While I have been here I have been learning a lot about the history in the local area which I have found absolutely fascinating. The whole area is broken up with old villages every 5kms or so and I never get sick of wandering into an old church and seeing the wonderful frescoes and art works within them.

I have become particularly fascinated with the history of the Cathars who lived in this area around the 1100s and were exterminated by the Catholic Church over a period of 100 years. From what I can understand, the Cathars were a Christian sect who had rejected the materialism of the Catholic Church and tried as much as possible, to live like the early Christians. Their sect was gaining popularity in this region as well as Spain and parts of Italy and the Catholic Church decided to lead a “holy” crusade against their fellow Christians to eliminate them. Over this time thousands of people (men, women and children) were slaughtered or burned at the stake. One village nearby has a plaque explaining that 50 people were burned at the stake in their square at the same time. In the town of Beziers, the priest in charge of the crusade allegedly instructed his army of noblemen and mercenaries to kill everyone in the town, Catholic, Cathar or atheist, as “God would know his own”. It’s easy to think that men in power in those days were completely ruthless and we know so much better today, but then we watch the news of what is happening in the Gaza strip this week in the name of God, and we realise that not much has changed in 1000 years.

I’m not sure what happened in St Felix during this time. In those days it was called Belle Vue but was named after a French Saint Felix (a hermit who devoted his life to God and returned soldiers) around this time.

There are many ruins of Cathar castles in the Pyrenees and Andorra area which I hope to visit in the next few weeks.