Episode Transcript
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0:16
Annie Sargent: This is Join Us in France, episode 488,
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quatre cent quatre-vingt-huit. Bonjour, I'm Annie Sargent, and Join Us in France is the podcast where we take
0:26
a conversational journey through the beauty, culture, and flavors of France.
0:31
Today, I bring you a conversation with Elyse Rivin of Toulouse Guided
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Walks about the Ariège Department.
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The Ariège is a lesser-known treasure trove of natural beauty,
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wonderful sites to visit and very good culinary offerings as well.
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It's all the way south in France and it goes all the way to the Spanish border.
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I think it's a haven for adventurers, families, and anyone looking to
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escape the hustle and bustle of the more crowded tourist spots.
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Much of Ariège is not that touristy, but we've talked about it in several
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episodes, I list them in the show notes, you know, and why do we
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keep talking about this place? Well, because Elyse and I live nearby, we've gone many times and we wanted
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to do an episode where we do an overview of the entire department for
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people who are considering a visit. This podcast is supported by donors and listeners who buy my tours and services,
1:28
including my Itinerary Consult Service, my GPS self-guided tours of Paris on
1:34
the VoiceMap app, including my brand new food tour of Paris, which I'm very
1:39
excited about, or take a day trip with me around the Southwest in my electric car.
1:45
You can browse all of that at my boutique joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
1:51
Patreon supporters starting at $2 a month get new episodes as soon
1:56
as they are ready and ads free.
1:59
For the magazine part of the podcast, after the interview
2:02
today, I'll discuss the 'Night at the Museum' or 'Nuit au Musée'.
2:06
It's coming up in Paris in May.
2:18
Bonjour Elyse. Elyse Rivin: Bonjour Annie. Annie Sargent: We have a fun conversation today, we're talking about the Ariège
2:26
department in our part of France.
2:30
It's beautiful, scenic, but not very touristy.
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Touristy for outdoors things, mostly.
2:36
Right. So this is a haven for francophiles who are also people who love an active
2:43
vacation, such as bike rides, hikes, nature discoveries, fantastic with people
2:52
that have kids, it's a part of France that normally doesn't get super hot,
2:58
but it could certain days of the year.
3:00
You never know. And of course it's an area we know well, because it's very close to Toulouse.
3:05
And so we've been there many times, but we wanted to give you the
3:09
rundown of all the great things to do in the Ariège Department.
3:15
Elyse Rivin: It's a department that is, it actually starts as Annie has
3:18
just mentioned, very close to Toulouse.
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It actually starts about 20 kilometers away from Toulouse, technically,
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and it goes into the highest part of the Pyrenees Mountains.
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And it is fronted or bordered, if you wish, by Spain and the tiny
3:34
little kingdom of Andora which is an anomaly, we can say, on the South side.
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It's fairly big. It turns out that 40 percent of it is considered to be a regional park,
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which in France means that it's got a certain amount of preservation,
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but unlike big parks in the United States, for instance, it includes towns
3:56
and villages and things like that.
3:59
That doesn't mean that it's a park where there's nothing in terms of commerce
4:02
or building or anything like that. It's just... Annie Sargent: Right, because in the US I learned when we were visiting the
4:08
Appalachia that the, I think it's called the Big Smoky Mountains, there's a park in
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there where they actually removed all the people that were there to create the park.
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And in France, they never do that.
4:24
Right. They just, they kind of put strong restrictions on development,
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but they let the people who are there live there, you know.
4:33
Elyse Rivin: Exactly. So it's a department that is very varied in its geography because the
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part that's the furthest north, closest to Toulouse, is relatively flat.
4:44
It's not completely flat. It's like little rolling hills and nice, very soft little valleys.
4:50
And then you get into the part that's the foothills, and that's where there's some
4:54
very interesting things to do and see, and then you get into the high mountains.
4:58
And it covers a vast territory because it really on the eastern side, the department
5:04
to the east of it is the Aude, and you're already in a more arid kind of climate.
5:09
And then on the west, it goes into the highest and wettest part of the Pyrenees,
5:13
which really top over 3000 meters.
5:15
So it's big, it's not that developed, it is a department that historically had
5:20
a massive emigration, at the beginning, in the middle of the 20th century, even
5:25
before World War II, it was very poor.
5:28
It was very rural, which of course it still is.
5:30
And so there were masses, and masses of people who left.
5:33
This is typical of most places, I guess, in the world anyway.
5:36
And a lot of them went to the cities, and then a lot of them
5:39
went to the United States. That's ironic, but if you go to New York City, for instance, a whole lot of the
5:44
French restaurants there are Ariègeois.
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I don't think they went there being chef de cuisine to begin with, but a
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lot of the establishments that have come down through several generations
5:55
are actually owned by families that left the Ariège to go elsewhere.
6:01
Annie Sargent: Well, and it is true that if I had been born in the Ariège I might
6:07
not have thought this was an excellent place to stay for the rest of my life.
