Arques

Chateau d’Arques

Date: 25 September 2012

Today’s subject is the famous Chateau d’Arques, a donjon just to be found outside of the medieval village of Arques, hometown of writer and connoisseur of the Cathar history Deodat Roche who has a museum named after him in the center of the village.

Tree of Life

Cross with Tree of Life

August 30, 2012

by: rose marie

During one of my tours this month, we visited a remotely located and very much treasured small church in the area. One of the features of this church is the cross with the Tree of Life, outside in the church yard, just at the back of the altar on the inside! This specific cross is in my humble opinion indicative of what the meaning is of the cross.

Alet les Bains

view on church tower through cathedral ruin’s window

August 13, 2012

Yesterday, Sunday August 12, the above picture was taken at the end of the day (you can see the time on the church clock) when visiting the ruins of the medieval cathedral at Alet les Bains.

Summer in the Aude

fontaine des amours

August 10, 2012

On typical hot August days, it is a great opportunity to be able to cool down in one of the many small rivers around the Aude. A lot of local people use these vacation days as a family outing. They pack a nice picnic, take everything they need to spend the day on the river side and settle down in the splendor of nature along the riverside.

Splendor

artichoke

August 1, 2012

Observing the development of an unperturbed artichoke turning into a blooming beauty was really a surprise!

A client left behind this rather dry and grey looking artichoke which I left to its own means for a couple of days. Then, all of a sudden, some purple , almost glowing, filaments started to protrude from the center of the fruit resulting in this glorious fruit flower….

Bugarach

Op top of Bugarach

One of the hot topics with respect to the so-called End of the World happening, which is foreseen for December 21, 2012 is the mountain that I have chosen for today’s blog.

The famous Mount Bugarach, close to the medieval village with the same name. This village and mountain are featuring in all kinds of documentaries and films and can be found on the internet on a lot of pages and sites.

Source

water sprouts in Campagne les Bains

The other day, we paid tribute to some of the ‘tucked away in the hills’ finds in the area around Puilaurens and on our way back we made s short stop in a hamlet by the name of Campagne les Bains.

Rennes le Chateau

Rennes le Chateau

Above picture was taken yesterday, Sunday June 10, 2012 from a vintage point between Rennes le Chateau and Coustaussa (one of the so called Cathar Castles). This mountain top village is quite famous although very small in size. Why is it famous? Because it is said to hold a mystery that has to do with the Holy Graal stories, with treasures, with the story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. It is also used as a location in the book and movie of the Da Vinci Code.

Carcassonne

Carcassonne

Welcome to today’s post, about the well known medieval city of Carcassonne.

In our part of France, the South West, there is an enormous amount of medieval buildings and ruins available for the public but none of them is so intimately recognised as Carcassonne’s La Cite.

Flowers

the color of spring

June has just started and the picture in this post was taken about 2 weeks ago. On a very sunny and clear day.

A poppy field along the river Aude close to Limoux, the center of the Haute Vallee de l’Aude.