The Cathar Way - A Walker's Guidebook

The Cathar Way is a waymarked trail linking historic castles associated with the ill-fated 13th-century Cathar heresy. Guide to this 250km (two-week) route through the foothills of the Pyrenees in the Languedoc region of southern France, from the Mediterranean to Foix. Beautiful and historic area.

The Sentier Cathare

‘the most celebrated footpath in France’

The Sentier Cathare – or Cathar Way – is a trail of discovery in the Languedoc region of southern France, leading walkers from one famous Cathar castle to another. In its 250-kilometre westward passage from the Mediterranean coastline to the Ariège capital of Foix, the trail links nine of these legendary fortresses.

The 'Cathar castles' are mostly perched on high, rocky pinnacles. They gave refuge to followers of a 13th-century sect of heretical Christians – the Languedoc Cathars. The Cathars were brutally crushed during a ruthless 'crusade' launched against them by the Catholic Church and the French kingdom, and their rise and fall deeply affected the course of western Europe's history.

After centuries of neglect and decay, the Cathar castles are today being carefully restored. They arouse great fascination among people from all over the world, including those travelling on foot. Indeed, a noticeboard by the village square in Nébias, about halfway along the trail, proclaims that the Sentier Cathare is 'the most celebrated footpath in France'.

Now that is quite a bold claim to make, yet the Sentier Cathare is without doubt very popular, and whether or not it is the most celebrated trail in France, it is certainly one of the best-conceived and best-maintained walking routes that I have ever encountered, for which its instigators (who include the Mayor of Nébias, Louis Salavy) and present-day caretakers are to be congratulated.

As well as a trail of discovery of the Cathar castles, the Sentier Cathare is also a long hill walk. It rises and falls along its full extent, climbing from sea level to over 1300 metres, often following ancient inter-village footpaths. The countryside it passes through includes remote plateaux, deep valleys and gorges, meadows, forests, vineyards, towering cliffs and wildflower-rich upland pastures. The trail generally follows the grain of the land, over limestone hills that run parallel with the Pyrenees, whose snow-capped peaks form an almost constantly present horizon to the south.

In landscapes such as these, in fine weather, the good-to-be-alive feeling that walking in the outdoors offers can be at its zenith. But in passing through the land where the Cathar heresy flourished and was suppressed, the Sentier Cathare also offers a thought-provoking history lesson. My earlier guidebook, Walking in the Cathar Region (Cicerone, 2005), concluded with a few reflections on the history of the Cathars, and its possible lessons for present-day Europe and beyond. Overall, I agree with the sentiments expressed by Joseph Ribas, who writes with passion and initimate knowledge of the Pyrenees and the Pays Cathare. Ribas wrote, 'Les coquelicots refleurissent sur les champs de bataille et, avec eux, reviennent les vendanges et les moissons. On n'étouffe pas dans le sang la volonté d'une fleur.' In short, and inadequately translated, this says that where there was once bloody conflict, there are now flowers and wine harvests, which is certainly true of the Cathar region, so we have some grounds for drawing an optimistic conclusion from the Cathars' otherwise less than cheerful story.

I would urge anyone who is thinking of visiting the region to read about the history of the Cathars. Whether you conclude that they were martyred saints or credulous fanatics, you will surely find their story poignant, and be fired by a desire to explore the countryside and the monuments in which their drama was played out.

A trek along the Sentier Cathare is the perfect way to conduct such an exploration.

The Cathars

The term 'Cathar' was not used themselves by the followers of this faith, rather, it was applied by the Catholic Church to this particular group of heretics. It may originally have been a term of offence, meaning cat-lover – that is, a sorcerer or witch – but the Cathars called themselves simply Christians. The Cathar 'priests' – of which there were women as well as men – were referred to by their Catholic opponents as 'Perfects', meaning perfect (i.e. complete) heretics, but their followers just called them ‘good Christians’, or ‘Bons Hommes’ and ‘Bonnes Femmes’.

However, they were Christians who denied the authority of the Pope and had profound theological differences with the Catholic Church. In particular, they had a belief – dualism – that good and evil spring from different sources. They regarded the material world as plainly evil, and concluded that it could not have been created by the God of the Bible. Such a belief was totally at odds with Catholic doctrine, and indeed, the Cathars even saw the Catholic Church itself as the work of the devil. The broadcasting of such an opinion was not a good strategy for making friends and influencing people in the heretic-burning years of medieval Europe.

The Cathars were based over a much wider area than that covered by the Location Map on pages 8 and 9. In fact they were numerous in several parts of western Europe, including northern Italy and the Rhineland. However, from the 11th century they established especially deep roots in Languedoc.

The Bons Hommes and Bonnes Femmes who preached Catharism were ascetic. They worked in the community as, for example, craftsmen, preached in a language that everyone could understand, and levied no taxes – not surprisingly, they were popular with the independent-minded people of Languedoc. In addition, the region's 'nobility' (i.e. its warlords) protected them – indeed, many members of 'noble' families in Languedoc were themselves Cathars.

The Catholic Church could not but see the Cathars as a threat to its very existence, and the French crown, whose territory at that time was confined to the northern part of what is now France, became eager to take possession of Languedoc. These two irresistible forces, church and crown, together met head-on the immovable object of the Cathar faith, and jointly launched against the Cathars a crusade that was just as cruel and bloody as those dispatched to 'save' the Holy Land.

What happened next – and in subsequent centuries – is summarised in the following chronology. (Cathar castles that you will encounter along the Sentier Cathare are highlighted.)