6:13
Yeah, I mean, it's underdeveloped, it is very rural, there's some
6:18
fantastic attractions, but no big industry, no, you know...
6:23
Elyse Rivin: One of the few industries that did develop, and actually existed
6:27
I think, for a couple of hundred years was the textile industry.
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But unfortunately after World War II, a lot of the bigger companies
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took over a lot of the manufacturing.
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And so there's a town, we'll mention it when we talk about some of the museums and
6:41
things, but there is a small town called Lavelanet, which is where the center
6:45
of all this textile manufacturing was. And now there's one company left, and there's a museum, but it is true that
6:53
with the changing in the demographics and the people needing to go where
6:57
there were lots of jobs, a lot of these little towns and villages
7:01
wound up being pretty much abandoned. And it's only when tourism really became important and agricultural green
7:08
tourism really brought people back.
7:10
Years and years ago I met someone who was with a group of people, this is
7:15
my first traveling through France, this is my hippie days, everybody.
7:19
I met a group of people who had bought a village.
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Annie Sargent: Wow. Elyse Rivin: In the Ariège. At the time, and I'm talking a long time ago, but this is like maybe 35 years ago,
7:29
apparently there were these abandoned villages that the local government, I
7:33
guess, was selling for a pittance for people to come and move back in and
7:38
work on fixing up the houses as even country homes so that there would be life
7:42
brought back into some of these valleys. I don't you can do it anymore.
7:46
Annie Sargent: Well, perhaps someone who wants to start a commune or some sort of
7:50
crazy cult, you could do it in the Ariège.
7:52
Elyse Rivin: Oh, you can, you can, they're actually, don't, she's laughing,
7:56
but unfortunately the bad side of all this, this is talking about, this is
8:00
not about tourism, so don't be worried because it's gone and over with.
8:04
But about 15 years ago, there was a village that's actually not far from
8:07
some of the places we're going to talk about, that not only was just taken
8:11
over by a bunch of crazy hippies, but became a cult, you know, it was
8:15
like it was run by some crazy guy. No, it was about Massat.
8:19
Annie Sargent: Massat. Elyse Rivin: Oh, the Bugarach is something else. Yeah.
8:21
That, yeah, it's in the Aude, right?
8:24
Annie Sargent: So Massat... Elyse Rivin: M A S S A T.
8:26
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know how they got rid of everybody, but it was one of
8:30
those places where it was like out of one of those horrible Stephen
8:34
King books or something like that. They're not there anymore.
8:38
Everybody don't worry about it. Annie Sargent: Listen, I'm in the middle of listening to The Stand again.
8:42
What a book! Elyse Rivin: Is that Stephen King?
8:44
Yes. Oh, he scares me. I don't read him.
8:47
Annie Sargent: Most of it is not that scary. It's just, it creates really weird situations, yeah.
8:52
Elyse Rivin: Anyway, the Ariège is really homey.
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I guess I, since I have friends who have summer homes that they go to regularly,
9:00
because it's so, it's really within an hour's drive to get to a lot of
9:04
the pre-Pyrenees, lots of people have nice little places that they've either
9:09
worked on or, you know, that kind of thing, that go there even for weekends
9:12
because it's really not that far away. So it's an area that is kind of user friendly, I would say.
9:18
It's not spectacular in the, unless you're into really high
9:22
mountains and going hiking in the, you know, up above 2500 meters.
9:27
And some people do. I mean, it's just beautiful, you know?
9:30
But otherwise it's just, it's nice, I like it there, it's green most of the time.
9:34
And it's got lots of interesting little things to discover.
9:37
Annie Sargent: Right, right. So we'll talk about, I mean, maybe I should mention this right away, I
9:42
looked in Komoot, which is the place to go if you want to look for hikes
9:48
and bike rides in France, but I'm sure in many other countries as well, and
9:53
they list something like, I think it was 93 easy loop hikes in the Ariège.
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And there was something like 290 something intermediate and perhaps 70
10:07
or something that were expert hikes.
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So when they say expert, I think they mean that you need to bring
10:15
equipment and things like that. Lots and lots of hiking, lots and lots of mountain biking, and
10:20
you can really find a gîte in the Ariège for not very much money.
10:27
Okay? It's an ideal place for people to go who enjoy just hikes and bike rides and having
10:33
a good meal at the end of a long hike. And nature walks, you know, we'll talk a little bit about some of the places.
10:38
It is a great, great, great area to go if you are doing a vacation with
10:42
children and you want to have outdoor things to do, take them to places
10:46
where they have what the French like to call animation for children, for,
10:51
you know, showing how things are done, getting them to participate.
10:54
It's that kind of a place. And the other thing is, French trails are well-marked.
10:59
Right. Elyse Rivin: It's really comforting to know that even the easy ones
11:04
generally are very, very well indicated.
11:06
So, you can start out on a trail, they will show you usually a sign
11:11
which shows you the route that you're going to take, how long it might
11:14
take, the distance and everything. And it's something that I think is very good in France, the trails
11:20
and the way they're taken care of. Annie Sargent: Right, and in the weeks when kids, French kids
11:26
are on vacation, then they do animation, like you were mentioning.
