We left our splendid hosts at Camon and drove up on to the Plateau de Sault, a large plain at 4100 feet of altitude famous for its potatoes and now equally well known for the snow in May. Broken trees everywhere bore testament to the terrible damage a late and wet snowfall can bring.
Our intention had been to walk in a circuit around Montaillou having lunch overlooking the plain against the backdrop of the high Pyrenees – the weather was once again to be our undoing. We decided immediately to drive up to the ridge and alter the route of the walk so that it would take in Montaillou in the morning and leave us a warm place for lunch at midday. So we walked down and across to the famous village. It was here in 1324 that the entire village was arrested and forced to give testimony to the inquisition in Carcassonne. The papers that resulted were the subject of a world-wide best-seller of social history by Emmanuel le Roy Ladurie. He dissected the different papers and gave us an outstanding account of life in a mountain community at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
We walked up to the castle and then over to the next village of Prades where we picnicked on the (enclosed) terrace of a restaurant. An ideal solution it was generally agreed. Our afternoon hike took us down a delightful valley to the next village of Comus from where we drove to our next hotel – the sixteenth century Chateau of Couiza.
This squat, square building with round towers at the four corners shows exactly what a late castle looks like. The courtyard has been decorated in the Renaissance style in anticipation of the next move in French architecture bringing the new Italian fashions into the court of Francis I.
Dinner consisted of a smoked fish salad, roast veal with delicious potatoes and a citrus dessert. Wines from the Corbieres house of Haut Gleon.
