Part 2 : In the Land of the Cathars
(This is a continuation of the trip log from Part
1 : Provence)
Day
14 (36 km): After breakfast we cycled on to Béziers.
The cycling has been very flat since we left St. Remy. Béziers
is a nice little city. The Allée Paul Riquet is a beautiful
street with a large esplanade shaded by huge plain trees. (Paul
Riquet is the engineer who built the Canal
du Midi). 
We
sat in the shade and had lunch with some fresh peach juice we had
bought at a farm along the way. As we watched, a car stopped in the
bus lane across the street from us and the driver opened the door to
get out. As he did, another car went by and hit the door, wrenching
it forward so that it rested on the front fender. The driver was
shocked but luckily he didn't lose his arm! It could have been tragic
but it was actually pretty funny! We decided to stay and found a
hotel (H. de France). After dinner, we chatted with two young men who
were en route on a tandem bike from north-east France to Barcelona
for the Olympics. Because it was so hot during the daytime, they
travelled mostly at night. No lights! When you're young you're
immortal! Béziers was the site of one of the most horrible
massacres in history. During the Albigensian Crusade, Béziers
was the first and most devastated victim as 15000 citizens of the
city were killed by the crusading knights as they scoured the
Languedoc countryside to eliminate the Cathar "heretics". The story
goes that the pope's representative, when asked how the attackers
would know the heretics from the true followers of the church,
reportedly said "Kill them all! God will know his own!"
Day
15 (57 km): We phoned ahead to the village of
Minerve to reserve rooms because there was only one small
hotel in the village (the Relais Chantovent) and we wanted to ensure
we'd have a place to stay since there was no other nearby option in
that direction. We headed west, finally getting into some interesting
terrain, passing through pleasant tiny villages surrounded by
vineyards. We had a picnic lunch by the river Cesse. It was hot, so I
had a swim and was then teased about swimming in the "Cesse pool".
I'm surrounded by would-be comedians. Minerve
is an absolute jewel! Surrounded by vineyards, in a spectacular
setting on a rocky promontory high above the meeting of two river
gorges, the tiny, quaint village is wonderful. We've seen nearly half
of the 120 or so "plus beaux villages de France " and we don't
understand why Minerve is not included. (It now is
included!!) We had a fine meal in the hotel restaurant. An
elderly couple sat at the table beside ours. When our first course
arrived, she said to Peter (in English) "I see you're having the
snails". Peter:"Yes" Madame: "You are very brave at this time of
year!" We had an enjoyable time with them - he English, she Swedish.
They may have been in their eighties but I'd love to have seen what
she looked like fifty years ago. She had une certaine
élégance.
Day
16 (52 km): We started the day with a hilly ride west
across the southern slopes of the long ridge of the Montagne
Noir then turned south-west at Caunes-Minervois back down
on to the plain of the Canal du Midi and on into Carcassonne.
There's not much to recommend in this city except the
remarkable Cité
médiévale. This walled, turreted fortress is
just what you pictured a medieval city to be when you were a child.
In fact, Carcassonne was used to represent Nottingham in the Kevin
Costner "Robin Hood" film. Our hotel (H. du Pont Vieux) was pretty
good and afforded us a great view of the Cité. As you would
expect, inside the walls there were hordes of tourists. In that way,
the Cité is much like Mont St. Michel or Rocamadour. I
wouldn't have missed any of those three grands sites de
France but I wouldn't go to any of them again.
Day
17 (68 km): We headed down the valley of the Aude river,
stopping for breakfast in a little village about 20 km south of
Carcassonne. At Limoux we stopped for une
dégustation of the sparkling wine of the region,
Blanquette de Limoux. 
It's
not Champagne but on a hot summer day in the south of France, it's
very pleasant indeed. As we followed the river, the hills on either
side got larger and in the distance ahead of us we could see the
Pyrénées rising up towards the Spanish border. We
stopped at Quillan at a good and
very inexpensive hotel (H. la Pierre Lys) with its terrasse
right next to the river where we sat and drank our chilled bottle
of bubbly and watched a flock of sheep come down to the far bank of
the narrow river to drink. We had a very nice meal at the hotel.
Day
18 (64 km): West from Quillan, away from the river, there
was an immediate stiff 5 km climb to the Col
du Portel, not the highest Pyrénéan pass that
we've cycled over, but the first. 
The
60 km ride from there west to Foix
in the Montaignes Plantaurel was possibly our best day of
cycling on the tour, surrounded by small mountains with the higher
peaks visible to the south-west and featuring four more cols
(passes) and many other challenging climbs and exciting descents.