11:30
So they're going to have stuff like, we have someone to show them
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how to do, you know, pottery like they used to, or do jewelry like
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they used to, or things like that.
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It's not really hands on because you, but you watch someone doing it.
11:43
And I think it's very fun for kids.
11:46
You can find stuff like that year round, but it has to be during school vacations.
11:51
Elyse Rivin: In the summer they have. Annie Sargent: In the summer, yes, but that's school vacation, right?
11:55
Elyse Rivin: Right, that's true, yeah, that's true. You're right.
11:57
But let's start with the stuff that probably most people are
12:00
used to visiting, which of course would be castles and villages.
12:04
France certainly has thousands, everywhere.
12:08
And even though this is not the, there are not that many in the Ariège
12:13
that are so super spectacular, there are a few that are really great.
12:18
Annie Sargent: Right, so it's not the Loire Valley. Elyse Rivin: It's not the Loire Valley, and it's not the Lot either
12:23
in that sense, but it's got its own claims to fame, we can say.
12:27
Annie Sargent: Sure.. Elyse Rivin: As far as towns go, Ariège, the biggest city is 20,000 people.
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Okay? So put things in perspective. That is the City of Pamiers, which quite honestly is not particularly interesting
12:39
from a touristic point of view. Annie Sargent: Right.
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No, I was there, I looked around a little bit, not that long ago.
12:45
Like all French towns, it has a few streets in the city center that
12:48
are okay, but the rest of it... ehh. And they have one very famous composer, Gabriel Fauré, who was born there, his
12:56
house is there, and they've talked forever about doing a museum to Gabriel Fauré.
13:02
And it doesn't seem to be gaining speed, which is unfortunate because
13:07
he is, in my opinion, one of the very best composers out there.
13:12
Just love everything he's ever done. Elyse Rivin: Pamiers, it turns out, it's interesting because it's
13:16
not the county seat of the Ariège, but it's the economic center.
13:20
It's where there's the most business, where there's a certain amount of high
13:25
tech business that's set up there, and they have these huge shopping centers.
13:29
So, if you can imagine a huge, huge, huge county, where the
13:33
biggest town is 20,000 gives you an idea of how rural it is, right?
13:38
And Foix, which is what we'll talk about because it has some super
13:42
things to see and do there, is further into the foothills of the
13:46
Pyrenees, and that is the Prefecture.
13:49
So how did they work that out? I don't know, but they didn't give it to the biggest town, they gave it to
13:53
the one that's the most spectacular. I have no idea why.
13:55
They fought over it. Who knows?
13:57
They tossed a coin. I have no idea, you know? But Foix is the ancient capital of what was Counts, you know,
14:05
whole area in the Middle Ages. So it has a huge, huge, huge amount of history, medieval history going
14:10
up through into modern times. And it's famous for its castle.
14:14
Annie Sargent: Right. Elyse Rivin: Which we went to last year with our bootcamp group.
14:18
It's fabulously spectacular when you come in driving a bus car.
14:24
It doesn't make any difference, actually, I think, even by train
14:27
because it's sitting up on the top of this rock, and you have a background
14:30
of the landscape of the Pyrenees and it is really, of course it's been
14:34
restored and it's visitable right now.
14:36
It's part of it is closed for making it accessible to handicapped, but it's
14:41
been very, very well restored and it is a perfect example of what was in the
14:46
middle ages, a real fortified castle, with all of the accoutrements of a
14:52
fortified castle to defend itself, you know, for fighting with everybody.
14:56
Annie Sargent: Right, so the only reason why we're not going back to Foix
14:59
with the bootcamp in 2024 is because they, like you mentioned, they closed
15:03
it to make it wheelchair accessible.
15:05
And I think it's closed until July?
15:08
Elyse Rivin: I think it's closed till the beginning of July.
15:11
Annie Sargent: Right. But otherwise we would have gone back.
15:14
And I just drove through there twice this week because I had to go back
15:19
and forth to Spain and I always drive through Foix, well, not always,
15:22
but usually I drive through Foix. And you can see the castle, but you know, blink and you'll miss it.
15:29
Like, from the road, you need to be looking out for it.
15:32
It's like, from the freeway, the Cité de Carcassonne.
15:36
You can see it briefly, but otherwise it's hidden by trees.
15:40
But at any rate, it's a lovely, lovely place.
15:43
And it's also a fact that that side of the mountain, when you get to Foix is right
15:48
when it's going to start going up, and up, and up, and up across the Pyrenees.
15:52
And then you're going to hit the two tunnels that take you through to Spain,
15:57
which are the Tunnel du Puymorens and the Tunnel del Cadi on the Spanish side.
16:01
Anyway, it's a beautiful mountainous place, and if you want to enjoy the
16:06
mountains rather than try and go, you know, fast, then don't use the tunnels.
