Road Trip to France

The wonders of the internet and out of season travel managed to let us find a hire car for £32 for two weeks - can’t complain about that although we then had to pay €90 for “cross border insurance” but still, just over £100 for two weeks isn’t bad at all.  It turned out that the car was a brand new Fiat 500 too.

Our little hire car 

Interesting menu

We set off up the E roads, tollroads, to make good time, but at Barcelona we headed inland into the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenean mountains.  We stopped short of the border in a small medieval village called Vall d’en Bas at a rural farmstead that had simple apartment rooms and a small restaurant.  It turned into a lucky find as the restaurant was one of very few in the area, and produced really good locally produced food. Carole had a strange but good rice soup and I had an excellent black sausage course.  They found an english (sort of) translated menu for us - never did found out what “eggs in mausoleum” was, but we worked out that the “house gutters” was cannelloni, makes a sort of tube sense. 

First nights stop

The following day we climbed higher, crossing high valleys and then above the snow line and into the Spanish ski centre of La Molina; it was Sunday and packed with people, before crossing the border and dropping down into France.

Gorgeous scenery on the way over

Ruth and Colin’s beautiful house is in a tiny village, St Martin-Lys, set into a picturesque gorge, about an hours drive west from Carcassonne. Colin had asked us to bring some Spanish plonk which we dutifully did, €1.40/L in a second hand plastic water bottle, found in a village vignoble at the foot of the mountains - it was actually pretty damn good and better than some of the “proper” wine brought from Alicante!

The house of Ruth and Colin

They took us to Carcassonne the next day - a fabulous walled city, apparently the third most visited site in France after Paris and Mont St Michel - easy to see why, with its perfectly preserved/renovated medieval city. It was great to wander the quiet narrow streets and imagine what it was like hundred of years ago - must be hell in 21stC August, packed with tourists.

Town of Carcassonne in the background

Entrance to Carcassonne

The following day the four of us went to a Cathar castle, perched high on a mountain, one of a chain stretching from the coast around the Cathar’s region.  The Cathars believed in a simple form of Catholicism but not in the authority of the Pope and so were declared heretics and slaughtered or burned alive. 

Spring on the way

The Queberis castle was one of their last stands.  

Very windy walk up!

Hanging on as the wind was that strong.

The views from the castle were simply breathtaking - especially as it was so windy that it was truly difficult to stand on some of the exposed edges and gates.  Very exhilarating!

The 4 bears?

Our grand tour continued through stunning scenery and quaint villages before return to St Martin-Lys via the amazing narrow and very deep Gorge de Galamus.  From the narrow lane cut into the side of a cliff face to the bottom of the gorge must have been 400feet at least.

Amazing gorge

Hermitage De Galamus in the rock face