I haven’t written a blog for the last few days because we haven’t done very much of note. We had a couple of lazy days hanging around “home” – one of the days helping Cecily and the twins to pack up and leave. What a sad day that was! Packing up at the end of holiday is miserable at any time, but to add to angst, first Cecily returned her hire car to discover there were scratches on the bonnet and they would make her pay for it, then Blaise got really sick. We didn’t want them to go as we knew the house would feel so empty without them. When Chris returned from the airport having dropped them off, we had a very quiet dinner by the pool.

Chris and I were full of resolve to hit Carcassonne early the next morning, but Nick and Michael started to complain of feeling sick, so we left them at home and went to St Julia for lunch instead (yes I realise that makes us sound like terrible parents but they really didn’t seem very sick to us!). St Julia is another tiny medieval village about 5kms away and it is very pretty (but I still love St Felix the best!). The restaurant was packed, (mainly with gay couples as far as I could ascertain, which gave us great expectations of the quality of the fare), but they found us a small table, and we had the menu du jour. Chris and I have decided that lunch time menu du jour is a great way to go – it usually includes at least 3 courses, you usually get no say in what is served so you end up eating a range of local, seasonal dishes that you would never have ordered for yourself, and it is nearly always delicious! The meal was very pleasant, not least because there were only two people vying for each other’s attention, and we spent the rest of the day swimming in the pool and reading books.

This morning felt like ground hog day, but we actually made it out of the door by 9.30 a hit the road for Carcassonne. On the way there I tried to engage the children by telling them some of the interesting stories that surround the castle. For instance, it was originally built by the Celts in 500BC, but when the Romans came to town, around 100AD, they built their fort right on top of it. Carcassonne used to be in the southern point of France so it was the scene of many battles and saw several changes of owners over the centuries, including the Moors around 800AD. There is a legend that Lady Carcass, the wife of the Moorish king who lived in the castle, won a battle against the attacking Francs, using only her wits. Her husband had been fatally wounded in battle and the people within the castle were beginning to starve. She responded by getting one of the last remaining pigs, feeding it up on grains and then throwing the fattened pig off the castle ramparts at the attackers. Her message was clear – “We have so much food within the castle that we could stay here comfortably for months yet”. The Franks turned around and went home.

Then of course, Carcassonne was the scene of a potentially huge siege in 1204 AD when the Crusaders were hunting the Cathars. For some reason that is not clear, Roger Trencevel, the nobleman of the castle, surrendered and ended up being thrown in the dungeons of his own castle where he died 3 years later.

So the castle has seen some amazing events and we were all really looking forward to seeing it, but as we crossed the river into the heart of Carcassonne ,we were unprepared for how big it was! It was restored in the 1800s and it is really an amazing sight.

We crossed the draw bridge and Michael was especially fascinated to learn about all of the techniques that were used to keep intruders out of the castle (see his blog) including moats, drawbridges and murder holes! Inside of the first set of castle walls (there are three) is a living town full of shops, restaurants and even hotels. We went on a guided tour within the heart of the castle and learnt some more about its design and history. It is an amazing and impressive place and both boys loved it!

Yesterday we got up early and headed into the town of Mirepoix (pronounced meer- pwa), at the foot of the Pyrenees, to explore the markets. This medieval town was transformed into a huge market place and we had a couple of fun hours looking around at the gorgeous food (check out the nougat!), toys and clothes.

We eventually found a little cafe for lunch where we had plates of charcuterie, fromage, foie gras, pate and baguette(!) and a glass of beer.

From there we drove the historic castle of Montsegur. Both Mirepoix and Montsegur featured prominently in the Cathar crusades but Montsegur had a particularly interesting history. The story goes that local Cathars became aware of the rising threat from Simon de Montford and the Catholic Church and asked the local leader to restore Montsegur castle for them (apparantly it was a ruin in the late 1100s). The local leader did this willingly and within 12 months the castle was restored, and around 200 local Cathars and 50 knights and their families holed themselves up within the castle walls. Eventually Simon de Montford and his troops arrived at the castle (look at it! Can you imagine seeing this castle and thinking, “yeah let’s lay siege to this thing”?) and spent 10 months trying to break in.

Eventually they were successful and 200 inhabitants refused to renounce their faith so they made a huge pyre at the bottom of the hill and burnt them all. It makes me feel sick even writing about it. I cannot fathom the bravery of the Cathars. If it was me, I would tell them anything they wanted to hear to avoid burning.

It was getting late and while we were considering walking to the top, we thought we might just squeeze in one more activity. Our next stop was the Prehistoric park at the bottom of the Pyrenees. Cecily and I were very keen to do the archeological workshop so the adults split up from the kids for 40 minutes or so. Inside the space, the ground was divided into multiple squares divided by string.