16:12
Elyse Rivin: And that is the area where you start to really see the
16:15
different levels of mountains.
16:17
And that's where a lot of the interesting things are, the
16:19
valleys that go criss-crossing across East West in that part.
16:23
The other castle, of course, which is, I mean, it's a castle, but let's
16:27
face it, it's really just a pile of rubble, but it's so famous that
16:31
it's worth climbing up to the top, and that of course is Montségur.
16:35
Annie Sargent: Right. Montségur is a great hike.
16:37
I wouldn't say it's an advanced hike, but you need to have good knees.
16:42
It's up, and up, and up, and up for a good 20, 30 minutes.
16:46
So don't do that if you have terrible knees.
16:48
I did it several times when I was younger. Now I'm not sure if I would do that again, but it's the sort of place where
16:54
you pay a few euros to enter the site towards the bottom and then you hike up.
17:01
And there are some tours that you can do there, but not year round.
17:08
You know, if you happen to be there when there's a tour on, it's worth doing.
17:12
Elyse Rivin: Yes. It's definitely worth doing. I know vaguely the guy who lives there, actually in the tiny village, there's
17:19
a village of Montségur, which is just down below, which is actually charming.
17:22
It's teeny weenie. It's very pretty.
17:24
It has a tiny museum with the history of the whole siege of Montségur,
17:29
because Montségur is famous because it was the last stand of the Cathars.
17:34
And we've of course talked about the Cathars in several podcasts, but
17:38
this is the place that was the final battleground where they stood off
17:43
against the armies, and there's a whole dramatic history attached to it.
17:47
So you need to know that when you go up to the top, you're really, you have
17:51
to use your imagination to see what the castle might've looked like at the time.
17:55
But, it is a fabulous sight, and there were days when it's shrouded
17:59
in clouds, you never know ahead of time, unfortunately, this is that
18:03
part of the Pyrenees, but if it's a nice day, it's really worth it.
18:07
If your kids are not too small, they might also be able to make it up to the
18:11
top, but it's a good hike back and forth. So anyway, this guy, his name is Fabien, and he does tours.
18:17
Annie Sargent: In English, as well? Elyse Rivin: I don't know. Annie Sargent: Yeah, I've heard him in French, but I
18:20
don't know if he does English. Elyse Rivin: And it's his thing, you know, he's written a couple of
18:23
books about Montségur, I mean, he just sort of adopted the mountain.
18:26
Annie Sargent: But he's also a fairly good historian, like,
18:29
he doesn't bullshit people. I mean, there's a lot of tour guides that they spew mostly bullshit.
18:33
Elyse Rivin: There are a whole series of runes of castles that are
18:36
theoretically part of the history of the Cathars that criss cross East West,
18:41
basically from there going towards the Mediterranean, but this is the
18:44
most famous and the most spectacular.
18:46
Really. Annie Sargent: Yeah. Elyse Rivin: Now there's another one on the other side of the valley, if you
18:51
have a car, which you probably need to do this anyway, it's called Roquefixade.
18:55
And the biggest difference between the Roquefixade and Montségur is
18:59
that Roquefixade, you can actually drive all the way up to the top.
19:02
Right. It's pretty easy. It's pretty easy. And it's on the Southern side, so even on a kind of gray day, you usually have
19:09
a little bit more sun and warmth when you go to the side, Roquefixade, and you
19:12
can see the top of the crenellation of Montségur from there, and it's a ruin,
19:17
but there's a tiny little hamlet up on top with a place that has a refuge for
19:21
hikers, and you can get a coffee there and everything, which of course at Montségur
19:24
you cannot do, it's purely the ruins.
19:27
And it's kind of neat if you do one, if you have the time to just go down
19:31
and go up the other side and do the other, it gives you a perspective and
19:34
try to imagine what it was like in the 900s, 1000s, when these people lived
19:39
like this, oh my God, we would never be able to do this now, you know,
19:42
Annie Sargent: It would be rough on us. Elyse Rivin: It would be really rough on us, huh?
19:46
Yeah. Where would we get our internet?
19:48
I don't know. It just wouldn't work.
19:51
I don't think it really wouldn't work. And then of course, there are two or three villages and towns that are really pretty.
19:57
We mentioned Foix, which is interesting because it has this very old, very
20:03
small city center, really tiny when you think about it, that's
20:06
just down below the castle, little windy streets with some restaurants
20:11
and shops and things like that. And the rest of the town has sort of built up around it in a more modern way.
20:16
But one of the prettiest towns, and I say town because I'm not sure where something
20:21
stops being a village and becomes a town. It's like, it doesn't matter, I guess, you know.
20:25
And that is Mirepoix, which is further north, in the flatter part of Ariège.
20:32
Actually is not that far south from Carcassonne, if you're going towards
20:36
Carcassonne, you can do a detour and sort of veer off to the south and
20:40
then come back up towards Carcassonne. It's two thirds of the way there between Carcassonne and Toulouse.
