L'Isle sur la Sorgue - Sunday 8 March 2009

House perched at the edge of the river


Big wheel used for power in the olden days

Samuel enjoying his day out

Andrew, Ella and someone's faithful friend

Ella in the yard with a toy workbench she made with little plastic blocks

Andrew and Samuel at the dining table

After the mistral winds driving us mad for the last two days (and also the tv's broken), we took advantage of the beautiful weather on Sunday to go for a drive to L'Isle sur la Sorgue. It's such a pretty place. Can you believe the temperature was 22 degrees, and hardly any wind. Bliss! Daniella our next door neighbour came with us. We spent the afternoon walking along the markets and sitting by the river. It was so nice.

Montsegur...30 November 2008

Today we scaled the great heights of Montsegur, a Cathar castle from the 13th century. It had been snowing in the last couple of days and the climb up and down was steep and very slippery with snow and ice everywhere and no guard rails or anything to stop you sliding off the edges of the cliffs. So I did my usual panic mode with the kids because I’m terrified that they will fall and hurt themselves. They don’t seem to have a lot of protection or safety barriers for people at a lot of these places.

The town of Montsegur (30km east of Foix) is 1200 m above sea level. The castle was used as a refuge for the lords who had been dispossessed of their lands by the Crusaders. About 600 people lived on the site. Along the path leading to the castle there is a monument commemorating the 220 Cathars burned at the stake for refusing to renounce their Cathar faith.

The Pau Chateau and The Junior Suite

Samuel waiting in the rain for the Chateau to open
I wanted to show these great footpaths which we see alot of everywhere made entirely of little stones.
Formal garden at the side of the Chateau

One of many massive wall size tapestries hanging in the chateau.

Outside chateau

Outside chateau, raining and rather cold

We spent a couple of hours on a guided tour of the Pau Chateau today. An ideal way to spend some time on a cold and rainy day. I find it fascinating to imagine the way people lived in those days and how they spent their time. The tour was all in french but we had a printout of a translation in english.

The hotel where we stayed in Pau was a good internet find. 56€ a night for a 2 room 'junior' suite with a kitchenette. free parking and right next to a huge E.Le.Clerc shopping centre for getting essential supplies. It wasn’t walking distance to town but you can’t have everything. We found free parking in Pau at Place Verdun on the first day when we visited the Pau Chateau.