Day 18 - Friday, May 11th - Collioure to Carcassone along the "Cathar Trail"

The weather was glorious today for our journey from Collioure to Carcassone.  En route to Carcassone we took the opportunity to visit some of the castle ruins of the Cathars, a peace-loving Christian sect who spoke out against the Catholic Church and were therefore exterminated. We stopped at two of the most spectacular of the many in the area:  Queribus, famous as the last Cathar castle to fall; and Peyrepertuse with its spectacular views (and much longer steeper hike).  They guys decided not to accompany us girls on this hike. :)


Then we made our way on to Carcassone, a huge walled city which was also once a stronghold of the Cathars until 1209 when the crusading army of Simon de Montfort forced its citizens to surrender and the Cathars were expelled.


I had a hard time deciding on our photo for the day, so you get two for the price of one.  The first one Martha took of Terry and me at our first stop of the day, Queribus, and the second photo is taken by Terry and is of Carcassone lit up at night.

Terry and me up in Queribus - you can see the Pyrenees mountains in the background.

Carcassone lit up at night.