20:46
Annie Sargent: Right, so Mirepoix, in my mind, is more like Aude than
20:50
Ariège, but it is in the Ariège. Elyse Rivin: It's Ariège.
20:53
Yeah, and it's famous for its beautiful, beautiful colored medieval
20:58
houses that have been very well taken care of and very well preserved.
21:02
It's a very good example of the medieval towns that were started actually in
21:09
the 1200s because of the war with the Cathars, these towns that were called
21:14
Bastide, and we've talked about a few others, but this one is incredible
21:17
because it's kept its original grid system, you know, straight rectangular,
21:23
criss-crossing streets and it's maintained, it's well preserved houses on
21:28
all of the streets in the old city center.
21:30
The market square is huge and it's very famous.
21:33
There's this huge market one day a week. And then there's this cathedral.
21:37
The cathedral, interestingly enough, is not one of the most
21:40
famous ones, but it's got some very interesting painting on the inside.
21:44
I actually, the last time I was there, they were trying to do a little
21:48
bit of restoration on a piece of it because, you know, they get kind of
21:52
moldy on the inside from humidity.
21:54
And one of the problems with very old cathedrals is that if you don't have a
21:58
lot of money to fix them up, they start kind of crumbling on you, you know?
22:02
Annie Sargent: Yeah. They do, Mirepoix does a fête médiévale every year.
22:07
I think they also do a theater festival at some point.
22:11
Anyway, it's a lively town with some fun events if you happen
22:16
to be there at the right time. Elyse Rivin: They even have an apple festival.
22:20
Annie Sargent: There you go. Elyse Rivin: For people like me who love apples, you know, it's like...
22:23
Perfect. In the fall, I think it's in September, they have an apple festival.
22:28
Annie Sargent: This is a small town, but it's a very lively town and it's
22:31
not as wet as the rest of the Ariège.
22:35
Elyse Rivin: And it is a center of tourism. This is a place, there are lots of people who have secondary
22:39
homes in and around this area. It's a place where it's easy to find someone who speaks English,
22:45
which some people find great. Lots of people don't.
22:47
But it is a good place to go to find out about a place maybe to stay, to
22:52
rent a gite, or to rent something else, because it is a hub for this
22:56
kind of thing, in the area, yeah. And just to mention a couple of others that are very, very tiny, but are
23:02
very pretty, that are very close by.
23:05
One of them is this very pretty tiny little village called Camon, which
23:10
is famous for having beautiful roses in front of every single house.
23:15
People go there, there's a rose festival at some point during the year.
23:19
And it also has the remains of, I don't remember now to be honest, if
23:23
it's the bishop who was living there, one of the bishops of the cathedral
23:27
in Mirepoix had a second home there.
23:29
It's only a few miles away. But it's actually partly occupied still.
23:33
It's a renaissance house. It's absolutely gorgeous.
23:36
And there are a few days a year when it's open to the public.
23:38
So it's very pretty. It's just kind of off to the side.
23:41
It's just a couple of miles outside of Mirepoix.
23:44
And in the other direction, a very special place, which hopefully will reopen,
23:49
called Vals, which is not even a village.
23:52
It's, I think there are five houses there. It used to be a bigger village, but it's famous because at the beginning of
24:00
the 20th century, they discovered that there was a troglodyte church there.
24:04
Troglodyte meaning, of course, it's underground or carved out of the rock.
24:08
And in the process of trying to reinforce it, they discovered that there are
24:12
frescoes in there that date from the 900s or 1000s, so it's very cool.
24:17
These are little spots that you can visit when you're in that
24:21
area going in and out of Mirepoix.
24:24
Annie Sargent: And this year we'll go with a boot camp to Mirepoix, and
24:27
perhaps Vals if can ever catch the mayor who has the key to the church.
24:32
Elyse Rivin: Catch the mayor, yeah, grab him by the arm, you
24:34
know, it's like either that or I go and make my own key, you know.
24:37
But at this point I think what they're doing is they're
24:40
reinforcing a little piece of rock. I think that's what the problem was, so I have to...
24:44
Annie Sargent: Okay. Elyse Rivin: And then there's Saint-Lizier, which is on the
24:47
other side of the huge department, it's a fairly big department.
24:51
I don't know what to compare it with, but most of what we've been talking
24:54
about so far has been more or less the southeast part of the department.
24:57
Saint-Lizier is a very impressive little village, that's perched up
25:02
above the hills, but it's on the southwestern part of the department.
25:07
Annie Sargent: Right, so if you go to, if you drive to, what do you
25:10
call it, uh, yeah, so Saint-Girons and Saint-Lizier is right after, and
25:15
that would be on your way to Lourdes. Or Luchon.
25:18
Or Luchon, yes.
25:20
Yes. Elyse Rivin: And Saint-Lizier is a little jewel.
25:24
It's incredible. It's this tiny, tiny little village perched up on top of this big hill.
25:29
It's, we're really in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Down below is a relatively important town called Saint-Girons, which
25:36
is really a commercial center. And Saint Lizier is famous for its cathedral with its paintings on the
25:43
inside and for the Bishop's Palace.
