26 - Of Cathares and Catalans - Narbonne, Cucugnan, and Figueres

Friday, 22 December 2023 - 

Narbonne

I had a full day planned today and that involved waking up to catch the sunrise over the Mediterranean from la plage de Narbonne.  Fortunately, sunrise is only at 8:15 so it only required me to set my normal work alarm instead of waking up obscenely early 😂 I discovered that the winds had persisted throughout the night and well into the morning but at the beach it became clear from the surf and sand that the wind had been blowing consistently with force towards the sea.

A view from the sea towards le massif de clape

Turns out that when I left, the hotel concierge hadn't yet arrived so I had to return to the hotel to checkout.  A lone stagiaire (intern) was inside the lobby when I came back, she uncomfortably kept checking out the front door for the concierge for the 5 minutes I waited 😂 poor girl

Cucugnan

The big ticket item for today was a visit to the Château de Queribus, an abandoned castle in Cathare country.  Given how tepid (😜) I'd found the Abbey de Fontfroide, I wasn't expecting too much from the castle but wanted to follow through on seeing at least one decrepit castle this trip.  And boy, am I glad I went.  The drive through Cathare country was, while twisty-turny, very scenic: peaks of the northern edge of the Pyrénées sparsely covered in Mediterranean scrubland interspersed with hundreds of vineyards.  I can see why it is classified as a regional natural park.

A view towards another touristic Cathare castle: Chateau d'Aguilar

And the castle itself was la cerise sur le gâteau (the French say cherry on the cake instead of cherry on top).  There was only one other car in the parking lot, which I discovered belonged to the woman in the billetterie.  When I asked for one adult ticket, she said that the wind is quite strong today and that a visit to the castle (it required a short hike up the mountain) might not be possible; so she proposed that I go up and see if I want to visit and then pay on the way out.  Génial!  

She wasn't wrong about the wind being strong.  I tightened my glasses, pulled my raincoat's hood down real tight, and then got down low and took hold of the rope handle set along the castle walls.  The castle had three tiers, which requires climbing uneven stone steps while being buffeted with wind.  Fighting the wind really made me feel like I was visiting some sacred protected site, like in a movie 😆 almost like I'd find the Kurgen inside the castle for The Gathering.

Some of the wall designs further increased the velocity and strength of the wind through a combination of stone walls obstructing wind and holes/ports acting as Venturi jets.  The doorway between the 1st and 2nd tiers had such a strong wind blowing in that I had to basically claw my way out while exiting.  The way it sucked me in upon entry but I had to fight my way out kinda reminded me of Made in Abyss and how, in that series, the abyss allows one to descend easily but ascending incurs a heavy toll (though for me, descending through the door was the hard part).

These ports are part of what I expect made the wind so dramatic in some of the passageways.  

Inside the castle, I was the only living soul.  Very quickly the visit began to feel like a puzzle in Myst or Riven (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst), searching through a windy, abandoned fortress for clues to solve a puzzle.  The lady at the billeterie had given me a paper guide but I was loathe to open it up lest the wind tear it out of my hands, so I did mostly sightseeing and snapping pictures of the plaques in French.  

  

Upon reaching la 3ieme enceinte, the castle donjon stood imposingly above me with a door opening and closing in the wind.  I entered and made my way to the upper level, which afforded an excellent view of the surrounding area: once the clouds passed me, I could see clear to the Mediterranean as well as snow-capped peaks of the Pyrénées.  This castle originally served to protect the border between France and Spain before it served as one of the last sites of safety for the Cathares during the Catholic crusades against the heretics.

Facing North East, where much of the wind and clouds were coming from.

The Mediterranean off in the distance

I half-expected to find un chevalier Cathare waiting for me here, à la Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 😂

Delving into the bowels of the donjon

What the heck?  There should be a booby-trapped treasure chest waiting for me at the bottom of the castle.

I highly recommend le Chateau de Queribus on a sunny day, exploring the castle on your own on a really windy day is also recommended!  