Peter and Carol excel on the climbs but my 100 kg makes me the star
of the descents. I tell them as I pass them "It's not your fault.
It's just physics." We found a hotel (H. Lons) in Foix with a dining
room overhanging the Ariège river giving great views. We had
hoped to visit the nearby caves at Niaux, reputed to be second
only to Lascaux in terms of its prehistoric cave paintings, but it
was completely booked for the next two days. Carol and Heather
climbed to the Château de Foix, a long steep walk. At the windy
top of the towers they had great views of the mountains to the
south.
Day 19: By the time we had cycled 10 km north along the
river and stopped for breakfast, the mountains were behind us. We
headed east over rolling farmland littered with giant rolls of straw
waiting to be collected. In the hamlet of Vals we visited a
remarkable little church (église rupestre). The
entrance at the level of the crypt was through a fissure in the cliff
on which the church stands. From the crypt one goes up to the 11th C
nave and 12th C apse and then finally up to the church which was
built during the 100 Years War. As we arrived in Mirepoix
there was a concours d'attelage (a race with wagons being
pulled by teams of horses) around a course which included a stretch
through a shallow river. Our hotel (H. Commerce) had a lovely
terrasse where we had a nice meal. The market square in the
heart of the town was especially pleasant with medieval sculptures on
the ends of the beams of the arcade.
Day
20 (42 km): We had a rare breakfast at the hotel then
headed north on some very tiny country lanes through rolling hills
with a mix of forest and farms - lots of fields of tournesols
(sunflowers).The usually dependable Michelin maps let us down (or
rather my usually dependable reading of the Michelin maps let us
down). We got lost a couple of times. Once we
cycled up a very steep hill on one of those little lanes. At the
top, a couple were standing beside a house watching our slow progress
with great interest. When I got to the top I asked the man how far
this road went. "Juste ici!" (Right here!) We made a hasty and
embarrassed retreat. We finally rolled into Castelnaudry near
noon, catching the last half hour of a market. The response of the
two women to a market is almost Pavlovian. Peter and I did what we
usually do - we found a table outside a bar, ordered deux
pressions (two draft beers) and sat down to relax and watch the
bikes. We found a hotel (H. Fourcade) and spent a relaxing afternoon.
There's a well preserved windmill nearby which the women visited.
Castelnaudry claims to be the city in which one finds the
authentic cassoulet, a very hearty bean casserole with lots of
sausage and confit de canard (duck legs cooked in duck fat and
then preserved in the cooled fat - it's rich, salty and very
tasty ). This is a peasant dish for cold winter nights but we tried
it on a warm summer evening. The others liked it better than I
did.
Day 21 (45 km): We headed north again, stopping for
coffee in the hilltop village of St. Félix-Lauragais.
If I had it to do over again I'd stay there rather than in
Castelnaudry. There was a small market in the hamlet of
Auriac. We stopped, of course. It was overcast until noon. The
last couple of days have been more reasonable - around 26°C -
very nice for cycling. Once again we were surrounded by fields of
sunflowers. We had a fast ride "en peloton" into
Lavaur. It's a clean small city but undistinguished.
Historically, it was a Cathar stronghold at the time of the
Albigensian crusade. It was attacked by the dreadful Simon de
Montfort (the father of the famous knight of English history) who led
the crusade on behalf of the church. When the city fell to Montfort,
he had the châtelaine of the castle thrown into a deep
well (alive) and then boulders were thrown down on top of her! Nice
guy. We were unsuccessful in finding a restaurant that evening (they
were either uninteresting or full) so we were finally reduced to
dining on whatever bits of food we had in our bags.
Day
22 (68 km): North again in the morning, stopping for
coffee in the fascinating 12th C bastide of
Lisle-sur-Tarn. It has a beautifully preserved medieval
arcaded square in the centre. We carried on east through the busy
little city of Gaillac and on into Albi where we got a
nice hotel (H. Laperouse) with pool - an important consideration
since we're back up into the mid-30's today. Albi has two worthwhile
major attractions. The most obvious is the massive Cathedral
Ste. Cecile. This immense red brick church was built
fortress-like at the time of the Cathar heresy to protect the
Inquisitor from the "heretics" (Albi was a Cathar stronghold). While
the exterior of the church is plain and intimidating, the interior is
incredibly ornate with magnificent frescoes and intricate wood
carvings. The other attraction is the Toulouse-Lautrec museum which
houses a fine collection of the paintings and posters done by the
diminutive Albi native. We had a lovely dinner at the hotel on the
terrasse by the pool, the whole area being lit by lanterns. It
was quite magical.
Select next trip segment.