25:46
And then it has a few, very, very well preserved little medieval streets.
25:50
All the houses have been fixed up. It's impeccable.
25:53
It's clean. It's very beautiful. It's just the most amazing little spot.
25:58
And it even has a couple of cafes, if I remember correctly, where you can actually
26:02
sit and get a coffee or have lunch. And it's really amazing to find.
26:06
Annie Sargent: Right, so I've been in that area a few times because my brother's
26:10
country house is not far from there. Unfortunately, that stretch of road between Saint Gaudens and Lourdes, for
26:16
some reason, there's accidents there all the time, terrible accidents.
26:19
So if you drive it, just be careful.
26:22
I don't know what it is with locals overtaking in dangerous places or things
26:26
like that, but I've seen some really startling accidents in that stretch of
26:31
Elyse Rivin: road. What a shame. The town down below, which is the main town, which is how you get, have access
26:36
to Saint-Lizier, is actually, has a road that goes from there to Foix.
26:40
It cuts across the bottom of the foothills of the Pyrenees.
26:44
So rather than going south into the mountains for Lourde and
26:46
Louchon, you can actually go from one side to the other, but if you're
26:51
in that area, it's worth going up and stopping and seeing, you know.
26:54
And then just one of the town that I just want to mention, but it's closer again
26:58
to Montségur, it's actually somewhere on the road between Mirepoix and Montségur,
27:04
and it's not because the town is pretty, this is the town that was once the
27:07
center of all the textile industry. And it has, and there are very few, and Annie's going to mention a couple of them,
27:14
but it's one of the few places that has an interesting little museum, and it's
27:18
a museum of the history of textiles, and I've been there twice, partly because
27:23
I'm interested in that, and it has this collection of looms from the Middle Ages,
27:29
up through the industrial times and it has a couple of rooms that they've, you
27:33
know, reenacted or set up like what would peasants have looked, their houses look
27:37
like where the people had the loom and it shows how they collected the wool as
27:42
mostly, of course, wool from the sheep. And the whole history over several centuries of the development of
27:48
the textile industry in this area. So it's kind of interesting.
27:52
And I think, but I'm not as certain, that in the summer they have
27:55
some days when they have little activities where especially kids
27:58
can participate and stuff like that. Annie Sargent: You didn't didn't name it.
28:01
It's Lavelanet. Elyse Rivin: Lavelanet. Oh, sorry, I didn't.
28:03
Annie Sargent: Oh, you do this all the time, Elyse. You talk about a place without naming it.
28:07
I'm like, give it the name! Elyse Rivin: I'm looking at the name of it.
28:09
I didn't name it, Lavelanet. See, Lavelanet.
28:13
Yes, I'm sorry. Lavelanet, which is really on the road between Mirepoix and Montségur.
28:19
Annie Sargent: Very small place, but with a cute little museum, so why not?
28:21
Elyse Rivin: Very cute little museum. Okay, so that basically takes care of our castles and towns, in a sense.
28:30
There are a couple of other places that we can talk about, but let's
28:33
go to one of the things that's one of the most important attractions in
28:38
the Ariège, and that is, it's caves!
28:41
Annie Sargent: Definitely. The painted caves or non-painted caves.
28:45
There are some both. Elyse Rivin: Yep, painted or non-painted.
28:48
So, the Ariège, of course, because a section of the mountains is limestone,
28:54
like in the area around the Lot in the Dordogne, has lots, and lots, and lots
28:58
of caves, lots of spaces like that.
29:01
And one of the most important of the decorated prehistoric caves, is in the
29:07
Ariège, and that is the cave of Niaux.
29:11
Annie Sargent: Yeah, La Grotte de Niaux.
29:15
Elyse Rivin: And one of the reasons why this is so special is because
29:19
there are very few of these caves left where it's the original work.
29:23
It's not a reproduction. It hasn't been fixed up.
29:26
And to add to that, this particular cave is only for the hardy because it's over
29:33
a kilometer inside on uneven territory.
29:36
There is no electricity. You walk through with a miner's lamp on your head.
29:41
Annie Sargent: It's in your hand. Elyse Rivin: Oh, I went with it on the head.
29:44
You had it on your hand? I had my head.
29:47
And you go, it's relatively uneven territory, I mean, you
29:51
just have to watch your footing. But what you see along the way is lots of little marks and
29:56
indications of human activity.
29:58
And then you get to this very special place called the Rotunda, which is
30:02
where you have the drawings, that are so famous, and which of course
30:05
are, there is a certain concern that eventually they will start to be covered
30:10
with calcite and then eventually it will stop bringing people inside.
30:14
Annie Sargent: Right, so they limit the number of visitors already.
30:17
This is one that you have to book in advance, you won't get in at
30:22
the last minute, and they do one or two tours in English each day, it
30:28
just depends on the time of year. And they have a whole website, the Ariège has a whole website where you can
30:34
reserve all of these things on the same website, which is a clever way to do it.