At first glance it looked like a random pile of rocks and old bones, but through careful questioning the teacher encouraged us to consider the meaning of what we were seeing (this was all done in French with Cecily translating for Chris and me). What gradually became apparent was that the site contained animal bones and appeared to be a butchery area for a Cro Magnon tribe. We could see from the fact that some bones had no marrow and that there were bone fragments in the fireplace and parts of the animals were used to fuel the fire (at the time it was very cold and there were no trees in the area so animal fat was used to fuel fire). Further examination of the bones showed that one bone had been carved to form a propulsion tool used with the spears. Another rock had even been carved to form a shallow bowl used as a lamp. A ring of rocks showed that we were looking at the remains of one of their tents. I learned a lot and for someone who had a secret desire to be an archaeologist at one point of her life it was fascinating. We learnt that Cro Magnom people were nomads who interacted peacefully with other tribes (cave drawings in the area show a similarity of ideas) and who did not battled each other (nomads typically have no sense of land ownership). The teacher later explained to Cecily that French archeologists look to the Australian aborigines (also nomads) to better understand the Cro Magnons. After this, we had time for a quick spear throwing workshop using the propulsion tools of these people, a blat through the labyrinth and a quick squiz at the different types of tents used by people around Europe at this time.

By this time the park was closing so we had to leave. The experience has given us a taste for leaning more so we will try to book an excursion to the Neanderthal caves in the area next week.

I woke early in the morning to thunder storms which did not bode well for the day ahead, but thank fully by mid morning the weather cleared. We spent the morning doing domestics and getting ourselves organised which made us all feel better, before walking up to the village to see what was happening on this day of the fete. There was quite a bit of activity with a few market stalls and the square filled with medieval games for the children to play. We all had a go at walking on stilts, a medieval version of table hockey and throwing the horseshoe.

Finally the boys participated in a pole climbing competition to see who could reach the bags of food at the top. The pole was really slippery and unfortunately no one reached the top!

Eventually the lady who had fitted us out for our costumes approached Chris and told him off for us not being in costume. We hurried back down the hill, got dressed up, took lots of photos of ourselves (the boys especially looked GORGEOUS) and drove back up to the village.

By now the fete was in full swing, there were people in costume everywhere and the medieval music was very loud. We sat at Cafe Sybella to watch the action while we drank a kir, before joining our other costumed friends at the Chateau for the parade. The parade was divided into three “sections” – there were peasants, Renaissance people and Louis 14th people. We were part of the Renaissance section. Finally the parade started, led by medieval troubadours juggling, playing bag pipes (!!!), clarinets and drums and we paraded through the village twice waving at the spectators. It was hilarious and there were many jokes among the participants. Chris and I have got to the stage where we can understand some basic French and so we were able to laugh along with them. For instance, when someone commented on how small the feather in his chapeau was Chris responded “C’est petite mais c’est tres belle!”

At the end of the parade we walked back to the chateau to be seated for dinner. What an amazing atmosphere. It was magical! Here we were, in a courtyard of a chateau that was around 1000 years old, at long tables, being served venison, lentils and vin rouge listening to medieval troubadours and watching a whirling dervish!

Let me digress momentarily to talk about this whirling dervish. I have never seen anything like it before. Apparently around 700AD the Moors made their way into France and got as far as Paris. The Moors are a part of the history of the south of France. I wish I had enough space to upload a video of this spectacle. It was entrancing and spooky watching this amazing man spinning himself into a state of ecstasy as he whirled for over 30 minutes. The music was hypnotic. Even the children were completely engrossed.
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After dinner we went back to the square to listen to more music and dance. The dancing started with minuets and then evolved into Zorba the Greek. We all danced and laughed and clapped. It was really joyful.

The kids were flagging so finally around midnight we called it a night. What a night!!! I will never forget it as long I live.

It was a beautiful warm day and so we met with Cecily’s friends Theresa and Mike and their son James for a picnic at Lac de St Ferreol. After a lovely lunch in the sun shine we walked down to the “beach” (pebbles and rocks) and hired some kayaks and peddle boats. The Lac was completely still and it was perfect conditions for exploring by boat. Michael paddled a kayak all by himself which surprised me and made me realise how he is growing up.

Around 5pm we all returned to the house for aperos and dinner and we were joined by Cecily’s friends Sunny and Brendon. After a lovely BBQ dinner we let off a ton of fireworks we had bought the day before. It was thrilling for everyone and brought back memories of Guy Fawlkes Day when I was a child. In some ways it’s sad that that was the first time our children had been that close to fireworks. We let them off until the air around us was thick with smoke. To finish off the evening we had Banoffee Pie (banana and toffee) which Brendan had made with some beautiful dessert wine I had bought earlier in the week.

Cecily made an appointment for me at the local hairdressers today. Danielle does the hair of everyone in the village and has done a very good job of cutting Nick’s hair and Cecily’s hair. Cecily was supposed to accompany me for the first 5 minutes to help me brief the hairdresser but a last minute crisis in the house saw me going it alone. I was slightly concerned because Danielle speaks no English and my French is TERRIBLE! I tried to indicate with hand gestures that I just wanted the roots touched up in the same colour. She seemed to understand and 90 minutes later I emerged from the salon with a fabulous colour and blow wave for 35 euros! Wow!

The rest of the day was a “green light” day – the sort of day where everything goes according to plan – and we achieved a lot around the house and outside of it as well.

In the evening, we visited a local friend of Cecily’s for an “apero”. She is the Baroness of the region, a very talented artist and a maker of foie gras. We sat in her gorgeous courtyard under a mulberry tree drinking wine and brainstorming about how they could launch foie gras onto the Australian market. It was a lovely evening and it was just very lucky that we didn’t have far to drive home!