Languedoc - Cathars & Crusaders

This morning, we depart from our hotel and travel to the Cathar refuge of Cordes-sur-Ciel. This is a stunning and well-preserved town, perched high on a hilltop that sometimes can be seen peeking out over low-hanging clouds. Surrounded by vineyards, this location is filled with history and we have time here to explore its gothic townhouses. Later, we make our way to Albi to see the red-brick St. Cecile cathedral, built in the late 13th century as a tribute to the triumph of the Catholic Church. Its interior is breathtaking and boasts a vaulted ceiling decorated with Italian Renaissance frescoes. Before our day comes to an end, we also pay a visit to the Berbie Palace, residence of the archbishops, and now home to the Toulouse-Lautrec museum.

This morning starts with an exploration of Lastours, a cluster of four Cathar strongholds spread over a rocky spur above the village. Besieged many times, they held out for twenty years before falling in 1229. Rather than undertake the strenuous hike necessary to reach these ruins, we shall have a short lecture from a viewpoint that affords a spectacular view of all four monuments in their landscape setting.

We then depart for Carcassonne, a pivotal city in this story. We shall be at home in the remarkably well-preserved city, with a visit this afternoon to the Château Comtal and the grand basilica of St. Nazaire. Showcasing harmony between the Romanesque and Gothic, this is a truly beautiful church and one that houses some of the most famous stained glass in France’s southern regions.

Today, we drive to Narbonne to visit the fine but unfinished cathedral. The ambition of its founder, Pope Clement IV, was thwarted by the unwillingness of the town to demolish the city wall to accommodate the new church. We will also visit the Bishop’s palace. Next, we make our way to Béziers, where the Albigensian crusade began in 1209 when the invaders burnt the Gothic Cathédrale St-Nazaire and the town was pillaged and set on fire. The garden of the cathedral offers fabulous panoramic views. Later we pass on to Minerve, a town where, despite its defences, citizens were forced to surrender to Simon de Montfort after his siege of 1210 and were burnt as heretics.

Today we visit three castles that started as Cathar strongholds, each significant in the final throes of Cathar resistance against royal power and rebuilt or radically altered under the new regime that followed. Our first destination today is the spectacular Castle of Peyrepertuse, almost impossibly perched on a knife-edged ridge. After lunch in Cucugnan, we will visit Chateau de Queribus, equally precariously perched on a cone of rock. Finally, we head east to Arques, a much more domesticated castle given to one of Simon de Montfort lieutenants, Pierre de Voisins, in 1231.

We begin our day in the peacefulness and gardens of the Cistercian abbey of Fontfroide, close to the Spanish border. A major power in the fight against the heretics during the 13th century, the abbey has been producing its own wines for over 900 years. After lunch, we drive to Lagrasse to pay a visit to the Abbey of St Marie d’Orbieu. Our final stop today is Villerouge-Termenès in the heart of the Corbières region. Here we enter the imposing medieval castle at which Guillaume Bélibaste – the last of the Cathar parfaits, or priests – was burned at the stake in 1321. This late date is a reminder that Catharism survived underground well into the fourteenth century.

On our last full day in Languedoc we make our way to Foix to visit an imposing Cathar castle that actually survived the crusade, largely due to the political dexterity of its owner. We move on to lunch in Montsegur, scene of the last stand of the Cathars against the Albigensian crusaders in 1244. Here 220 Cathar martyrs were burned after a protracted siege. We also visit the small museum, where finds from the excavations at the castle evoke the day-to-day lives of the last Cathar resisters. Then we journey to Puivert castle where an exceptionally well-appointed tower has famous carved representations of medieval musicians, an evocation of the strong troubadour tradition of the region.

This morning we drive to Toulouse where we shall visit the Romanesque basilica of St. Sernin and its crypt. The church was one of the recognised starting points for the famed medieval pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. Then we will drive to the airport for our flight home.