30:39
Because the, you know, not every one of these venues has what it
30:43
takes to maintain a good website. Elyse Rivin: No and this one, I went back to the website the other day and
30:50
it's interesting because they have what in French would be an avertissement,
30:54
it's a warning, it just tells you if you are not able to do a certain kind
30:59
of walk on your own, you do not go in.
31:02
I went in quite a few times when I was working with different groups and I
31:05
knew one of the guides that there are specialty guides that work in this cave.
31:11
And this is one of those caves where they're ultra, ultra serious.
31:14
If anybody does anything wrong, they just take the whole group and take
31:18
them right back out of the cave. Annie Sargent: Right, and there are some minor difficulties, like when
31:23
you, there are places where you have to bend down and step up at the same time.
31:29
Which is not something most of us do, so if you're not super coordinated
31:33
or if you have balance problems, it's not something I would recommend.
31:38
Elyse Rivin: However, if you are able to do this kind of walking, it's fabulous.
31:42
Because it gives you an idea of what it must have been like for the people, this
31:46
is late prehistory, so we're talking ten, twelve thousand years ago, the more
31:51
recent part, if you want to call it that. And the fact that they would go in this far into a cave, to do these drawings and
31:59
they did it apparently with a ceremony because the guide will have you make
32:03
sounds because there's perfect acoustics in this enormous underground cathedral,
32:08
that's what they like to call it. So clearly, there was some kind of ceremonial aspect to do all of this.
32:13
So it's really wonderful if you're able to get into this cave.
32:16
Annie Sargent: Right, and they don't, they didn't live in the cave, they just went in
32:19
to paint, we don't know why, but they did.
32:22
I think it was their church, I don't know, that's my idea. Perhaps, perhaps.
32:26
Elyse Rivin: Something like that. Across the valley is something that most people don't know
32:30
about, it's the corollary to it, it's called La Vache, the cow.
32:33
I've been there! Yeah. And it's neat because it's a small one, and this is one where they found
32:38
remnants of the fires that they made, because most of these groups lived
32:43
not deep inside a cave when it was wintertime, but they lived at the
32:46
openings, you know, they took shelter in some of these other kinds of caves.
32:50
And then, of course, they were nomads because they went with where the herds
32:53
of animals were, but it's fun because they have a small collection of the
32:57
objects that were found at the time.
33:00
So it, they assume it was the same group of people that in fact went across the
33:04
way to go to their ceremonies, you know?
33:06
Right. Annie Sargent: Right, so they found a ton of, so they found tiny bones, I'm
33:11
pretty sure it was in La Vache that they have lots and lots of thickness
33:15
of snails, because they ate snails.
33:17
I mean, you could catch snails, right? They're easy food.
33:21
Elyse Rivin: Snails and rabbit bones, if I remember correctly.
33:23
Annie Sargent: Rabbit bones, I think so as well. So it's an interesting place to visit and it's, you need to do a tiny little
33:31
walk up the hill to get to the entrance.
33:34
It's not open year round, so check the website and all that,
33:38
but it's a fun little visit. Elyse Rivin: And in conjunction with all of this, and by the
33:43
way, if I remember correctly, you can do this on the same ticket.
33:46
You can get a ticket for the Parc de la Préhistoire Annie Sargent: Which I've been to as well.
33:50
Elyse Rivin: And this is really wonderful if you have children, because it's not
33:55
only have they reproduced inside in a way that's to get an idea of the size
34:01
and the layout, they have reproduced what we could call a miniature version
34:05
of the whole cave of Niaux, but of course it's big, you know, anyway,
34:08
you walk through these hallways. But outside they have acres where they have all of these activities, you
34:15
know, and they show how people lived in the prehistory and how they made
34:19
their food and how they prepared the leather for clothing and how they made
34:23
fire and all of this kind of stuff. And it's really fun.
34:26
Annie Sargent: This is where you realize they were hardy.
34:29
Elyse Rivin: We are not. Well.
34:32
Maybe if we had to be, we would be, I don't know.
34:35
Annie Sargent: I suppose. Elyse Rivin: Necessity, right?
34:37
But it's really a lot of fun. There's even a cafeteria there.
34:40
You know, it's a place you can stop and have a quick bite to eat.
34:44
It's very, very well done. And it really goes in conjunction with a visit to the caves.
34:50
And if you can't for whatever reason, go actually into Niaux, go there,
34:54
because it will give you a good idea. Annie Sargent: Yeah, it's a fun visit, especially with children.
34:58
But I went, I don't remember if I don't remember if I went with my daughter
35:01
when she was, maybe she was 15 or something, you know, we still loved it.
35:06
Elyse Rivin: It's fun. And then, on the other side of the Ariège, on the southwestern
35:10
side, we have Mas d'Azil Annie Sargent: Ah, yes.
35:14
Elyse Rivin: And, Mas d'Azil is also very well known, but of
35:17
course it's a little bit different. It's, I don't even know exactly how the correct word from a
35:22
geological point of view, it's an enormous opening in the mountain.
