7. The Ariege: Auberge des Deux Rivieres (near Seix) - Day Trips

Moulin Lauga (541m) to Couflens (702m) via Port d'Aula (1998m)

We had breakfast on the balcony and went back to our room to slowly pack our packs. We were reluctant to leave. All packed up we had a final cig on the balcony then went to pay our bill before heading off. I told Philip that we didn't really want to leave and had been trying to think of ways to stay another night and do the next part of the GR 10 as a day walk loop - but it was too far back. Philip offered to drop us to the start of our days walk and pick us up from the end - and then drop us back to the same point the next day. We were sold on this idea. We went and put our backpacks back in our room, grabbed our day pack and took him up on his offer. Philip even gave us his phone to call him when we wanted to be picked up.
Phillip's father, Gilberte, was our Designated Driver for the morning and gave us a potted history of the route we would be trekking that day. The trail we were following was part of the the Chemin de la Liberte (Freedom Trail), a route used by the French Resistance to smuggle, British avaitors, jews and other refugees out of Nazi occupied France to neutral Spain. Thousands were rescued in this way but in one particularly nasty incident, 698 men, women and children were captured and deported to concentration camps, of whom only about 100 survived the war. We subsequently came across the memorial to these people in Aulus, a few days later. A very moving experience to walk this trail.
We set off up the valley following the stream to a magnificent waterfall at the head of the valley. The mist was coming and going as we walked and we found ourselves talking about the human drama that had unfolded here over 60 years ago.

After passing the refuge that sits in this tranquil vale, we turned east and climbed steeply up through mixed beech and elm forest to emerge on cirque at 1550m where the Cabane d'Aula greeted us.

We had a quick lunch of dried fruit and nuts and then commence the steep zig-zagging climb to the ridge at 1998m. As we emerged at the top, we were almost blown back down the hill by the freezing blasts of wind that funnelled through the pass.

We began our descent to Col de Pause and pausing, briefly by the Refuge that sits atop this hill, thick fog boiled up the valley below, imersing us in a freezing, damp mist: the refuge behind and the lake before us disappearing completely.

For the next hour or two, we made our soggy way down the hill, hoping to pass below the cloud. Rolling a smoke in this mist proved particularly difficult - but we managed, even if the result resembled a very limp and droopy mess of paper.



We finally came out of the mist about 5km above Couflens and finding that Phillip's phone had no coverage, we persuaded a lovely couple in the fromagerie on the main road to call Phillip for us. We were soon picked up by his smiling and friendly face and in no time were in the shower getting warm, refreshed and not-a-little tipsy on a welcome glass of armagnac.

Dinner was a true delight. Phillip made fois gras using an ancient Roman recipe and the main couse was a Moroccan style targine of lamb, prunes and couscous. This was followed by a berry tart for desert. Another great day had drawn to a close.

Couflens (702m) to Saint-Lizier-d'Ustou (740m)

Jeff was up early as usual sitting on the balcony beside the two rivers having his early morning reflection time - avec a coffee and cig or two. We had a leisurely breakfast outside before packing the day pack and seeing if Phillip could drop us off in Couflens where we had finished the section of GR10 yesterday.

The GR10 path started beside the house of the people who let us use their phone yesterday. The path was reputed to be very muddy and we considered walking up the road, but in true GR10 spirit, we decided that muddy boots were the order of the day. As it turned out it wasn't too bad. In point of fact the poison ivy proved to be a greater issue.

We arrived at the Gite at Rouze about 40 minutes later. It was gorgeous - an old farmhouse, fromagerie, gite and the most wonderful apple tree in the whole world. We hope that the owners don't mind that I took two apples - later wishing I'd taken more as they were really delicious - but Jeff couldn't fit any more in his daypack :). We tried to find the owners to buy some cheese and to ask about buying some fruit but they were nowhere to be found. We later heard from Phillip that they would be at the Saturday market in Seix.

After Rouze the track kept heading upwards through forest. We stopped for elevenses at a locked cabin to take in the views and continued up to Col de la Serre du Cot (1546m).

It was a lovely gentle walk down to Saint-hi-d'Ustou through forest and past farms.

As we would be continuing the GR10 from Saint-Lizier-d'Ustou tomorrow we didn't need to walk the 5 or 6 km back to the auberge so put out our thumb. Two delightful young women picked us up within 5 minutes and dropped us at our door by 5pm. It was a lovely afternoon so we had a beer on the balcony before having showers before dinner.

