Walks in the Cathar Region - Cathar Castles of south-west France

The Cathar castles are the visible remains of the long religious rebellions from 1000-1250. Guide has over 30 routes from 16 centres, including Béziers, Minerve, Lastours, Foix, Roquefixade, Lordat, Montailloe, Puivert, Montségur, Usson, Puilaurens, Quéribus, Peyrepertuse, Villerouge-Ternenes, Rennes and the Pech de Bugarach.

General publications

There is a huge amount of literature about the Cathars, in French, English and other languages. Many publications in French – walks guidebooks, general books, tourist guidebooks, special editions of glossy magazines, and so on – can often be bought in bookshops (librairies) and newsagents’ (Maisons de la Presse) in and around Cathar castle country. More and more publications in English are being stocked in such outlets.

In Britain, several bookshops stock literature about Cathars and Cathar castles. On the Internet, www.amazon.co.uk is always worth searching. Even when books are currently out of print, you may be able to buy secondhand copies, usually at very reasonable prices, via Amazon.

In France, Fnac is a big bookshop chain. Their website, www.fnac.com, is also worth browsing, especially if you are looking for books in French that you cannot easily find outside France.

For literature about travel and walking in Cathar castle country, try the addresses and websites (IGN, Stanfords, and so on) referred to in the Introduction.

The publications mentioned below – many of which the author found useful in preparing this book – amount to only a tiny fraction of the relevant literature. They are all worth recommending, but it is not suggested that they are necessarily the best of what is available.

Several guidebooks in French describe walks in Cathar castle country. Where any of them are relevant to a particular walk, details are given in the corresponding section. Here it is worth noting in particular the Topo-guides published by the FFRP (see Appendix I) and the Sentiers d’Émilie series. (The latter, published by Rando éditions, offers a selection of relatively short walks suitable for families with young children.) Those titles particularly relevant to Cathar castle country are:

L’Aude, Pays Cathare à pied (FFRP Topo-guide PR, ref D011)
L’Ariège à pied (FFRP Topo-guide PR, ref D009)
Le Pays de Foix à pied (FFRP Topo-guide PR, ref P091)
Le Pays d’Axat à pied (FFRP Topo-guide PR, ref P111)
Sur les traces des Cathares, le Chemin des Bonshommes (FFRP Topo-guide GR107, ref 1097)
Les Sentiers d’Émilie en Pays Cathare
Les Sentiers d’Émilie en Ariège

The FFRP Topo-guides can be bought by credit card via, for example, the IGN and Stanfords websites, but not via the FFRP website.

A good general tourist guide in English to that part of France including Cathar castle country is The Green Guide – Languedoc, Roussillon, Tarn gorges (Michelin Travel Publications).

Very readable books in English abut the Cathars include The Perfect Heresy by Stephen O’Shea (Profile Books) and The Yellow Cross – the story of the last Cathars, 1290–1329 by René Weis (Penguin).

In French, the classic texts include Histoire des Cathares by Michel Roquebert (Perrin) and Montaillou, village occitan by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (Gallimard). An English translation of the latter by Barbara Bray is entitled simply Montaillou (Penguin Books, 1978, reprinted 1990).

Anne Brenon is another leading authority on the Cathars. Her Petit Précis de Catharisme (Loubatières) is a gem: an erudite but clear and succinct portrayal of the Cathars’ beliefs, history and social context.

Succinct, too, is The land of the Cathars by Georges Serrus (Loubatières). Translated into English from French, this is a richly illustrated, glossy publication which describes each of the Cathar castles. Just as well illustrated, but with a more detailed text about the castles (in French), is Les plus belles balades en Pays Cathare by Gilbert Roussel (Les Créations du Pélican).

Clear Waters Rising (a mountain walk across Europe) by Nicholas Crane (first published by Viking in 1996) is referred to more than once in this book. It didn’t take him long to cross Cathar castle country en route for Turkey, but his account of that crossing is priceless.