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Read about our return to Paris:
The Novelist, by Andrew Auerbach
Limoux France, 17 April 2012
What great packing snow! Look
out! It’s a snowball fight! Atticus and Roman are the snowball
making machines, and we are trying to keep pace. Luckily the small
boys’ aim is not very accurate and neither is ours, so the wet,
melting blobs are missing their mark more times than hitting us.
Nevertheless, this is the most fun we have had all day.
We hadn’t
counted on snow in mid-April in the south of France. It has been
cold and rainy, but not cold enough for snow in Limoux, where we are
staying for two weeks. But Limoux is close to the Pyrenees and we
have driven up a road that announced
col ouvert
(pass open), to the foot of a single tower of
stone with the ruins of Montségur
castle perched on top at 1,208 M. Ray and I remembered climbing the
steep hill to Montségur
castle ten years ago, after a hard day of bicycling the surrounding
hills. A climb is not on the agenda today. The paths are covered in
snow and we are not prepared. One car parked beside ours disgorged
an older couple, dressed for the weather, with sturdy hiking boots
and walking sticks, ready for their climb to the top. We can only
wish them a good walk and resume our snowball game. It doesn’t
matter, we are having fun.
Ray and I arrived at Toulouse
Airport the previous Thursday afternoon, collected our rental car
and drove 1 ½ hours to Limoux, where we had rented a house for the next
9 days. “Les Lauriers”, a four bedroom house owned by a BC Canada
couple, proved to be more than adequate. Saturday brought our
daughter Erica, her husband, Andrew Auerbach and their two boys,
Atticus and Roman. The previous
two days had been cool and rainy but Saturday promised better
weather. That turned out to be merely a teaser.
Sunday dawned cold and
rainy, once again, but we were determined to explore some of the
region. Erica found a reference in one of our guide books to an
interesting cave that would be good to explore, no matter what the
weather. We drove off, up the scenic roads to the foothills of the
Pyrenees, stopping at a turnout to enjoy the view, now partially
shrouded in rain clouds. We came to the turnoff for Puivert Castle,
one of the series of Cathar strongholds in the 12th and 13th
C. The Cathars were considered to be heretics and a threat to the
church in Rome. Their fate was to be eliminated in siege after siege
in the 13th C.
All that remains are the ruins of numerous castles, perched on the
highest hills in the region. We decided a visit to Puivert was the
perfect driving break. We turned off onto a rock filled road snaking
up the hill to an ominously empty parking lot. A sign pointed the
way to the castle. We followed a rough horse path to the base of
Puivert Castle. At the entrance was a single red motorcycle
and a sign,“beware of dogs”. Two large Husky dogs announced our
arrival. We made sure the two boys didn’t decide to find out if the
dogs were friendly. A sign on a closed entrance booth told us the
castle was not open for viewing 1 May.
We had no option
but to return to the car and head downhill. We never did find our
way to the promised cave
exploration. I spied signs pointing the way to Montségur,
not too far away. Away we went, following more scenic roads through
the foothills of the Pyrenees to the wintery wonderland surrounding
Monségur.
It started to rain
again soon after leaving Monségur.
We had entertained thoughts of stopping in Mirepoix, reputed to be
one of most beautiful towns in France, for hot chocolate, but no one
relished the idea of racing from a warm car through cold rain to a
café.
Instead, we kept going and didn’t stop until we returned to the
house, where hot chocolate was brewed in short order. Our wet gloves
and shoes were laid by heaters to dry and we laid plans for our next
adventure.
Read about our return to Paris:
The Novelist, by Andrew Auerbach
Read
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