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France: Toulouse and points south
May. 23rd, 2010 08:16 pmOr, what I was up to last week.
We spent a day and a half wandering around Toulouse. I was last in Toulouse when I was inter-railing in 1989; we skipped it on our last trip to the area because the car would have been a hindrance and flights for weekend breaks are cheap and plentiful.
Like most historic larger cities, the interesting bits are mostly within walking distance. Toulouse is full of remarkably pretty architecture mostly dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and interesting ecclesiastical buildings, the only one of which I'll mention here is la basilique de la Daurade. It was built on the site of a pagan temple and has been a Benedictine monastery. Like many churches in the area, it's very Romanesque and fortress-like in architectural style, but the inside has been totally done out in over-the-top Baroque style. It's also the darkest church I've ever been in. To top it off, there is a Black Madonna. The black Madonna is not even the most interesting thing in this church, but I've never seen one before, so that was pretty exciting.
Though lovely, Toulouse is heart-stoppingly expensive (yes I know, don't eat on the main tourist drag), and is the only larger town in France where I can recall pretty much everything being closed all day on Sunday.
The last three days we based ourselves in the gorgeous town of Tarascon-sur-Ariège, a little south of Foix and about 70 km from the border with Andorra. In Real Mountains. We lucked out with our hotel too - cheap, but clean & quiet and the proprietors were lovely. The best bit is it has a lovely courtyard to relax in. Jason and I have decided that next time we need a break, that's where we're going.
From there, we managed to do the two things that I really wanted to do the last time we were in the region but was too unwell to manage, and one surprising new thing.
The surprising new thing was we went to the Grotte de Niaux, one of the few places where you can still see cave paintings (in carefully controlled numbers; strictly by reservation only). This was my mother's idea and neither Jason nor I was that keen, but seeing the paintings was actually pretty mind-blowing, and interesting, and we were both really glad we did it.
It's 800 metres into the cave, and pretty challenging terrain to get to the paintings. We know that when neolithic people did live in caves, it was a the entrance. Mostly when archaeologists talk about "ritual purposes", I know it means "we don't have a clue" and roll my eyes, but cave art is one of the situations where the ritual purposes explanation makes the most sense. Especially when the guide demonstrated the scale and the acoustics of the chamber where the art is.
The two things that I achieved that I missed out on last time were making it to the village of Montaillou, high up in the Pyrenees. No, there's not a lot there, but such extensive records of the Inquisition exist that it's the subject of a book by Emmanuel le Roy Laudrie describing intricately the daily life of the village in the early 14th century. (Catharism survived for a century here longer than anywhere else; once you experience how remote it is even today it makes a lot of sense). More recently, Renè Weis wrote a book called The Yellow Cross: The Story of the Last Cathars 1290-1329, based partly on le Roy Laudrie, which is how I became aware of it. Both books, incidentally, are recommended.
The slightly more exciting (for everybody else) and challenging (for all of us) visit we made was to Montségur. This is the only one of the major castles involved in the Albigensian Crusade which we missed out the last time. The climb up hasn't changed a lot in the last 700 years. Historians know that when Montségur was under siege there were at least 500 refugees crowded in there; add to this the fact there's no gift shop or cafe at the top, I got far more of a sense of place and time than in the other, more complete, castles from the Crusade.
As I was ascending and having to take frequent stops I questioned why I've been going to the gym; the answer is, that while I expected to have to lie down and take an hour to recover at the top, I recovered almost immediately, and was able to do lots of other things throughout the day.
Then there's the small matter of being very tempted by the house for rent in the old part of Tarascon...
Next time, though, we're either taking the train or driving, as I was unable to bring home any of the alcohol that I wanted to buy - French rum all comes from Martinique or the French Antilles and I wanted to try some. This I can probably get my hands on in the UK if I look. The local liqueur, Hypocras, is very tasty indeed and I wanted to bring some home with me but you can't put it in hold luggage and ridiculous hand-luggage restrictions mean I couldn't bring it that way either. Since duty-free is big international brands only, no luck there.
