Ariège, Mirepoix, Foix and Cathar Trail

As a Bavarian from the foothills of the Alps, what do I say about the Pyrenees?

I THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT WHEN I ARRIVED! It sounds trite, but when the morning sun from the east hits the mountains in the west, it's magical!

We could already see the Pyrenees on the way out of the Bordelaise, because unfortunately the weather wasn't particularly great on the day of the trip. The next day we forgot all about that because we had pure sunshine.

We took advantage of this and drove north of Foix into the mountains and did a hike with 3 mills. We could have collected a lot of chestnuts here, because the mills mentioned around Burret (Russieau de Bailles) were mills for the tasty chestnut flour. This time we held back because the last attempts had resulted in more maggot production than edible food.

The hike itself was idyllic, unfortunately there weren't as great views as promised in the app.

Autumn is much slower here than at home, at first we were a little deceived by the temperatures because there was sun... It's better to have one more layer, onion principle, because 14 degrees of sun in autumn is different than in spring.

The hike gave the god of practical jokes a lot of space to spin water, because the prankster always gets a little crazy. Nerone is calmer there.

After all the altitude we returned to FOIX a little too late for the market, because on Fridays all hell breaks loose here, the market is really nice.

Since the market only runs until 12 p.m., sometimes 1 p.m., we were an hour too slow, but then we took a look around the town with the impressive castle above the old town. You could also climb up to the Pech viewpoint on the opposite side of the river, but after the hike that was too much for us. We drank tea/coffee and experienced for the first time that the siesta is actually observed in the region.

Mirepoix was the small counterpoint, because we only took part in the market by chance. The city is a MUST for medieval fans, because the half-timbered houses have arcades under which the market used to take place, protected from the weather. This is the case every week on Mondays, but now the traders usually set up their stands in the alleys because almost everyone has their own umbrella or umbrellas for protection. It was idyllic, a nice mix of stalls and, as far as I could tell, no junk.

We didn't really get a good look at Mirepoix because of the market, a place I would like to visit again.

Today we went back to the foothills of the Pyrenees, this time high up on a Cathar path. We were in a Roquefixade and climbed the chateau there, the view of the mountain ranges of the Pyrenees was gigantic, thanks to an information board we now know that there is still a glacier there. (I can't say whether that's true.) Here at 1000 meters there were still figs, but no chestnuts anymore. The hike itself was one of the most beautiful that I was able to do on the trip, but of course that was also due to the good weather!

I can only warmly recommend the region!