Occitanie: Cathar Castles

Four days across the Aude and Ariege following the Albigensian Crusade, between clifftop fortresses and planned medieval towns. The route starts at Carcassonne, the largest walled medieval city in Europe with its double curtain wall, then climbs to Peyrepertuse, the celestial Carcassonne perched at 800 metres along its ridge, and to Queribus, the last stronghold to fall. Montsegur, where the Cathar Perfects died in 1244, remains the most charged site on the trip. Puivert with its museum of medieval instruments, then the bastide of Mirepoix and its timber-arcaded square, close the journey. The castles must be earned on foot: allow twenty to forty minutes of steep, exposed climbing for each. Proper shoes are essential, and avoid the full afternoon sun in summer.