Ceret - driving in Cathar Country.

We actually bought a loaf of bread today at the boulangerie, rather than a baguette. Also croissant, of course, but there were no more croissant buerre (the proprietress pointed at her watch, implying at 9am we were too late) so we had to have croissant naturale ( I hate to admit it but they were just as good).

It came in a thin wooden basket. We had her slice it for us as we wanted it for sandwiches for
a picnic lunch.

First stop was to the Caveau at Chateau D'Aubiry to buy a 3 litre box of what we have, again, decided is our house wine. We also bought Mum a bottle of white. Total bill: 8 Euro or about $12. On the drive out we noticed that the resident goat herd was close to the gates.

The goats graze in the grounds surrounding the chateau, keeping the undergrowth down.

This one came over to the gate to check us out.

This one ignored us, far too busy, on the job!

At this point my camera battery died so the rest of the days pictures are taken with Dad's although it  kept giving me a low battery signal and sometimes refusing to turn on. Sometimes it did and then I got pictures. Once we got beyond Perpignan the landscaped changed. Around us they make Cote de Roussilon wine, here we were seeing different names and many places selling from the domaines directe  as well as large co-ops. There was a constant crazy quilt of vineyards, orientated in different directions and terraced up the mountain sides. They grow a lot of grapes here and make a lot of wine.

We drove some windy roads up out of the valley and this was the view of our first Cathar
Castle, from the parking lot. We had our picnic lunch in the car.
This was as close as you could drive. The rest of the way was up a footpath.

The Cathars were a peaceful religious group that rejected the Catholic faith and were therefore persecuted and eventually early in the 1200s a crusade was mounted to end the influence of this religion that had taken hold in what is now Languedoc. Tens of thousands died and these castles in the Pyrenees were their last strongholds. They are breathtaking buildings high on rocky peaks.

This is Queribus, one of the five castles known as the "5 sons of
Carcassonne". It was the last stand of the Cathars and fell to the French
in 1255.

The keep with its vaulted ceiling is intact.

The views in all directions are magnificent. Is hard to see how anyone could
attack and win as the entrances are narrow, arrow slits overlook all approaches and
there's shear precipices on all sides.

The castle is built on this rocky ridge.

As I made my way down this is what I came across:

I asked her if she was crazy and she said "yes" and that she had just started out to
see how far she could get, kept resting and then carrying on. The guy at the gate
obviously didn't think she'd make it because he didn't charge her an entrance fee.

Mum and I headed back down the steps and footpath. The wind was very strong and felt like it would blow us right off the hill.
I will continue todays events in tomorrows post as there are too many pictures for 1 post and I'm tired.
For the foodies; we experimented a little on supper tonight. We made honey glazed duck breast (the last one out of the freezer) and tried to replicate the curry sauce, on carrots, that we had out for lunch at Port Argeles. It wasn't quite right, although delicious (butter, garlic, chicken stock, curry, cream), so we will have to keep experimenting. Its a tough job but someone has to do it.