L'Aude Pays Cathare

Sunday in Quillan was wet, cold and miserable but with a promise of improvement. We stayed indoors most of the day reading the Sydney Morning Herald and doing its crossword on our iPad. (Oh, the wonders of technology!) We did a bit of research so we had something interesting to do for Monday. Some of the restaurants and bars close on Sundays so we made do with an omelette filled with lots of vegies - we'd been missing them. Our apartment is just over the bridge in a little street behind the pink building.

Today, Monday, we headed out in our little Peugeot 107 to visit two sites near the little town of Couiza. The first was Rennes-le-Chateau. For those of you who have read Dan Brown's The da Vinci Code or a book called Holy Blood, Holy Grail, you may then have heard of l'abbé Berenger Saunière.
He somehow came across a large amount of money that allowed him to renovate the local church, as well as a substantial residence for himself after excavating sections of the old church. It was all a big mystery/scandal at the time (late 19th early 20th century) but he has left the legacy of a renovated church, presbytery, villa and garden for the town to now use as a lucrative tourist attraction. This is all linked back to the supposed continued lineage of JC and Mary Magdeline. I'll leave you to make up tour own minds.

The winding, narrow road took us back to Couiza and out along the valley to the small village of Arque. Here is located the Donjon d'Arque, one of the many Cathar castles in this region - all in ruins; mainly because of their opposition to the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
This castle has a small, and very underworked, bookshop attached to it, and the building itself is a good example of the Middle Ages type of stronghold. There is a central keep with four levels and the ever-present helical stairway connecting them. The keep is surrounded by an outer wall with two attached towers.

Our return necessitated a stop at the local brasserie for a quick coffee/beer/mineral water. Here we ran into a group of about seven motor-cycle riding couples (mostly Canadians, but some Aussies too) making their way around Europe on large BMW touring bikes with a guide. What a way to go!!!