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fLeebLe goes to rennes-le-chateau

original_fLeebLe

Gone But Not Forgotten
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i am happy to announce that i am going to rennes-le-chateau :yeay: i am not going till october but i am starting this thread now so that anyone who has been can give me ideas for what to see other than the very obvious. i will be staying just a few miles from rennes-le-chateau and will have a car to get to places. i will imagine i will visit montesegur and other cathar ruins, carcassonne, toulouse and perpignan. so i will be having a fantastic fortean/historical/cultural holiday :spinning as you can tell i can't wait and am very happy :D so any ideas for stuff to do/visit will be gratefully received many thanks in advance fLeebLe

p.s. if you can just let me know where the treasure is please p.m. me ;)
 
I know the area pretty well but you seem to have the major things boxed off in that area.

If you are doing a circuit of the general area then the drive from Perpignan up into Andorra is always good (you possibly need to go that way to swing back north to the Cathar castles). Stop off in Villefranche de Conflent and there are some good show caves there. The Canigou is a very impressive sight in that whole area. The 'fairy chimmneys' are nice natural formations that you can get to on the route.

I'd also recommend going to Tautavel and visiting the Arago museum as it is an excellent museum giving agood guide to early man in the region.

If you time it right you can run into various street fairs at Villefranche and Tautavel have a kind of prehistoric street do which kids might find interesting.

I'll have a ponder on this one and see f I can think of anything else good.

[edit: This might be wroth moving into the General Forteana as we have a number of other Fortean travel threads and this could develop into an interesting little overview of a tour of the land of the cathars.]

Emps
 
Other thins I can think of are 'The World's Largest Barrel' possibly in Tet and if you are going to be passing throuh Perpignan then I'd really recommend a dart over the border to Figueras (near Girona) - its only a bit over an hours dive and well worth it.

Emps
 
I hope you have rotten time! :grrr:

*foams with jealousy*

Definatly don't forget your camera. And definatly don't forget to tell us how it was.:)
 
The Imperial Guide to the Land of the Cathars

OK I've dug out various books and maps and consulted with my father on this and so I've drawn together about a decades worth of trips to the region (my folks bought a house down there to retire too and I've spent many a holiday there but, my mum died and we've now sold it but I still love the area and will certainly be going back).

Essentially you'll need Michelin Yellow map 86 (and possibly the green guide to the Pyrenees) although you might need others if venturing further a field (esp. as Carcasonne is right on the top edge). The whole area is really a big rectangle and (hopefully) you can get a general feel for the area from this map:

Micelin Map

I have created a simplified version (which is attached) to show the main towns and places of interest and the key is:

=================================
Main towns:

P: Pamiers

C: Carcasonne

N: Narbonne

M: Millau

Q: Quillan

P: Perpignan

V: Villefranche de Conflent

FR: Font-Romeu

A: Ax Les Thermes

F: Foix

T: Tarascon

G: St. Girons


------------------------
Cathars

I'd recommend you get the follwoing reading (it has had mixed reviews but it has a lot of maps and pictures even if you don't like it):

The Yellow Cross:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140276696/revenantmagaz-21

Cathar locations on the map:

1: Montsegur

2: Pic du Bugarach - a very unusual hill with all sorts of legends/history - it is also on the Paris Meridian.

3: Peyrepetuse

4: Querebus

5: Rennes le Chateau

[note: the line on the outline that 2, 3, 4 and 6 are on isn't the main road it is the River Algy which parallels it to the north and the drive up from Tautavel across that area is amazing]

------------------------
Palaeolithic:

The region is nearly as rich as the Dordogne with very important sites going back 400,000 years:

6: The Museum at Tautavel based around the impressive Lower Palaeolithic finds at Arago.

The whole Ariege is fully of later Palaeolithic painted caves and important sites but it might be wise to fo to the Prehistoric Park in Tarascon before going up to the caves just to get advice, book, etc. (I think the ticket for the park also gets you into Niaux)

7: Niaux - pant wettingly good. You drive up high above the valley onto the shelf outside the cave. You then plunge on into the cave an amazing journey down deep into the cave and then then after a while they start showing you all sorts of wonders - paintings, sculputure, amazing caves, etc.

