NOTES FROM THE NATURAL WINE FAIR AT DURBAN-CORBIÈRES / I spent yesterday exploring the world of natural wines at the Glouglou natural wine fair in Durban-Corbières. Most of the exhibitors were certified organic, but they have all gone much further in their quest to minimise the artificial techniques used in most modern wine production.

WHERE THREE FRENCH GENERALS REST IN PEACE / How many generals are buried in your local graveyard? I found three in mine, all from the same family! I did not discover my three General Reys while wandering among the grandiose funerary monuments in the Catholic cemetery of Puylaurens. I found them buried in the Protestant graveyard hidden away on the steep northern slopes of town.

THE FRENCH CONCEPT OF LAÏCITÉ / Living close to the Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle pilgrimage route has often made me toy with the idea of making a pilgrimage of my own. Last weekend I had the opportunity of making a much shorter pilgrimage which also provided a brief lesson in the French concept of laïcité.

OVERDOSING ON CHÂTEAUX: LASTOURS - ONE VILLAGE, FOUR CASTLES (PLUS A FIFTH!) / Drive twenty minutes north from Carcassonne and you will reach the village of Lastours. Red and gold Occitan flags flutter from lampposts alongside the river, and high on a ridge above the village, four separate châteaux stand in a line: Cabaret, Tour Régine, Surdespine and Quertinheux.

HOW THE PROTESTANTS OF REVEL STOLE A MARKET FROM THEIR CATHOLIC NEIGHBOURS / Founded as a royal bastide in 1342, Revel has one of the busiest weekly markets in the Lauragais. Few shoppers know that this popular event was stolen from the neighbouring town of Sorèze during the Wars of Religion 440 years ago. 

A RARE MEMORIAL TO THE WARS OF RELIGION / This calvary in Soual may be unremarkable at first sight, but it is highly unusual. It is the only memorial I have been able to find to those who died in the Wars of Religion.

A LOST CITADEL IN THE MONTAGNE NOIRE / A few months ago, I took a walk in the forests of the Montagne Noire, south-west France. I waded rivers and fought dense vegetation in a bid to became one of the first people since the 12th century to visit the remains of a lost castrum – or fortified village. I say ‘lost’ because, until a year ago, it was unknown to archaeologists and historians.

WHY WAS THOMAS JEFFERSON SO DETERMINED TO VISIT THIS PRETTY LAKE? / Rather than admiring its beauty, Jefferson was more interested in the engineering aspects of Saint-Ferréol. It is, in fact, a reservoir, not a lake, and it supplies the Canal du Midi. Jefferson studied the whole system because, in his home state of Virginia, there was great interest in the idea of making the Potomac navigable.

THE CATHAR MEMORIAL AT LES CASSÈS / This windy promontory hides a tragic history and a moving memorial to some of the victims of the Albigensian Crusade.

A VISIT TO THE CASTRUM DE ROQUEFORT – HOME OF HERETICS, HIDEOUT OF BANDITS / The earliest written reference to the fortified village of Roquefort dates from 1035, and for the next couple of centuries it was the home of the Roquefort family. Walking through the only gate to this well-protected community is an eerie experience. Roquefort has been abandoned and barely touched for 600 years, making it one of the least-investigated Cathar castles.

FIRED UP ABOUT ICE: RESTORING AN ICEHOUSE AT PRADELLES-CABARDÈS / Thank you, Daniel and Marie-Christine Bertherat, for sharing your enthusiasm for ice houses and showing me your unusual restoration project. A century ago, ‘les glacières inépuisables de la Montagne Noire’ seemed truly inexhaustible, and the tiny village of Pradelles-Cabardès supplied ice to towns as far afield as Bordeaux, Perpignan and Toulouse.