description and based on the simple look of the ruins from the outside, we decided to move on. If we were keen Cathar fans we would have gone in. I'm just not sure how much we would have learned about the Troubadors, which is the part that would have interested me.

3) Abbaye Lagrasse. Lagrasse is lovely and definitely worth a stop to look around. There are actually two abbeys/monasteries side-by-side. The lesser looking of the two was open (for a fee), but the one we wanted to enter wasn't open at that specific time. There is really no climbing involved to see these places....very accessible. Wander over the old medieval bridge into the historic village for a feel for what it was like to live in the old times. The town is in great shape.

4) Peyrepertuse. Utterly amazing. Quite a long drive up to the car park, but the road is fine, if a bit narrow, steep and winding. (Our GPS directed us through the small town below, which clearly was not the best option!) I am surprised that tourist coaches or people in their large campers go up there!

The views from the car park, both looking down at the valley and across to Queribus (from a special viewing platform), as well as up to the castle(s) was worth the drive itself. As I mentioned previously, one of our group members had a bad knee. Upon assessing the situation she decided not to trek up to the castle, but instead enjoyed the sun and spent time in the gift shop. That was definitely the right decision. It's not that the climb is extremely tough....as someone moderately out of shape could simply take their time, however there were definitely very high, awkward "steps" along the rough trail that would be very problematic for people with joint problems. If it had been rainy, wet weather then the climb would have been much more challenging. I would avoid it in weather like that.

We rented the audio tour and it was worth it. The storyteller on the audio was quite humourous and, definitely provided worthwhile information about the Cathars and the occupancy of the site over history. We made it to the "lower castle" and toured around and spent a fair amount of time. It was quite interesting. Again, the views were spectacular. The "upper castle" was even further up the ridge. We would have gone there, but we were feeling guilty about having abandoned our friend back at the car park. So we headed back down, listening to most of the rest of the audio on the way. Even though we didn't do the entire climb, the entry fee was worth every little penny.

Here is the view from the lower castle to the upper castle:
https://goo.gl/photos/zx8tRKahBix4PU2m8
If you were to zoom in, you would see little people climbing stairs (in that case there actually were stairs) up the extreme righthand side of the slope.

By this time we hadn't had lunch so we were very focused on finding a place to eat! Although it was getting a bit late, we decided to take a slightly more circuitous route back to Limoux, so that we could drive through the Gorges de Galumus. So, our hunt for lunch took us to the windmill village of Cucugnan, as I described in my post above.

After lunch we continued on south to Maury, skipping right by Queribus due to lack of time, and then across to Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet. This allowed us to take the road north through the Gorge. Wow. It was spectacular and there was ooohing and ahhing from the back seat of the car (from our nervous Nellie, who was too mesmerized to be nervous). I was driving so I probably saw less than the others. As it wasn't summer, the traffic was 2-way. Yikes, that was interesting to say the least. Somehow the timing worked just sufficiently to allow cars going one way to nudge over as close to the wall on the corner as possible to allow the other vehicles to squeeeeeeeze by. Phew!


If it had been just me and another moderately fit person with similar interests, I would have gone to more of the Cathar sites. How they built Peyrepertuse and Queribus, I simply cannot imagine! I also would have gone to Foix and the Niaux Caves. Of course I was happy to do what worked for the group and we had a wonderful time together...so how could I complain!? It was a wonderful trip and we had a lovely mixture of activities in Languedoc.

To answer one of your final questions, no, we did not make it to Collioure. We thought of stopping in there on our way back to Barcelona, to minimize backtracking, but we had learned our lesson. We always underestimated how long it would take to get from place to place and how long we would spend at each place. Plus, our time in Cadaques had given us some nice time in a pretty village on the sea. Instead, we stopped in Ceret, much closer to the highway. It was a wise move...as I will explain in my next post.


I've probably now bored most of the readers here on Fodors, but hopefully this provides a bit more detail for people considering visiting this less-frequented region.
geenance is offline  
Old May 31st, 2016, 06:51 PM
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I am sure you bored absolutely no one!! Thanks for the additional information. The clock is ticking for us...if we wait too long, this trip may be beyond our capabilities. It truly is high on my wish list, but we are in our early 70's...healthy and fit now, but we need to move on this!

I do appreciate your taking the time to add these day trips to your report. Your trip with your friends sounds lovely. We often travel with friends, too. This provides lots of laughs and great memories for years afterwards.
kansas is offline  

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