Mountain
biking along the “sentier cathare” (southeast France)
April 1-6,
2012
Foreword
Betsy had signed up for a music session near Carcassonne for the first
week of April, and rather than staying in Torraccia in Italy I had decided to
come along, not for the music session but for a MTB trip. My MTB buddies not
being able to come along I had decided to go alone, and be extra careful on
this technical trail.
However a week before our departure our son Rémi called from Montréal:
- Dad could I come along on your MTB
trip?
- Sure, I
would really love you to join me, I’d prefer to have company and Betsy would
feel better knowing that I am not alone;
- OK, let
me check travel arrangements and I’ll be back to you.
The “sentier cathare” can be followed on foot, on horseback or on
mountain bike. It is normally done in the direction Port-la-Nouvelle on the Med
to Foix, but can also be done the other way around. It crosses various regions and progresses from the vineyards
of the Corbières to the mountains near Foix. Climate, vegetation and topography
are quite different; I had decided to start from Foix and reach the sea. From my contacts with people having
done it, I though it would be easier to go up on technical single tracks where
I was likely to push my bike, and down on wider tracks where I was likely to
ride the bike, the other way around sounded too technical for my competence.
A bit of history
The cathare followed a religion which preached a return to simple
values, was opposed to the luxury excess of the church and valued fasting, no
swearing, no sex (poor fellows!) etc.
It became quite popular in southeast France around the X-XII centuries
to such an extent it threatened the authority of the church, which had sent
priests to invite the cathare to rejoin the ranks of the church. It did not
achieve anything and the church allied with the king of France undertook to
eradicate the cathare movement, either by forcing them to abandon their faith
or killing them. The cathare
sought refuges in heavily fortified castles in strategic locations but ended up
eliminated; the ruins of those castles dot the sentier cathare and constitute
an added bonus to our trip.
Day1: Foix to Montségur (39 kms, D+ 1850m)
The night before our departure was busy with eliminating all
non-essentials items from our luggage. Since we would have to carry them on the
bike, there was a strong incentive to travel light, ultra light. ; a
single change of clothing, some repairs parts, basic medical kit and warm and
waterproof gear, April can be cold in the mountains!
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| Getting ready. |
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| Ready. |
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| Ready and smiling! |
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| Up we go! |
After a false start (I had kept the hotel garage key in my pocket and
had to return it to the hotel) we started the climb that would bring us to la
“ferme blanche” above Foix, the path being narrow and steep we had to push the
bikes for a while. Once on the top we could start pedaling and doing some
adjustment to Rémi’s rental bike, seat, brakes, etc.
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| A bit of pushing. |
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| Fixing Rémi's bike. |
The track leveled out and we met a few walkers. At the col
de Touron I misread the map and we had to look for the trail for a few minutes,
fortunately a group of hikers had a detailed maps that put us on track.
We continued towards the château de Roquefixade but a rocky outcrop I
saw in front of us had me thinking we were on the wrong track. We descended
through brush to an asphalt road that brought us to the village of Roquefixade
and it is only then I realized that the rocky outcrop I had seen earlier was in
fact the castle! Back up with the bike for a visit: our first cathare castle,
from the top of the castle we could see snowy peaks in the distance: winter was
not completely gone!
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| Roquefixade. |
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| Roquefixade. |
After Conte a difficult trail with ruts, mud, rocks and roots had us
on foot and pushing the bikes until le Sau. I have to admire riders who could
ride either up or down those types of tracks, way above my abilities. We
decided to use the asphalt road to reach Montségur where we had reserved rooms
and dinner at the gite « lou sicret », a nice sign was welcoming
us. The gite was all ours and we
could enjoy showers, hot abundant dinner and an early night.
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| Welcoming sign. |
Rémi is learning fast how to handle an MTB and rides quite strongly,
no doubts he can complete that trip.
Day 2: Montségur to
Puivert (47 Kms, D+ 1080 m)
The guardian of the gite offered to drive us to the castle of
Montségur saving us a half hour walk.
Arriving early at the booth we did not have to pay and could visit the
castle undisturbed climbing forbidden stairways to enjoy a panoramic view from
the top; check another castle!
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| Village of Montsegur from the castle; |
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| No entry! |
Back to the gite to get our bikes and cover ourselves since it is
cool. The blue and oranges marks of the sentier cathare make their appearance;
we will follow them for a while!
The trail is very well blazed and is easier to follow than on many other
previous trips I have done.
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| Trail markers. |
Good climb until serrât de liam
followed by a technical descent to the parking of Petail at the entrance to the gorges
de la Frau. After leaving the tar road, the trail along the gorges becomes
technical and we start pushing.
