Oh, the places you can go ......

The part of France we are living in allows us to travel easily to places new and also allows us to revisit some of our favourite spots again.

Now that we have had a few friends from NZ to stay with us we have been able to revisit and show them some of the places that we loved from our last time here. We also have (and keep adding to) a list of 'places to see this time'. The list is quite long but we hope to get to at least some of the places on it. Hopefully we will be able to share these new places with you in future blogs.

Meantime...back to revisit towns and villages that we enjoyed the first time around.
And instead of lots of words I thought I'd make this blog a photo album with just a little explanation or comment. If you want to know more please let me know, Google it or come and see for yourself!

CARCASSONNE  (La Cite)  The walled city of Carcassonne dates back to the Middle Ages 
 and has been restored and is an UNESCO World Heritage site. 

Carcassonne at night is very pretty












FANJEAUX    A small hilltop village with magnificent views across the Laraugais towards     Raissac. Famous in the Middle Ages for being the home of St Dominic, the founder of the Dominican Order.

                                          

SAISSAC   Up in the Montagne Noir (Black Mountains) that lie above Raissac is another  small town. Here there is a ruined castle that we think was built about the same time as the chateau here in Raissac. The Montagne Noir are undulating hills with very picturesque places.

The Langudoc-Rousillon region is the home to many ruins of Cathar castles.

The Middle Ages (1200-1300's) was a very bloody period of history in the south of France. It makes fascinating reading if you can bear the cruelty of man against fellow man. 

Here are a couple of Cathar ruins that we have revisited so far. 

LASTOURS    Not very far from Raissac in the Montagne Noir is Lastours (in Spanish ~ The  Towers). Here you can visit 4 castles on the same site.

But one of the most impressive Cathar castles is  PEREYPETUSE  that is to the south going towards the Pyrenees and towards Spain.  We spent an afternoon there with friends from NZ but wondered why we couldn't drive up to the car park. Since it was a Sunday and a beautiful day we thought it must have been full. But no....... this was the reason why!

It was still there when we finished our climb...and so were the cars and people who couldn't drive down!

Most Cathar castles are located on top of outcrops of rock that appear to be unassailable. When you think about the time in history they were built, the engineering and the associated logistics makes these buildings truly spectacular.

 While we were at Perypetuse this time we were fascinated by a paraglider who must have had a very quiet time floating above the castle ruins.

On the way up...still wondering why we couldn't park in the top car park

Another place that we visited a few times in 2009 was FOIX and we went back there again with other New Zealand friends. Foix is going south on the road to Andorra. As you drive towards it the Pyrenees loom closer and closer. Foix itself is on the confluence of two rivers  and is surrounded by hills with the mountains just beyond.

The red tile roofs of Foix

Overlooking the town is the CHATEAU DE 

 FOIX. This impressive chateau is in   excellent condition and has an interesting museum and models showing how the chateau was built in the 1300's.

On this visit to Foix we made a trip to the GROTTE DE NIAUX (the Niaux Caves). In these caves are original cave drawings/paintings done 13,000 years ago! What is different about Niaux is that these are the original drawings , not facsimiles as in other sites around France. It is a privilege to be able to see these as who knows how long they will be open to the public before it is decided that the caves must be closed to preserve this piece of ancient history.

Understandably no photography is allowed but the entrance to the caves itself is quite spectacular.

Each group is guided and there are no more than 20 people in the group. Our tour was in French (the only tour in English was full) so we did not get full appreciation of what was said. However the natural interior of the caves is impressive in itself and walking a kilometre or so into the side of a mountain is an experience. Much of the tunnel network is not open to the public and apparently there are numerous sites of drawings not able to be viewed. The last viewing point, Le Salon Noir, holds the most awesome drawings. To start everyone has to turn off their torches and it is so dark, so black and so silent. Then the guide turns on his lamp and there on the wall in front of you is the artwork of some person who lived 13,000 years ago. It is very hard to describe one's initial reaction. It is also hard to grasp the concept of 13,000 years ago. Think when the Great Migration to NZ was...our history is so young!

This is a banner at the entrance to La Grotte. It depicts cave drawings from different sites around France. The bison in black centre right is one from Niaux. Only bison, ibex, horses and deer have been drawn. No people, no dogs, no birds. Little is known about the artists of Niaux or why they drew what they did or in fact why they drew. It is thought that they didn't live in the caves and that the caves could have been a spiritual place. Whatever happened in Niaux 13,000 years ago, it is an incredible place to visit.

And on that note I'll finish. The subject of the next post? Je ne sais pas!