Foreign Perspectives

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The Da Vinci Code books and films has placed a number of sights in the Pyrenees firmly on the tourist circuit.

Of these, by far the easiest to get to is the village of Rennes le Chateau which is about 15 minutes drive from Quillan on the Carcassonne road.

Not so long ago, there was one relatively small car park which would have held at most 20 cars yet when we went recently we found a stream of car park signs starting about a mile before the village. However, the main rush of tourists following the release of the film has now died down so even on a public holiday there weren’t the crowds that these car parks anticipate.

The principal Da Vinci sights are the church and the museum, both open every day but note that the church is only open three hours in the afternoons (free admission). In the church, the statue of the devil is just inside the door on your left. Although the “no flash photography” signs are largely ignored, you’ll find that your photographs turn out much better without it, just be sure to remember to bring along a small tripod to steady your camera. Around the church is the graveyard but the grave of the priest Sauniere isn’t among those and you’ll find his grave within the grounds of the museum.

The museum (admission charge around EUR 5) is right beside the church and is housed in Sauniere’s former house and its grounds. Due to the terrain, these are often buffeted by winds so it’s best to visit on a calm day if you can arrange to do that.

Inside the house the rooms are arranged as a series of themes broadly based on those made famous by the Da Vinci Code book. Two of the rooms are setup as they were in his day and the small chapel is still there, of course. The view from the small castle ramparts is quite spectactular but easily missed as you enter via a conservatory which seems like the end of the tour. Amongst the exhibits are Sauniere’s original headstone (now replaced by a much more modern one) and the pillar in which he found the scrolls.

Stained glass was obviously pretty popular in the village and you’ll find examples of it in the house itself and several others around the town.

There’s a small but well stocked gift shop on the way to the church but don’t miss the larger shop just a few hundred yards further along on the road heading out of the village. The museum has a smaller selection than either of these.

This is part of our Pyrenees Guide.

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When we first bought our place here, one of the things that we immediately recognised was that it was an area that wasn’t terribly well known outside France. Not because there wasn’t loads of stuff to see and things to do here but that it was an area of the south of France that was relatively difficult to get to. When we arrived, Ryanair had only been flying into Perpignan for a few years and the bridge on the A75 at Millau hadn’t been completed so it was more than a day of driving to reach here from Paris.

Anyway, we figured that it would be a good idea to build up a tourist guide to the region and that’s what became Pyrenees Themes which we created over the course of around two years travelling around the region.

Roll forward a bit and ’tis now high time that we started updating it which we’re making a start on by revisiting some old places and adding some new ones plus there’ll eventually be a whole lot more information about the various sites and sights that we get around during the update.

As before, we’re starting with the closest places and working out, so we were off to the Hermitage of San Antoine over the weekend. This is an extremely popular location with a number of different activities. The hermitage itself is built right into the rockface as you can see with a small church built into a large cave along with several grottoes with some quite impressive carvings. There’s no entry charge.

You can reach the hermitage from the main car park (the first one you reach from St Paul) or continue on round the corner to the smaller car park which is much closer to the hermitage and leads you down a set of normal steps, through a short tunnel and into the hermitage. From the main car park, it’s a much longer walk along a poorly maintained path; the rocks are VERY slippery so watch your step on this route.

There’s even a gite d’etape as part of the complex (dorm style accommodation).

The Gorges de Galamus surround the hermitage and offer the chance to explore underground caves, walking trails and the like. One thing to avoid is the exit from the main carpark in the direction away from St Paul during busy days as it’s strictly one way for quite a distance and can be completely blocked with cars.

There’s a small gift shop in the main carpark which has quite a range of items but seems to keep fairly short hours. The much smaller gift shop cum café within the hermitage complex confines itself mainly to religous items.

A number of people have pointed this site out as the highlight of the places they’ve seen in the locality.

This is part of our guide to the Pyrenees.

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Just as France is huge, so too are some of the regions within it with the Languedoc-Roussillon area spanning a vast area stretching along the Mediterranean to Provence in the east.

Even we who should know better often think of “the Languedoc” as being countryside with a few hills yet we know that there are proper mountains less than an hour west of us (OK, not in the Languedoc). Similarly, we shouldn’t really expect to be surrounded by castles outside our own little corner of Languedoc-Roussillon. In fact, we’ve hardly explored the eastern edges of the region and have rarely passed Montpellier for that matter.

What’s quite striking is the difference in scenery that you get in travelling as little as 90 minutes from here. Last week, we had a little trip along the coast and came across the lovely Lake Saligou near Clermont L’Herault set in almost alpine scenery. I’m sure that it’s over-run with tourists in the Summer but we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves on a beautiful Spring afternoon.

This is part of our guide to the Pyrenees.

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