There are still patches of snow in the shady places.
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| Entrance to gorges de la Frau. |
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| Gorges de la Frau. |
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| There are still patches of snow. |
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| A happy quebequois! |
Exiting the gorges we find a wide
gravel road where we move briskly in spite of some snowed-in sections, and
reach Comus and the col de la Garganne.
We enjoy a very pleasant descent to Montplaisir and arrive in Puivert, where we
stay at the « gite des marionnettes » owned and operated by a couple,
the husband being one the few remaining puppets makers.
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| Puppet maker and his wife. |
Dessert consisted of a
great chocolate cake, which we overdosed on, not being afraid of calories. The Spanish hikers we shared the gite
with were more moderate.
Day 3: Puivert to Puilaurens (49 kms, D+ 1200m)
A cloudy and grey morning with poor forecast so we keep overshoes and
raincoat on top of our bags, ready to be used. We visit the Puivert castle still inhabited (so to speak as
he lives in a trailer near the entrance) by the owner who provides good
information on his castle. There
are still many rooms looking as if someone did actually live there recently, an
interesting visit.
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| Puivert castle. |
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| Puivert castle. |
Good trail to Nebias and Lafage. Thereafter a difficult uphill where
we push the bikes until Coudons. Nice trail to Quirbajou, a small quiet
village, where a dog decides to adopt us and follow us until Marsa through a
challenging downhill track.
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| Interesting track. |
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| Towards Marsa with a friendly dog. |
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| Towards Marsa with a friendly dog. |
The rain starts during our picnic and will stay
with us until Puilaurens. Easy trail through Cailla and Axa to arrive on the
castle of Puilaurens and go to the village where we stay at the « mas
occitan », a comfortable chambre d’hôte. The owners treated us to an excellent « blanquette à
l’ancienne ».
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| Feels good to walk. |
Day 4: Puilaurens to Duilhac-sous-Peyreperuse (53kms, D+ 1150m)
We walk back up the castle to visit it. Since we are quite early there is no guard and no admission
fee. Puilaurens: check!
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| Puilaurens. |
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| Puilaurens. |
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| Defensive structure at Puilaurens. |
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| Wide angle of Puilaurens. |
A muddy track, remember it has been and is, still raining, until la
Villase-fenouillet. We had been warned that the gorges of sainte Jaume would be hard to manage with panniers and
decided to follow the asphalt road to Caudies. Hot coco and coffee warmed us up before buying picnic
ingredients. We sheltered from the
wind and the cold in a small barn for our picnic and a few minutes rest.
The track towards Prugnanes and gorges
de Calamus is wide and flat and we chat and look at the landscape without
paying too much attention to the map.
That was a MISTAKE. Before we realize it, we are in St Paul de Fenouillet
and have to do an extra 5 km uphill to enter the gorges de Calamus. Great
vistas, with a road cut right in the rock and a river at the bottom of the
canyon, plus quite a bit of wind.
Very impressive and worth the extra distance.
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| Gorges de Galamus. |
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| Gorges de Galamus. |
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| Gorges de Galamus. |
Exiting the gorges we follow the sentier cathare up a steep hill (read
pushing bikes) until the col de Souls. Fortunately we find a road (shown on
the map) allowing us to avoid going all the way up pech d’Auroux (elev. 940m) that we follow until the château de
Peyrepertuse.
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| Pleasant track. |
Some deep clay patches on this road jams wheels, brakes and gear
change and we have no alternative but to carry the bike until the road becomes
hard again, and clean them thoroughly; not so easy a job without water or
proper tools. The bikes (and the
riders) now look pretty muddy!
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| We prefer tracks! |
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| Nice track. |
We visit the castle (Peyrepertuse: check!) after paying since we
arrive during visiting hours, and go down to the village of Duilhac, chambre
d’hôte « aux lavandes ». Dinner in a so-so restaurant and good night rest. I give some pruning advice to the owner
regarding her lone olive tree, let’s hope it survives and prospers!
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| Peyrepertuse. |
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| Peyrepertuse. |
Day 5: Duilhac-sous-Peyrepertuse to Embres-et-Castelmaure (42 kms, D+
1050m)
Sunshine and blue skies this morning are such a pleasure. I had read that the trail section
between Duilhac and Queribus was very difficult and all persons we had met had
confirmed it, consequently we decide to ride on the asphalt road. Wise decision since the road goes up a
steady 17% average.
