Walks in the Cathar Region

The guide offers 30 walks based on the once strategically important castles that dominate the foothills of the Pyrenees. Each walk has as its focal point a castle or other location associated with Cathar history (mostly the 13th century). Summaries of the historical connections of each location with the Cathar period are given, and together these relate the story of the downfall of the Cathar Church, from the massacre in Bèziers in 1209 to the siege at Montsègur in 1244, which ended with the burning alive of over 200 believers who refused to renounce their Cathar faith.

IGN 1:25,000

Sheets: 2545ET, 2444ET, 2345est, 2147, 2147ET, 2148ET, 2247OT, 2347OT, 2248ET, 2447OT, 2446OT

The sketch maps accompanying the walk descriptions in this book are intended only to offer an indication of the key features in the areas crossed. It is strongly recommended that walkers also equip themselves with the relevant 1:25,000 maps published by the Institut Géographique National (IGN), the French equivalent of the Ordnance Survey in Britain. These excellent maps contain very detailed topographical information. Each walk description specifies the 1:25,000 map (or maps) which cover the relevant area.

There are two types of 1:25,000 map. Maps in the Serie Bleue series each cover an area of about 15km x 20km. Maps in the Cartes topographiques TOP 25 series vary in size but typically cover an area of about 27km x 22km.

The TOP 25 maps show long-distance paths, local walking routes and a lot of other valuable tourist information, much of which is not shown on the Serie Bleue maps. They cover coastal, mountain and other tourist areas. In Cathar castle country, most of the 1:25,000 maps are in the TOP 25 series.

A grid of numbered kilometre squares covers the maps of newer editions of both 1:25,000 series. The newer editions can also be used with global positioning devices (a GPS symbol is shown on the front). At the time of writing, about two-thirds of the 1:25,000 maps referred to in this book are GPS-compatible. The newer editions of all 1:25,000 maps are also being marketed as Cartes de randonnée (walkers’ maps).

Many newsagents, bookshops and supermarkets in France sell IGN maps. TOP 25 maps cost around 10€ each (about £7), while a Serie Bleue map costs around 8€.

The publisher Rando éditions has produced a series of 1:50,000 maps covering the French Pyrenees and their northern foothills, using IGN cartography and also called Cartes de randonnées. In this series, no 9, Montségur, covers an area between Quillan and Foix and is useful for planning walks in the area. It costs around 10€.

The IGN also produces a series of 1:50,000 maps, but these are not usually available in shops and, for walkers, are no adequate substitute for 1:25,000 maps.

For route-planning purposes the IGN’s series of 1:100,000 maps (the Cartes topographiques Top 100 series, or Cartes de promenade) is very helpful. Nos 71 (St-Gaudens Andorre) and 72 (Béziers Perpignan) cover most of Cathar castle country.

IGN’s 1:250,000 maps (Cartes régionales series) are also designed for route planning by road. Cathar castle country is covered by Midi-Pyrénées (R16) and Languedoc-Roussillon (R17). In France, the 1:100,000 and 1:250,000 maps currently cost around 5€ each.

IGN’s website is www.ign.fr (in French only). Their maps and other products can be bought via that website using a British credit card. But, with the additional postage and cost of currency transfer, their final prices seem to work out a little higher than those charged by British suppliers of the same maps.

May 2014

Since the latest printing of the guide, the following website addresses have changed:

‘Former Ramblers Director Alan Mattingley retired to southern France several years back, but this little book demonstrates he is still putting his walking expertise to good use. It explores the beautiful and evocative eastern corner of the Pyrenees associated with the Cathars, a mystical and egalitarian Christian sect, who were ruthlessly suppressed as heretics by the Roman Catholic church in the 13th century. The looming castles where the Cathars hid from their persecutors, some of them seeming to grow from the rock of their hilltop perches, provide the bases for a varied range of day walks using the extensive waymarked footpath network in the area as well as parts of the long distance Sentier Cathare.
    It’s an evocatively written guide, with much on history and nature as well as practical walking information and great colour photos of striking landscapes.’

(Des de Mor, Walk Spring 2006)