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Published: September 3rd 2007
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There were two things I really wanted to see this year while in France; one being the Toulouse Lautrec museum in Albi, the other being the castle at Montségur where many Cathars spent their last days. I was so eager to see both places that I was prepared to go and find them on my own, but luckily for me JB offered to take me on a road trip across France to see them.
As it happens, both Albi and Montségur reside in France’s Midi-Pyrénées region so it made seeing both of them a lot easier than I’d first imagined. Imagine the odds that the two places I was dying to see happened to be situated only a couple of hundred kilometres away from each other!
First stop was Montségur, a tiny little village 1100kms from Strasbourg. After a twelve hour day on the road, the final hour including winding through dark, fog covered hills we finally arrived at our hotel. Honestly, I was worried we weren’t going to find it because the hotel didn’t have a street address, but I understood why once we’d arrived in the village. It was such a tiny town I don’t even know
if the streets were named, and there were big signs pointing us to the hotel - it would’ve been impossible to miss it, even in the fog!
Montségur is a very cute little town. One of those places where you can spot the locals because they say hello to you on the street, even the little kids all say hi. It has such a friendly atmosphere it was kind of like one of those soppy midday movies. After breakfast we set off to do the only thing on the agenda for the day - go to the top of the mountain and see the remains of Chateau Montségur.
The reason this particular area interested me so much was because last year I read Sophy Burnam's
The Treasure of Montségur, a story of the Cathars. The Cathars were a religious group that existed mainly in the 12th and 13th centuries, a form of Christianity but with some very different philosophies; one being that the devil created the earth and that to achieve divine purity the goal was to break free of “matter” and become pure light (obviously a very raw summary). Of course this rejection of the first testament
Chateau Montsegur
It didn't take as long as it looks to walk to the top - only about 20 minutes. didn’t go down to well with the Roman Catholic Church so the Cathars, along with so many others, got put on the Inquisition hit-list. The Catholics didn’t stop until they’d killed every single one of them, with the most important battle taking place at Montségur. The Cathars were said to have put up a good fight, but in the end the freezing cold and lack of food lost them the battle. Over 200 Cathars were burned at the stake all at once at the bottom of the mountain. In the Montségur museum dedicated to the history of the Cathars there are a lot of really interesting artefacts found years later, such as various weapons used in the battle, that bring an eerie reality to their story.
Despite its history, it didn’t take very long to see what I wanted to see in Montségur, so for the afternoon after our exploration JB and I travelled down to Andorra, a little principality between the French and Spanish borders. They might as well call the city “Duty Free” because it just seems to be a whole lot of shops at very cheap prices, neatly tucked away in a Pyrenean valley. On the
Chateau Montsegur
There is a rumour that these ruins were in fact rebuilt after the original chateau was destroyed completely after the Inquistion. Either way, it's the site where it all happened. drive down cars were lined up for kilometres at the border control trying to get out because so many French people drive down to buy alcohol, cigarettes and petrol that they need to check all the cars to ensure the French aren’t taking more than their allowed amount out of Andorra. Luckily for us we didn’t come back till late at night so we didn’t have to wait in a queue to get back into France.
The next stop on our journey was Toulouse. Not exactly on the wish-list, but since Toulouse was between Montségur and Albi it seemed silly not to check it out. By the time we arrived we only really had half a day to explore - it was a nice enough city although it didn’t completely ‘wow’ me or anything. Basically we just walked around, getting a feel for the city; stopped into some churches, walked by the river, had an ice cream in the gardens, and did some window shopping. Very much a superficial visit and not really giving the city a chance to show its true colours. We did, however, stumble upon an amazing Lebanese restaurant for dinner where I ate so well
Flower
There are so many beautiful flowers and plants in the French countryside, I'm so glad I got to experience some time outside of the city centres. I think I’ll be dreaming about that meal for the next month! Overall I think Toulouse definitely has potential to be a great city I just didn’t see enough of it to judge it properly.
Final stop, Albi. I’d been dreaming of visiting Albi since 2005 when I did a research project on Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and realised that in his hometown, Albi, there was a museum dedicated entirely to his work. I was already a huge fan of his Moulin Rouge posters, but the project taught me so much more about his other works as well as his crazy, wayward lifestyle! Anyone who loves a bit of a rebel can’t help but love his story; an aristocrat turned bohemian artist who chose to slum it in Montmartre, living in brothels, drinking and gambling, and rubbing shoulders with all sorts of colourful characters both rich and poor - often who ended up featuring in his art.
Being in the museum was breathtaking. There were so many paintings I’d never seen, as well as random sketches and doodles he’d done on scrap paper, not to mention seeing the originals of so many of my prints. It’s very difficult to
explain why this one artist in particular moves me so much, why his paintings, sometimes two dimensional, carry more weight for me than visiting the Sistine Chapel. I was just awestruck the whole time I was there.
The town of Albi itself is gorgeous too, very cute and neat. Apart from visiting the museum, we spent our time wandering around the little streets, drinking coffee, walking, eating ice cream, walking, eating dinner - you get the idea. It sounds like such a simple way to pass the time but it was so enjoyable we repeated the experience the next day when we were supposed to be driving home because neither of us were ready to leave. In the end we dragged ourselves away in the afternoon and didn’t arrive back in Strasbourg until 2am.
It almost sounds like a sin to say it, but if I don’t travel out of Strasbourg again for the rest of the year I wouldn’t care. I now feel complete. I didn’t want to have lived in France for a year and not visited Montségur and Albi, and now I have. And although my list of places to see around the world grows
View from the top
The only time the clouds parted a little bit - other than that the view was just grey clouds as far as the eye could see. quicker than I can mark them off, I couldn’t be happier with the experiences I’ve had this year, so any other place I am lucky enough to visit this year will just be a welcome bonus.
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Janna
non-member comment
that trip looks so fantastic! Now Montsegur is on my list of places to go, too! Isn't there also some stroy about the Holy Grail having been stored there at some stage...? Not sure though