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| Towards Queribus. |
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| Rock patterns (Queribus). |
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| Queribus. |
Queribus is the best kept and most interesting castles among the ones
we have seen, furthermore the site is splendid and we can even see the
sea. Interesting visit (Queribus:
check! We are on our sixth castle only one or two more to see). From the top tower we try to make
panoramic photos using “photosynth” an I-phone application, the results are
mediocre but it is fun to play with those apps.
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| Local specialty. |
We start to see vineyards, and after passing by the ruins of the
castle of Padern (no visiting allowed due to the falling walls) we reach the
village where Rémi has a coffee in the café des sportifs. Had there not been a
sign saying it was open we would have thought the place had been closed down
for years, see the picture!
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| Padern. |
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| Padern from below. |
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| Café des sports (et des sportifs?). |
After Tuchan we go to the castle d’Aguilar, one of the worst kept but
the view is pleasant, it is the last cathare castle on our trip (hurrah! seven
out of seven, perfect score!) and we sleep in Embres where I had reserved a
gite. In fact we have a complete
house at our disposal, and the owner has filled the fridge for our dinner since
there are no shops or restaurant in the village. Rémi cooks a great “pasta alla carbonara” and the ½
kg of pasta disappears without any problem. Great quiet night with starry skies, the last of our trip
since to-morrow we plan to reach Port-la-nouvelle.
Day 6: Embres-et-Castelmaure to Port-la-nouvelle (40 kms, D+ 1000m)
Another clear morning and much warmer than any previous day, we are
getting closer to the sea. Down a
narrow track with an erosion ditch in its center that tests our technical
competence (or the lack of!) and a pleasant uphill to reach a statue of the
virgin Mary with a great view over the landscape.
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| Statue of the Virgin Mary. |
We pass Durban-Corbieres and meet a “gaspésien” (Gaspé is a region of
Quebec province, Canada) who decided to settle there, fix up his house and live
like a Frenchman. He warns us that
the track up “the cliff” is quite steep and difficult. We keep going and think he has been
exaggerating since there are no special difficulties on the track. It is only after the “ferme de
Madourelle” that we understand what he meant by “difficult”. The trail is a
footpath, narrow, rocky and very steep. No way we could ride a bike there and
we end up carrying them for a few stretches until we reach the summit.
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| hard to ride this one up! |
There we encounter the wind and understand why they chose that spot to
installed windmills to generate electricity. Those are enormous from close up and make an eerie swishing
noise. The trail is flat among low scarce vegetation on a limey rocky soil and
we move forward at a good clip with more and more sightings of the sea.
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| On the plateau. |
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| Wind vane. |
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| Wind vane. |
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| Wind vanes. |
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| Getting there. |
We see panels indicating
port-la-nouvelle our destination, a sure indication we are reaching the end of
our trip. An easy downhill brings
us to the RR station of Port-la-nouvelle where we take the classic picture.
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| End of trip. |
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| We did it! |
We then followed the biking path along the lagoon until Narbonne plage
where we returned Rémi’s rental bike, met Betsy and had a celebration dinner.
General information
We used the map published by rando-edition “le sentier cathare » at 1: 55,000. It
is a good map but not accurate enough for tricky passage where the French IGN
maps at 1: 25,000 would be far better and more detailed. To avoid carrying
the 12 or so maps we would have needed I copied on my iphone the relevant map
sections from the IGN site « Geoportail ». It complemented the rando-map without adding weight, being
able to zoom these pictures was an added bonus.
Bikes were hard tails, we rented a Gitane (a French make)
from a rental shop in Narbonne plage for Rémi, and his only problems were
frequent seat and brakes adjustments.
Mine is a KTM with hydraulic disk brakes, schwalbe marathon extreme
tires front and fat Albert double defense at the back. Not a single puncture
during the trip. However the Wheel
bearings took a serious beating and needed complete revision and some repairs
upon arrival. Otherwise no technical problem.
Weather was typical early spring: with cool nights, brisk
mornings, some rain and sunshine days.
There was still snow in the higher elevations (1500-1800m) but that was above
our itinerary.
Equipment:
Air pump, spare tube, spoke key, telephone wire (convenient,
strong and light), plastic self-locking ties (most useful), multiple tool with
chain tool, quick chain-link, patches and glue; can of WD40 and some lubricant
used for chain cleaning and lubrication, spare derailleur hanger.
First aid kit:
Band-aids and cleaning cream.
Clothing used:
Overshoes, raincoat, windproof vest, “wind-stopper” warm
biking jacket, long sleeves “capilene” (Patagonia) shirt, warm gloves
lightweight long pants
Not needed: rain pants, fleece hat, short sleeves “capilene”
shirt, long sleeve “craft” warm shirt, long johns, long sleeve cotton shirt.
