South of France Blog

Celebrating Bastille Day on a cycle ride in the Montagne Noire

14/7/2020

I decided to commemorate the day by cycling through several centuries of French history. I crossed the Rigole de la Montagne a couple of times, built by Pierre-Paul Riquet in the 1660s to supply the Canal du Midi. I sped below the castles of Saissac, Lastours (below), Mas-Cabardès and Miraval-Cabardès (right), all besieged during the Albigensian crusade in the early 13th century. After a long climb, I passed through the fields around Laprade where the RAF dropped weapons to the Resistance during the second world war. A little further, I stopped at a monument to the 800-strong army of the Resistance that fought the Germans in this area in 1944.

The monument is also a mausoleum, and for the first time ever, the local mayors had decided to hold a Bastille Day celebration outside the crypt where 13 men of the Resistance are buried and where a 14th tomb awaits Louis Fourcade who was last seen alive on 6 August 1944 when the Gestapo were holding him prisoner in Revel.

When the assembly learned that I was the famous écrivain anglais who had told the story of the Corps France de la Montagne Noire in his book, ‘Lauragais’, they asked if I would be kind enough to pose for a photo with them outside the crypt. In the interests of Anglo-French relations, I obliged, and then we chatted about Major Richardson, the British agent who had hidden in the surrounding woods and provided the radio link with London during the war.

I continued on my way and paused briefly for another photo in Les Escudiès where a stele commemorates the battle that took place on 20 July 1944 between the Resistance and German forces which included 1,500 infantrymen, several armoured vehicles and six Junkers 88s.

Vive la France!