8: Mas d'Azil - needs to be seen just for its setting. You drive around corner and the road plunges into a huge cave and out the othe side. You can then go for a tour up into the sub caves above the road which are well worth it.

There is another cave like Niaux but without the tourist numbers - possibly Portel (it was wide and had a German plane factory in it during the War and someone once took off from inside it) which is worth a visit its more of an intimate litle trip (I'll try and dig the name out).

Good guide:
http://www.ariege.com/what_to_do/castlescaves/info.html

If you were going to go more into the Palaeolithic art angle (through the Ariege and up into the Dordogne perhaps)

then I'd recommend Paul Bahn's "Journey Through the Ice Age" - it was my constant companion on various jaunts around

the painted caves of France:
http://www.sciencesbookreview.com/Journey_Through_the_Ice_Age_0520229002.html
http://www.rock-art.com/books/bahn2.htm

----------------
Templars and sundries on the way down (its on the Michelin yellow map 80):

9: La Couvertoirade - one of the main Templar storng holds

10: Cirque de Navacelles - an impressive natural 'arena'

These last two depend on your route there - if you drove down the main (nearly complete?) motorway through Millau (one of the best routes if you don't fly) then there are some interesting thigns to see there and the amazing Gorges of the Tarn are also there.

================================
Anyway just a quick outline - feel free to pick my brains if you like but it should also help provide places to search for on the Internet, etc.

Just digging ot all the info has made me exicted again and I want to go back - if you only see a small part of the above you'll have a great time :)

[edit: The Rennes Le Chateau thread is here:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73 ]
 
all hail the emperor

wow, that is a fantastic load of information :_omg: :yeay: i can't thank you enough :wow: i think i owe you a beer if i meet you, maybe uncon. thank you oh mighty emperor.

p.s. thanks for the coded map for the treasure :p
 
fleeble: No worries - hope it helps. There aren't many places I can do that for (the Dordogne as well as Anatolia and Eastern Turkey possibly) so anythiing I can do to help. There are numerous other things to do there too that is just skimming the surface but if you can aim to fit those in you'll be a very happy bunny.

The map holds many secrets just don't look at it in the mirror.

Emps
 
suitcase checklist:

crowbar check
shovel check
theodolite check
gps check
where did i put that damn mirror???

:rolleyes:
 
Odd, I was thinking only yesterday that it would be nice to visit that part of the world in the near future.
I'd be interested to know what it's really like - does it try and milk the legend for touristy reasons like so many places would, and as such is full of souvenir hunters and tacky shops, or is it as I'd hope, a quiet village with a history that's not made a fuss of?
Anyone else been? And were they disappointed?

Hope you have a good trip.
Steve.
 
Really now, do you think they would leave the treasure buried? It is really a wellspring of money that just flows out of the.........

Oh. I really shouldn't tell.


(All completely up to date currency of course.)
 
sjwk: I went a few years back and it was just like any other French village really (albeit one with a good situation and some rather strikingly odd buildings) and if they were going to be doing any of that kind of thing they'd have been doing it then too I suppose. Then again I may be so immune to such things I walked right past them ;)

Emps
 
has anyone played 'gabriel knight 3 blood of the sacred, blood of the damned' ? you get to walk round a 3d rennes-le-chateau, and by what pictures i have seen is a very good representation. it is most probably the best fortean game there is, and you can get it for a fiver now ;) it is a point and click adventure game where you have to solve the rennes-le-chateau mystery :)

picture comparison
 
fleeble: Thats great - where would one purchase this for a fiver?

Emps
 
fleeble said:
has anyone played 'gabriel knight 3 blood of the sacred, blood of the damned' ?
Yes, I like all of the GK games. Not finished it though, I reinstalled and haven't yet started from scratch. Hm, not doing anything this evening..... ;)

Steve.
 
the flights are booked and paid for, and i have booked and paid the deposit on the apartment :yeay:

i am sooooo excited hehe the apartment comes with a computer and broadband so i will be able to keep you all updated on my holiday while i am there :D

just got to book the car now and try and wait patiently for the time to go :spinning
 
fleeble: Great news although you'll be terribly tired if you are this excited until then ;)

