Beaches & Castles

The Languedoc Roussillion is bordered by the Mediterranean to the East and the Pyrenees Mountains to the South. This beautiful part of France is the most prolific wine producing region of the country and the area includes mountains, rivers and lakes, ancient cities, towns, villages, thermal springs, abbeys, châteaux and the famous mountain fortresses popularly known as Cathar Castles. The Canal du Midi crosses the region and connects Bordeaux with Narbonne.

The ancient Trencavel family were very important during the period in which Trausse itself was being built, and ruled the ancient city of Carcassonne. This beautiful city, with its medieval jousting in the summer, was declared a world heritage site in 1997, and is the 2nd most visited place in France. Carcassonne has three main parts to it: the outer ring road, which you will drive around if you come to Trausse by car, is where there are numerous supermarkets, electrical stores, outward bound stores and other shops. This is essentially the commercial heart of the city. The old town is the second area. This area is very attractive and is where the station and the Canal du Midi are. You will find fairs here in both winter and summer months. The old town is full of boutique shops, coffee houses and specialist outlets. The ancient Cite is the third part. This is the medieval part of Carcassonne where there are numerous gift shops, restaurants and other places to eat. This is a very romantic area and is also the host to the magnificent Bastille day fireworks display. Kevin Costner?s Robin Hood was filmed here. Carcassonne is only 25 minutes drive from Trausse and has a good golf course (18 holes). Other golf courses are available in the vicinity of Narbonne, this equally old City has a 5km sandy beach at Narbonne Plage, and is also near the etangs, where you can see flamingos. In this area too is the Sigean Safari Park where you see elephants, lions, Rhinos and many other animals too. Narbonne, marks the end of the Canal du Midi with its own canal La Robine and is less than an hour's drive away. Narbonne has a very good covered market which is open daily, there are also some very interesting Roman ruins in the town.

There is some controversy about the Cathar Castles, the main "Cathar Castles" advertised to tourists as romantic vestiges of the Cathar period are no such thing because there is very little remaining from Cathar times, castles or anything else. In fact the remains of castles that are still visible are generally castles built by the French after the Cathar Crusade, and used to defend their new border with Aragon.These castles were left to decay, after the Treaty of the Pyrenees in the seventeenth century.The justification for the deceit is that they are often built on the site of earlier castles occupied by vassals and allies of the Counts of Toulouse during the Cathar period. Broadly there are five categories of "Cathar Castle".

Carcassonne probably has the best claim to be a Cathar Castle. Many of the castles are however worth visting. Some of the better known include: Coustaussa, Puilaurens, Montségur, Queribus, Termes and Aguila. There are also castles of interest because of their links with events during the Cathar period, for example: Avignonet, where the only achievement of note was the killing of a few widely hated Inquisitors at Avignonet, along with their retinue, during the night of 28 May 1242 by soldiers from Château of Montségur led by Pierre-Roger de Mirepoix. The removal of these Inquisitors was enormously popular. Church bells were rung to celebrate the event as the solders passed through villages on their way home. Villerouge Termenès, a castle belonging to the Archbishop of Narbonne, where the last known Cathar Parfait in the Languedoc was burned alive, and Montaillou, the home of Beatrice de Plannissols, a major character in the events following the arrest of a whole village by the Inquisition on suspicion of Cathar sympathies.