Cathar roads, Gorge De Galamus, Pyrenees, France, Europe
The Cathar Country is a tourist term used by the department of Aude, which is the department at the center of the country where the lords and the people had converted to Catharism. This term concentrates on Corbières, sits of the majority of royal citadels improperly qualified some of Cathar castles. The promoters of this term tend to impose this tourist slogan instead of words, the more justified historically and culturally (Catharism did not leave a religious legacy in the South, the Southwest and the Southeast of France, because that religion disappeared after 1307, after evangelistic missions undertaken by the Preachers). The people of Occitania and specifically the Languedoc, with Occitan, are mostly from Catholic families who have no roots Cathars, but there is still a few families of the Aude, the Hérault and Gard, who are descendants of these good men and good women.
Cathar Country is a registered trademark in 19911, owned by the General Council of the Aude. The Cathar program wants to value and preserve the wealth of the Aude, federate local initiatives and support the professional organization of Aude producers. From hotels to restaurants through the cottages, rooms and guest tables, wine cellars, shops, gourmet products, lamb, pork, beef, poultry, honey, milk, bread , arts and crafts ... a whole range of products and services certified.
France
France
Come with us and visit in the southern part of the country, Languedoc and Roussillion.
We start our tour in Montpellier, and we stroll through the cities on the Mediterranean coast and visit, the magnificent cathedrals of Beziers and Narbonne, Sette with its picturesque canals, Carcassonne, the best preserved medieval city of Europe, the Cathar castles from Les Corbiers region, testimony of a successful but short lived civilization of Pays d'Occitane. Here we will talk about the the 13th century Albigense crusade of the Papality against these citadels that brought the demise of the Cathars rule and religion and brought the establishment of the Inquisition that will loom for hundreds of years over Western Europe. Latter we will go to Collioure, a very picturesque city on the Mediterranean coast that hosted several famous fauvist painters including Matisse and Derain, the reproduction of their paintings being hanged in the places where they painted them.
We continue to Roussillion, the French Catalonia, and visit its beautiful monasteries of Serabonne, St. Michael de Cuxa and St. Martin de Canigou stopping also at several fortified cities on the way. We cross the Pyrinees in Andorra, a independent principality, and we go further to visit Lourdes, the most important pilgrimage place for the Catholics of Europe. From there we continue to go west, and visit Pau, the birthplace of Henry de Navarre, Biarittz, the in resort for the aristocracy at the end of the 19th century, the Basque city of St. Jean de Luz and return all the way to spend several days on the Mediterranean coast at Grande Motte, a futuristic resort built in the 70s. From here we will do short incursions to Nimes, to visit its famous Roman amphitheater and to Aigues Morte, a city surrounded by fortified walls.