A Day in the Pyrenees

On our first full day in Carcassone, we did what we usually do – jump in  a car and explore!  However, the car  was not our’s!  Rene and Jim invited us to join them in exploring the Pyrenees, which are not too far away from Carcassone.  Rene had been told about a village called Rennes le Chateau, and that was our first stop.  There was not a Chateau, as I expected, but it was  a darling village on a mountain top. The tower was closed, unfortunately, but it was a wonderful place. There is a little church there, which is beautiful. But the best thing was the coffee shop, called Le Jardin de Marie.  We sat outside and enjoyed cafe noisette and apple tart while listening to David Bailey play the piano.  Apparently, he is famous and the information says he has played for the late Queen Mother and the Royal Family in Windsor.  It was very pleasant to sit there with good company and good food.  But we could not relax too long as there were miles to go and chateaus to see!

Our next stop was the top of a mountain and a castle called Puilaurens, which is a "spectacular citadel in the Aude Pyrenees region.  In the heart of unspoilt mountain country.  Perched at nearly 700 metres, it has a wide range of defensive architecture on show."   It had one Michelin star and we thought it would be interesting to see it.  Once we parked the car though, there was a pathway to get to it.  This pathway was practically straight up.  Usually in a situation like this, I come up last. For some reason, I was not born with uphill gears and I really do struggle.  I was pleasantly surprised to realize Rene travelled uphill at the same speed!  The view on top was spectacular and well worth the sore muscles that were starting to complain a bit.

This reminded me of driving through Zion National Park

Alan, Rene and Jim

Puilaurens almost blends in totally at the top

Inside the Chateau walls

the views at the top were spectacular!

When we arrived back at base, we enjoyed a picnic of tangerines, cherries and breakfast bars! This was the total food we all had in the car!  Little did we know this was about all we were going to eat until dinner time. 

In our travels to the next destination, we passed a few villages, each very cute and with different things to make them special. But my favourite was Cucugnan because it had an old fashioned windmill. 

Cucugnan

Our next stop was Peyrepertuse Castle at Duilhas.  "Hugging a limestone outcrop which peaks at 800 metres."  Another chateau on an even higher mountain top!  It had 3 michelin stars so we hoped the path would not be so strenuous.  It was not meant to be, this path made Puilaurens look like a warm up!  In fact, this path started up the mountain by going down, which is not really a good sign!  The path was so rough that Rene and I ended up rock climbing - thinking we were on the right path!  We hit a dead end, looked back and realized we had made a big mistake.  When I say "we"  I mean "me".  Poor Rene was following me at this point.  However, once again, this was spectacular and even better than our first chateau.  I think this would have rivalled Carcassone in its day.  Peyrepertuse is divided into three parts and must actually sit on the summit of more than one mountain.  At least it feels that way.  I managed to visit 2 of these, but the third is accessible by a stairway to heaven.  This stairway looked so steep and forbidding there was no way I felt comfortable trying it. But the other three explorers managed it just fine....

Peyrepertuse Chateau

a different view of Peyrepertuse

the stairs that stopped me in my tracks!

On the way home we ended up in Perpignan! This might seem like a long way back to Carcassone, but it was a very lucky break for us!  We were hungry after surviving on fruit and breakfast bars the whole day.  We parked the car in this thriving town and wandered up and down looking for something – and we found it!  We walked down a side street called Lazare Escarguel and there were two restaurants virtually side by side in the tiny street.  Jim was looking at the menu of one, and having difficulty translating it. Being fluent in French this surprised me! But a server came up and spoke to us.  Then he explained that this was a Corsican restaurant!  No wonder Jim did not know exactly what the menu said! We were all intrigued and decided to eat there.  And it was fabulous!  I don’t remember ever having such a good meal.  Jim ordered a Corsican wine, at 28 Euro, this was quite a risk, being a dry, white wine. But it was magnificent and I would order it again myself.  High praise from someone who prefers red wine.

The restaurant was called Pitcholina and I would hope anyone reading this and finding them selves in Perpignan would go!

“Boy, those French. They have a different word for everything.” – Steve Martin