Medieval Market Town

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Mire poix is only 45 minutes from Toulouse, where I live. Sunday April 29th was a sunny day, quite warm for the month of April, so we decided to have an afternoon out.

After a lovely drive through the valley of northern Ariège, we finally arrived at Mirepoix, just in time for lunch :-). Mirepoix is a medieval Market Town, founded in around the 13th C. Although some of the buildings have obviously been restored and painted in modern paint, the wooden beams of the arcades still exist. One can esaily imagine the medieval folk going about their daily business in the square.

Of particular interest to any curious traveller or historian would be the Cathedral of St. Maurice (14th - 16th C). The cathedral has the widest nave in France, and is the second widest in Europe. Contrary to many churches one visits, the walls and ceilings still have a lot of their original colour, and the width of the nave really brings out the pretty blues and pinks.
Although the cathedral was finished in the 16th C, many small pieces of architecture were added upt o the 19th C. This is especially obvious on the Gothic look of the roof, which was added in the mid-19thC.
Above the chapel of St. Agatha, one can see a painted labyrinth. It was the last one to be painted inside a church in both France and the whole of Western Europe. At the moment, full view is out of bounds to the public, as the authorities are looking to restore the fading paint to its original beauty.

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Photos

Cathedral of St. Maurice View 2
View of the church tower (16th C), and of the immitation Gothic roof work, added in the mid-19th C.

Cathedral of St. Maurice View 3
A glance at the colour of the nave.