Cathar Holidays. It sounds strange to think of these two words together. The Cathar religion and way of life with its lack of materialism alongside the modern holiday season.But we live in a world where people are interested in the Cathars, what they thought, where they lived and died and the history of that period.

The Holiday Cottage is close to the centre of Carcassonne and provides an ideal base to explore the area.Our web site tries to explain a little about the Cathars and talks about the main visitor attractions throughout the Languedoc and the Ariege.

The owners are a local French couple who will be able to talk to you about the Cathars and perhaps in some small way help to spread the understanding about the Cathar way of life.

We hope that you find these pages useful.

Languedoc, a land of olive groves and vineyards lying under a fierce sun from the mediterranean to the mountains of the Pyrenees.Between France Italy and Spain it was literally a medieval crossroads. Liberal ideas flourished, the troubadours sang their songs and the atmosphere was one of tolerance.To the North the future Kingdom of Fance was growing in strength. To the East the Holy Catholic Church personified wealth and material success. To the South the Moors were being slowly turned back.

Into this fertile landscape came holy men preaching a new story. A story so different to that from Rome that a Crusade was called to stamp it out. The horrors of the inquisition were learned, not in Spain, but on the fields of France.

What did they preach? Essentially Cathars were dualists. They believed in the existance of good and evil and that the world was evil. Essentially we live in hell, all material possessions are therefore of no value and the only redemption from an endless round of birth, death and rebirth was complete renunciation. At one stroke they cast aside the material wealth of the church,discounted the "sins of the flesh" and undermined the giving of tithes and taxes. This duality of light and dark is seen today in the brown "yin and yang" signs used throughout Languedoc to indicate that "Vous ete en Pays Cathare".

The croyants (believers) were guided by the parfaits ( or priests). There are various estimates of how many were in Languedoc. A realistic range is probably between 30,000 and 50,000 with maybe as many as 1,000 parfaits.

The parfaits dressed in black robes and tended to travel in pairs. The existing feudal heirachy as well the rights of the church were denounced. Sexual equality was encouraged.

The use of the word "Cathar" seems to have arrived after the establishment of these beliefs and there is no evidence to suggest this was used by them. Instead they used terms like "good men", " bons hommes".

Approaching Carcassonne from Narbonne, shortly after joinng the Autoroute entre deux Mers , on the right you will see three large concrete tubes with slits for visors. These are Les Chevaliers Cathares. From now on the tourist story about the Cathars will grow until it reaches it's peak within the walled City of Carcassonne.

The castles now form a well defined tourist route. Everything from hotels to food bears the Cathar name to promote the very thing which they sort to deny....materialism.

And yet there is still magic in this land. It is possible to find places where the consolamentum was given by the Cathar Perfects and to believe that nothing has changed in the 800 years between us. Carcassonne is right in the centre of Cathar country and the holiday cottage is an ideal base to explore the past. Interestingly in the summer of 2004 the local authorities have opened a 12 days long trek between Queribus and Foix. Read about the Cathar walks here.

Read about the Cathar Castles and see the places which you can visit from the Holiday Cottage by clicking this link

Cathar castles in the Languedoc and Ariege.

Follow our photoring to see pictures of Lastours Castle, just north of Carcassonne in the valley of the Orbiel.

The centre National d'Etudes Cathares ( tel 67 77 10 21) in the Chateau Villegly, at Conques-sur- orbiel, 8 kms NW of Carcassonne is very close to the holiday cottage and a good source of information about the Carthars.

Interested in books about the Cathars...here is a link to Stephen O'Shea's book "The Perfect Heresy"