If you know your history (or your Dan Brown) then you will know that the Cathars were a religious sect thriving in the SW of France, until their persecution by crusaders acting for the Pope in the 13th Century. There are several spectacular Cathar castles, all within two hours drive for me, so one of my projects this year is to photograph them all. Puilaurens is only a 'Cathar castle' for tourist marketing purposes (since it belonged to nobles loyal to the King of Aragon), though it was used to shelter some fleeing Cathar clergy and nobles.
I was not really satisfied with any of my photos taken yesterday. The castle is in a spectacular location, perched on a rock 300m above the surrounding country, but dominated by higher mountains all around. I spent two hours walking the area looking for the perfect shot, but this was the best I could do (embarrassingly, it was taken from the car park of the Visitor Centre). It shows something of the way the castle towers over the surrounding land. You can also just about see the zigzag path leading up the cliff to the entrance located midway on the long wall to the right. What is not shown is the size of the castle, as this is a shot of the narrow end. The round tower in the middle is supposedly haunted by the 'White Lady', who was murdered there by her husband (you would have thought she would have had more sense than to marry somebody called 'Peter the Cruel'). We were the only visitors and Jasper started barking at something, but I think it was probably just a bird.
Click on the tag tims-cathar-castles to see other photos in the series.
What a spot , and I think you caught it perfectly, but know that feeling of taking a lot of pictures and not knowing which if any show what I saw. I guess as this is the first view of this scene it looks very good...
@jbd1962@yorkshirekiwi Peyrepertuse and Queribus are next on the list, probably in the next two weeks or so, and probably on the same day since they are so close.
@yorkshirekiwi I missed many of your French photos as I was taking a rest from 365Project in July. Have just enjoyed looking through them - reminded me of some of the French road trips I did before I moved here.
@laroque seems ages ago now. We got as far as the car park at Peyrepertuse, but didn't have time to go inside. I shall look forward to seeing your photos of it soon. (Fewer tourists I suspect in November