We had dinner beside the fire again tonight and Philip prepared a great meal: first course - a salad of mixed tomatoes; second course - a cassoulet with canard, pork and saussison and haricot beans; third course - tiramisu - washed down with a litre of red and followed by coffee and Armangac on the balcony.

Carcassonne - A Day Trip in the Car

Today was a totally unexpected surprise. Phillips parents, Gilberte and Clairette were taking a trip to Carcassonne a famous town in the Languedoc region dominated by an ancient fortified castle that was the focus of the first crusade (the Albigensian Crusade) against the Cathars, a Christian sect that was deemed by Roman Church to be heretical. (see notes below).
We set out from Alberge de Deu Rivieres at a bit after 9.00, driving down through Seix and Foix arriving in Carcasonne at about 11.00. Gilberte drove quietly while Clairette and Rach maintained a lively chat for most of the way. In Foix we stopped in the village centre for a short break and were treated to some wonderful views of the castle that dominates this town, the largest in the Languedoc.

After arriving in Carcassonne, we left Gilberte and Clairette, arranging to meet up with them again at 4.00.

At the tourist information centre in the castle, we booked in for the guided tour at 1.30 and then purchased tickets to the main castle. This was interesting but nothing particularly special as the castle had basically been turned in to rather commercial museum. Many of the relics were not directly related to what we were seeing. Having said that, the restoration work that had been begun in the 19th century had faithfully used original materials and building materials wherever possible and the views were great.

We thought we'd better choose a bar so we could sample the local beers - and decided on a quiet one in a side street.

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It was interesting to try this beer with Muscat.

We then joined the guided tour and this was fascinating. The woman who was our guide gave a most interesting explanation of the medieval history and an outline of the history surrounding the Cathars that was so much a focus of this fortified town through the medieval times. The Dominicans really do have a lot to answer for!

The tour took us in to the cathedral in Carcassonne, where we were fortunate to come across a quartet of Russians singing Orthodox songs of worship. The voices of the four men filled the cathedral with the most spellbinding music. The guide allowed us to stay and listen before completing the tour. We were most lucky indeed.

After the tour, we had a 3 couse menu and some interesting "people watching" in the central square of the town.

Our Belgian tour guides, Gilberte and Clairette, found us "al fresco" at about 3.45 and we headed back to the car together. We got back to the auberge by about 7.00 where we were treated to another special meal by Mons. Phillip: duck pate, black pudding (bit of a surprise but very good) and fresh fruit salad.

Notes on the Cathars

ref: http://www.cathar.info> 20 October 2014

The Cathars were a religious group who appeared in Europe in the eleventh century, their origins something of a mystery though there is reason to believe their ideas came from Persia by way of the Byzantine Empire, the Balkans and Northern Italy. Records from the Roman Catholic Church mention them under various names and in various places. Catholic theologians debated with themselves for centuries whether Cathars were Christian heretics or whether they were not Christians at all. The question is apparently still open. Roman Catholics still refer to Cathar belief as "the Great Heresy" though the official Catholic position is that Catharism is not Christian at all.

Cathars believed in two principles, a good creator god and his evil adversary (much like God and Satan of mainstream Christianity). Cathars called themselves Christians; their neighbours distinguished them as "Good Christians". The Catholic Church called them Albigenses, or less frequently Cathars.

Cathars maintained a Church hierarchy and practiced a range of ceremonies, but rejected any idea of priesthood or the use of church buildings. They divided into ordinary believers who led ordinary medieval lives and an inner Elect of Parfaits (men) and Parfaites (women) who led extremely ascetic lives yet still worked for their living - generally in itinerant manual trades like weaving. Cathars believed in reincarnation and refused to eat meat or other animal products. They were strict about biblical injunctions - notably those about living in poverty, not telling lies, not killing and not swearing oaths.
Basic Cathar tenets led to some surprising logical implications. For example they largely regarded men and women as equals, and had no doctrinal objection to contraception, euthanasia or suicide. In some respects the Cathar and Catholic Churches were polar opposites. For example the Cathar Church taught that all non-procreative sex was better than any procreative sex. The Catholic Church taught - and still teaches - exactly the opposite. Both positions produced interesting results. Following their tenet, Catholics concluded that masturbation was a far greater sin than rape, as mediaeval penitentials confirm. Following their principles, Cathar could deduce that sexual intercourse between man and wife was more culpable than homosexual sex.

