Fascinating Languedoc

In this week's New York Times travel section is a very wonderful article about the Cathars and the area where they lived in southern France. A number of years ago we visited this area, and I remember the mysterious and beautiful narrow winding roads in the rugged mountains.

The author writes about the food of these medieval heretics:

The historian René Weis records how two Cathar sages called the Authié brothers had a fondness for exotic spices, as well as fish terrines, local cheeses, honeys and “good wine.” One of their hosts, concealing the brothers in his home from the Inquisition, set up to hunt down and purge the remaining Cathars, went forth “in search of a better and more renowned wine than the one he kept in his own residence,” at considerable personal risk.

See the entire article here:

The Besieged and the Beautiful in Languedoc

By TONY PERROTTET

The Châteaux de Lastours, where Cathars fought a church attempt in the 13th century to destroy them for heresy.