Anyway here are the two main general books that I have found useful (they aren't so great on the specifics I mention above but are useful for getting around and just visiting towns, etc.):

Rough Guide to the Pyrenees (although I was going on the earler version):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1858287014/

Michelin Green Guide to the Pyrenees:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/2060036607/

This is out of print but this seems like a good repalcement as it probably covers the right area (although I'd recommend going into a good bookshop and nosing through the available ones):

Languedoc/Roussillon/Tarn Gorges (pretty broad but it does cover exactly the right area)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/2060008727/

----------------------
Anyway as I mentioned it is well worth swinging around the southern route - there isn't much Fortean but as you head towards Villefranche from Perpignan the world's largest barrel is off on the left in Thuir and the 'fairy chimmneys' are on your right. Villefranche is always well worth a visit and if they are haivng one of the Catalan festivals it will be great with giants and human pyramids, etc. Off up the road towards the Canigou are the spa towns but what I had forgoten is Saint Martin de Canigou - its a bit of a hike (but nothing that should tax anyone of any age as long as they have their health) and it is really beautiful esp. if you climb alittle above it and look back:

http://architecture.relig.free.fr/canigou1.htm

I'll keep droppig thoughts in as they come to me ;)

Emps
 
Fleeble - as far as I can tell from Gabriel Knight 3 and the videos I've seen it's pretty much as accuate you can get from a computer game version, we were watching Henry Lincolns guide to Rennes le Chateau and recognising buildings, areas, maps etc FROM the game, so its that good :)

Gabriel Knight 2 is good as well, all about werewolves! You can always get them off Ebay if no where else!

Just remember to take loads of photo's fleeble, you lucky ****. We shall be goign there someday when we can afford it.
 
i have gabriel knight 1 & 2 :D the first one is about voodoo murders. then there is the broken sword games :D bs1 the shadow of the templars, bs2 the smoking mirror and bs3 the sleeping dragon. the first and last are templar mysteries and the second one south american. you can get bs1 & bs2 for a fiver each and the new bs3 for about £18. you would have to do get gk1 & gk2 second hand though.

now back on thread :rolleyes: i'm going to rennes-le-chateau, have you heard :p at the moment with all the information emperor is digging up, i think it will be easier to move to the area and holiday in england when i get the chance :rolleyes:
 
check out chateau d'arc (i think) real interesting little place, templars, simon de montford, etc, went a few years ago and were treated to a very good history of the place by a guide. try to find out why there are so many stone/iron snails around rennes. the countryside is littered with cathar remains and can be breathtaking. have an ace time
 
book recommendations

time is slowly ticking nearer to my holiday, still ages yet but i wish to get a couple of books on the rennes-le-chateau mystery. the primary type of book i would like is an unbiased as possible book on the mystery. then maybe a couple more of theory type books. so has anyone read any that they can recommend to me. there are tons out there on theories, so if anyone knows the better ones it would be a big help. but it is hard to find unbiased books with no one theory, the nearest i have found so far is the rev. lionel fanthorpes book 'secrets of rennes-le-chateau'. many thanks in advance for anyone who can help :)
 
i received my copy of 'secrets of rennes-le-chateau' by lionel and patricia fanthorpe today. it looks good, lots of information :). i also got my copy of the 'rough guide to the languedoc and roussillon' today and already have my michelin road map (thanks for the advice emperor). but i am still after any recommendations to what are the better books to buy. only three months till i go now :yeay:
 
Have you read "The da Vinci Code" yet? I know its fiction and stuff but it sounds like fun anyway (I haven't read it yet either).
 
'the da vinci code' doesn't really interest me. i am only really interested in the factual :rolleyes: books. some of the books that analyse 'the da vinci code' look quite good if not a bit pointless for me to read. 'the secrets of rennes-le-chateau' is looking like a very good buy, but i still would like to get a couple more books if anyone has any recommendations.
 
at last my copy of "the yellow cross 'the story of the last cathars 1290-1329' " has arrived, cheers for the recommendation Emperor :yeay:. less than six weeks till i go now, can't wait :spinning
 
Cool - hope it helps. It should be fun (even if the weather doesn't hold out you can make sure you are in a cave on the rainiest days (and those caves are unbelievable). Take lots of pictures too.
 
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