We spent a day and a half wandering around Toulouse. I was last in Toulouse when I was inter-railing in 1989; we skipped it on our last trip to the area because the car would have been a hindrance and flights for weekend breaks are cheap and plentiful.
Like most historic larger cities, the interesting bits are mostly within walking distance. Toulouse is full of remarkably pretty architecture mostly dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and interesting ecclesiastical buildings, the only one of which I'll mention here is la basilique de la Daurade. It was built on the site of a pagan temple and has been a Benedictine monastery. Like many churches in the area, it's very Romanesque and fortress-like in architectural style, but the inside has been totally done out in over-the-top Baroque style. It's also the darkest church I've ever been in. To top it off, there is a Black Madonna. The black Madonna is not even the most interesting thing in this church, but I've never seen one before, so that was pretty exciting.
Though lovely, Toulouse is heart-stoppingly expensive (yes I know, don't eat on the main tourist drag), and is the only larger town in France where I can recall pretty much everything being closed all day on Sunday.
The last three days we based ourselves in the gorgeous town of Tarascon-sur-Ariège, a little south of Foix and about 70 km from the border with Andorra. In Real Mountains. We lucked out with our hotel too - cheap, but clean & quiet and the proprietors were lovely. The best bit is it has a lovely courtyard to relax in. Jason and I have decided that next time we need a break, that's where we're going.
From there, we managed to do the two things that I really wanted to do the last time we were in the region but was too unwell to manage, and one surprising new thing.
The surprising new thing was we went to the Grotte de Niaux, one of the few places where you can still see cave paintings (in carefully controlled numbers; strictly by reservation only). This was my mother's idea and neither Jason nor I was that keen, but seeing the paintings was actually pretty mind-blowing, and interesting, and we were both really glad we did it.
It's 800 metres into the cave, and pretty challenging terrain to get to the paintings. We know that when neolithic people did live in caves, it was a the entrance. Mostly when archaeologists talk about "ritual purposes", I know it means "we don't have a clue" and roll my eyes, but cave art is one of the situations where the ritual purposes explanation makes the most sense. Especially when the guide demonstrated the scale and the acoustics of the chamber where the art is.
The two things that I achieved that I missed out on last time were making it to the village of Montaillou, high up in the Pyrenees. No, there's not a lot there, but such extensive records of the Inquisition exist that it's the subject of a book by Emmanuel le Roy Laudrie describing intricately the daily life of the village in the early 14th century. (Catharism survived for a century here longer than anywhere else; once you experience how remote it is even today it makes a lot of sense). More recently, Renè Weis wrote a book called The Yellow Cross: The Story of the Last Cathars 1290-1329, based partly on le Roy Laudrie, which is how I became aware of it. Both books, incidentally, are recommended.
The slightly more exciting (for everybody else) and challenging (for all of us) visit we made was to Montségur. This is the only one of the major castles involved in the Albigensian Crusade which we missed out the last time. The climb up hasn't changed a lot in the last 700 years. Historians know that when Montségur was under siege there were at least 500 refugees crowded in there; add to this the fact there's no gift shop or cafe at the top, I got far more of a sense of place and time than in the other, more complete, castles from the Crusade.
As I was ascending and having to take frequent stops I questioned why I've been going to the gym; the answer is, that while I expected to have to lie down and take an hour to recover at the top, I recovered almost immediately, and was able to do lots of other things throughout the day.
Then there's the small matter of being very tempted by the house for rent in the old part of Tarascon...
Next time, though, we're either taking the train or driving, as I was unable to bring home any of the alcohol that I wanted to buy - French rum all comes from Martinique or the French Antilles and I wanted to try some. This I can probably get my hands on in the UK if I look. The local liqueur, Hypocras, is very tasty indeed and I wanted to bring some home with me but you can't put it in hold luggage and ridiculous hand-luggage restrictions mean I couldn't bring it that way either. Since duty-free is big international brands only, no luck there.