In the Languedoc, famous at the time for its high culture, tolerance and liberalism, the Cathar religion took root and gained more and more adherents during the twelfth century. By the early thirteenth century Catharism was probably the majority religion in the area, supported by the nobility as well as the common people. This was yet another annoyance to the Roman Church which considered the feudal system to be divinely ordained as the natural order (Cathars disliked the feudal system because it depended on oath taking). In open debates with leading Catholic theologians Cathars seem to have come out on top. This was embarrassing for the Roman Church, not least because they had fielded the best professional preachers in Europe against what they saw as a collection of uneducated weavers and other manual workers. Worse still a number of Catholic priests had become Cathar adherents (Catharism was a religion that seems to have appealed especially to the theologically literate. Whole Cathedral chapters are known to have defected). Worse, the Catholic Church was held up to public ridicule (some of the richest men in Christendom, bejewelled, dressed in finery, and preaching poverty, provided an irresistible target even to contemporary Catholics in the Languedoc). Worst yet, Cathars refused to pay tithes to the Catholic Church.

The Cathar view of the Catholic Church was as bleak as the Catholic Church's view of the Cathar Church. On the Cathar side it manifested itself in ridiculing Catholic doctrine and practices, and characterising the Catholic Church as the "Church of Wolves". The Catholics accused Cathars of heresy or apostasy and said they belonged to the "Synagogue of Satan". The Catholic side created some striking propaganda. When the propaganda proved only partly successful, there was only one option left - a crusade - the Albigensian Crusade.

The Pope, Innocent III, called a formal Crusade against the Cathars of the Languedoc, appointing a series of military leaders to head his Holy Army. The first was a Cistercian abbot (Arnaud Amaury) now best remembered for his command at Béziers "Kill them all. God will know his own". The second was Simon de Montfort now remembered as the father of another Simon de Montfort, a prominent figure in English parliamentary history. The war against the Cathars of the Languedoc continued for two generations. In the later phases the Kings of France would take over as leaders of the crusade, which thus became a Royal Crusade.

From 1208, a war of terror was waged against the indigenous population and their rulers: Raymond VI of Toulouse, Raymond-Roger Trencavel, Raymond Roger of Foix in the first generation and Raymond VII of Toulouse, Raymond Trencavel II, and Roger Bernard II of Foix in the second generation. During this period an estimated 500,000 Languedoc men women and children were massacred - Catholics as well as Cathars. The Counts of Toulouse and their allies were dispossessed and humiliated, and their lands annexed to France. Educated and tolerant Languedoc rulers were replaced by relative barbarians; Dominic Guzmán (later Saint Dominic) founded the Dominican Order and soon afterwards the Inquisition, manned by his Dominicans, was established explicitly to wipe out the last vestiges of resistance. Persecutions of Languedoc Jews and other minorities were initiated; the culture of the troubadours was lost as their cultured patrons were reduced to wandering refugees known as faidits. Their characteristic concept of "paratge", a whole sophisticated world-view, was almost destroyed, leaving us a pale imitation in our idea of chivalry. Lay learning was discouraged and the reading of the bible became a capital crime. Tithes were enforced. The Languedoc started its long economic decline to become the poorest region in France; and the language of the area, Occitan, began its descent from the foremost literary language in Europe to a regional dialect, disparaged by the French as a patois.

At the end of the extermination of the Cathars, the Roman Church had proof that a sustained campaign of genocide can work. It also had the precedent of an internal Crusade within Christendom, and the machinery of the first modern police state that could be wheeled out for the Spanish Inquisition, and again for later Inquisitions and genocides.

Voltaire observed that "there was never anything as unjust as the war against the Albigensians".

Catharism is often said to have been completely eradicated by the end of the fourteenth century. Yet there are more than a few vestiges even today, apart from the enduring memory of Cathar "martyrdom" and the ruins of the famous "Cathar castles", including the Château of Montségur ( Montsegùr). There are even Cathars alive today, or at least people claiming to be modern Cathars. There is a flourishing, if largely superficial, Cathar tourist industry in the Languedoc, and especially in the Aude département. As we see the eight-hundredth anniversary of important events, more and more memorials are springing up on the sites of massacres. There is also an increasing community of historians and other academics engaged in serious Cathar studies. Interestingly, to date, the deeper scholars have dug, the more they have vindicated Cathar claims to represent a survival of the Earliest Christian Church.

Arguably just as interesting, Protestant ideas share much in common with Cathar ideas, and there is some reason to believe that early reformers were aware of the Cathar tradition. Even today some Protestant Churches claim a Cathar heritage. Tantalisingly, weavers were commonly accused of spreading Protestant ideas in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, just as their antecedents in the same trade had been accused of spreading Cathar ideas in Medieval times.

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