Photography, Travel
South of France
May 17, 2017 - Photography, Travel
My wife and I recently visited the South of France with our family for the first time since we’ve had the children. We love the region around Carcassonne and have visited there a few times since we’ve been married.
This time we stayed in a beautiful home on the hills just outside Limoux. The land of the Cathar’s and what to me is a beautiful part of the world to explore. The land here is dry and scrub like. The temperature was perfect, the sun shone every day, and the golden light provided a scape which was not to be missed from a photography perspective.
One of my favourite things about France is the romaticism associated with a life here… simple things, wine, good food, family. The priorities firmy focussed away from the rat race and on to more important aspects of life. Riches here aren’t always based on financial prowess. Or so it would seem.
The first thing that drew me to this region of France and Carcassonne was reading a novel by Kate Mosse ‘The Labyrinth’. In my opinion a great piece of fiction writing based on the medieval city of Carcassonne and the surrounding region. This inspired my first visit, after which I knew I was hooked.
The region is steeped in history. We visited Rennes-le-Chateau, the conspiracy surrounding Bérenger Saunière and the riches that he supposedly stumbled upon still drawing explorers and fantasists from far away places. In the Chapel, the Devil supports the Holy Water font. A strange greeting when first entering the dimly lit space. I overheard an American tourist speaking to a couple with English accents about his experience seeing a Unicorn whilst meditating in a forest, the location of which I didn’t hear, along with discussions on Fairy Folk. All this whilst I was photographing the candle stand, the candle light of which danced up the walls and cast eerie shadows across the altar.
Outside on the small streets a couple of Canadian women on a painting tour wiled away the hours painting local landscapes. Their brushes skillfully capturing the pinks and reds of the stone roofs that topped all of the little houses in this hilltop village. Rennes-le-Chateau is an exceptional place, beautiful with an air of mystery.
We visited the abbey of Alet-les-bains in the nearby vicinity to view the ruins of what must have been in its time a magnificent structure. The abbey was a diocese from which the cathars were fought in the 12th Century and was later destroyed in the sixteenth century during the religious wars and never restored. It is now home to the local pigeons, a reminder of the true skill and resiliance of the builders and sculpters of the time. We visited lots of other sites during our stay, some to entertain the boys and others just to soak up the atmosphere. Would France be worth the move? Would we be able to sustain ourselves and find work? To be continued…