Figueres

Once done with the castle, I started the drive towards Figueres, Spain.  It was incredible how as soon as I crossed the Pirineu / Pirineos into Catalunya (apparently spelled Catalonha in Occitan), the temperature on the car thermometer shot up 10C.  I didn't head straight to my hotel in Figueres but instead made my way to a wetland just southeast to do a hike.  Per as sign on the trail, the wetland in the Parc Natural dels Aiguamolis de l'Emporda is a remnant of what was once a huge ancient lake 8 km in diameter. Towards the end my journey, I met a couple from France who were living in a camping car (RV) and were making their way down to Gibraltar.  They tow a Smart Car with their RV and used it to come to this park.  When the pandemic lockdowns started in France, they sold their place, bought a new camping car, and have been living in their RV for the past 3 (soon to be 4) years. 

A house for various desired bugs!

T-shirt in December for the 23C (~75F) weather, though I put on a jacket when the wind started to pick up around 3PM.

Behold!  The land that is wet!

Looks like they converted an old grain silo into an observatory

The wetlands and Pyrénées

The Cap de Creus (with the town of Roses) to the left, Mediterranean out in the distance, and wetlands upfront

Possible flamingo sighting?  Or more likely, a pair of storks taking a break.

This might have been the first wetlands hide I entered where I actually saw wildlife...

The sign said this was a ratta d'aigua, a water rat

Tiny birdnest!

Maybe not the most intense hike, but a great place to observe birds.  I think I encountered 12 bird-watchers during my walk about.

I finished up my hike/walk around 4:30PM and I decided that it'd be nice to observe the sunset at the beach, so I made my way to the city of Roses.  As a beach city, it seemed fairly abandoned in the winter but I took the opportunity to walk the sandy beach and dip my feet into the sea.  

I made it to the hotel (Hotel Duran) around 6 PM.  The concierge was super helpful and was pleased to be able to practice her English (she said she mostly speaks in French as most of the tourists come from France).  After bringing the bags up and parking, I took a stroll of the centro de la ciudad de Figueres. The Christmas market was in full swing, with a band of people playing music and marching around.  Overall, I'd say Figueres appears a lovely little town with plenty to be found in its pedestrian zones: the placas (plazas) were full of life and the streets were busy with shops.  

Vine coverage in progress

Roasted chestnuts appear to be popular here as well as in France, not sure why every time I see somebody selling roasted chestnuts (les marrons en francais and I think a word very similar en español) it's out of a choo-choo train.

The little band of marching people.  I've no idea who the masks are supposed to be but a drum and what appeared to be 6 oboe-like instruments were playing Bella Ciao here (I only know the song from Money Heist but maybe a Spaniard or Italiano would know more?)

The back of the Dali museum

The front of the Dali museum

After meandering about, I returned to the hotel where I had dinner at the hotel's (fancy) restaurant.  I'm unsure just how fancy or authentic the dining experience at Hotel Duran was but the fact that my plate and silverware were changed three times and my main dish was plated at my table leads me to believe that the place is slightly upscale.  

Roasted sea bream: I thought the fish was slightly undercooked and found it difficult to get meat off but it was still tasty.

A xuixo (like a cream filled donut) with a small glass of sweet wine.  

At the end of dinner, I used a hotel voucher to obtain a glass of cava (Spanish sparkling wine) and struck up a conversation with a nearby table where a woman and her dogs were finishing up their post-dinner glass of wine.  I'd heard her and the waiter conversing in French, but I guess my introduction in French must have been so atrocious that she asked if I spoke English 😅.  

Turns out, she is a Dutch woman living in Provence (24 years) who was supposed to have spent the holidays in Thailand but canceled and drove to Spain because her dog sitter fell ill.  When asked about how my meal was, I said that I thought the fish (a sea bream) was slightly undercooked and she told me that the Spanish typically prefer their fish that way; interesting, I'll need to confirm with a Spainard.  She visits Figueres and Spain multiple times per year and frequently visits this hotel's restaurant; oddly, the Hotel Duran allows dogs in the restaurant but not the hotel rooms, so she was staying in a hotel just around the corner.  

My plan tomorrow is dedicated to potentially the most famous person from Figueres, Salvador Dali.  The hotel reserved a ticket for me for the museum's opening.  The Dutch woman, Ines, had recommended the Dali House museum on the Cap de Creus in Cadaque; but with it being almost an hour to the North-East I'm not sure I'll make it; I do plan to visit the Dali museum dedicated to his wife, Gala, to the Soutwest though.