35:27
Annie Sargent: The river dug it through. Elyse Rivin: The river dug it, right?
35:30
So it's this huge, huge, huge opening.
35:33
I was just back there two weeks ago. We were, I was checking it out for us.
35:37
It's a site that's visitable and it is a site that the
35:41
people in prehistory lived in.
35:43
But to be honest, it's interesting to do if you've already seen some of
35:48
the decorated caves because basically the visit inside just shows you the
35:54
different levels of this enormous cavity and where the different groups
35:59
may have lived and things like that. But there's nothing, there's no decorated walls.
36:04
There's no painting or designs or of marks or anything on the walls.
36:07
And they simply have reproduced a few, they've made some photos
36:11
to give you an indication of the objects that may have been found.
36:14
Because this was a place where a lot of these different groups actually lived.
36:18
And the town of Mas d'Azil, which is very cute, actually, a very nice, charming
36:23
little town, which is a mile away, it has a small museum that is open in the
36:29
high season, and that is where they have put many of the objects that they have
36:33
found inside the cave of Mas d'Azil.
36:36
Annie Sargent: Yeah, so you can actually drive through that, and I think that's
36:41
one of the problems is they need to get rid of the cars again, because
36:45
when you're inside, what's left is a river with a sidewalk and a road.
36:52
And I think they should just get rid of the cars and it would be
36:55
much more pleasant to just enjoy the river without cars zooming by.
36:59
Elyse Rivin: Yeah, well, they can't because it's the access to the town.
37:02
Yeah. But this time when I was there two weeks ago, they take you up all the way up
37:05
to the top, they show you the different levels because apparently at the time that
37:10
the people lived there were talking again, 10, 12, 15,000 years ago, the access in
37:14
was not exactly the same as it is now. But it was interesting, but it's certainly nothing like going to
37:20
a Niaux or something like that. Annie Sargent: Right.
37:23
Yeah, it's a secondary, yeah.
37:25
If you've seen everything else, perhaps. Elyse Rivin: Yeah, exactly.
37:28
It has a nice little picnic area along the river, I mean, it's just,
37:30
you know, it's that kind of a stop. But if you're looking for something to get an idea of what we talk about
37:36
when we talk about the decorated caves, no, you need to go to Niaux.
37:40
And then Ariège has other caves.
37:43
So I'm just going to mention two. One is Labouiche, which is not far from Tarascon-sur-Ariège, which is the
37:50
town you go through to get to Niaux. And also the Parc de la Préhistoire is right there.
37:56
And it has an underground river.
37:59
And it turns out that this is the longest underground river gallery in, so far,
38:04
that has been discovered in Europe. So we mentioned the one up near Rocamadour.
38:10
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Le Gouffre de Padirac. This one is similar in that you can go in and take a boat ride on
38:16
the underground river, and it has these absolutely gorgeous, you know,
38:19
formations and things like that. And it's pretty cool.
38:22
I've done it, it's very cool. I recommend it.
38:25
Yeah. One of the things about this is that it's great to decide to stay in this area
38:29
for a few days, and then there are lots and lots of different things you can do.
38:33
Yeah, you do one a day. And then the rest of the time you hike or you do nothing.
38:39
Elyse Rivin: And you eat, which is great too. Yeah, we like that.
38:42
And then there's one other cave in this area that I've actually visited
38:45
called the Grotte de Bédeilhac. And this is known for its formations, for its stalagmites, stalagmites, stalagmites.
38:52
It's close to Foix, both of these are pretty much in
38:55
the same, just general area. It doesn't have, it has a few marks left by, you know, handprints from prehistory,
39:01
but basically it's a very beautiful cave.
39:04
In the summer, they have concerts in there. It's kind of neat.
39:07
It's not the kind of place you have to feel claustrophobic because there's a
39:10
really big, big, big, big open space inside, but it's kind of neat to go
39:14
to listen to some music that echoes off of the walls in the summertime.
39:18
And I remember, this is quite a number of years ago, going in there and somebody
39:23
was telling me that because the opening is so enormous, that in World War II,
39:29
there were a few planes, you know, this is the beginning of the World War II when
39:33
they just had these small little planes. When the Allies came into this part of Southern France, they hid
39:38
some of these little planes in there before they used them to take
39:42
off and give supplies to people.
39:44
I'm not even sure what they did. But, you know, I mean, little histories that are attached to places like this.
39:49
Yeah. And then a place that's one of your favorites, Les Forges de Pyrène.
39:52
Annie Sargent: Yes, so I really like that place. It's kind of a, a park where they try to, so they had a forge, they have a
39:59
massive hammer, that still works, you can see it in action, and what they do
40:05
is they, they block off the water in the stream that runs by the house, and then
40:12
they let go of the water all of a sudden.
40:14
And it activates this huge hammer that can shape anything into anything.
40:20
And it's, it's a very beautiful place.
40:22
It's a place where they explain how people used to, all the paysans,
40:27
all the agricultural workers would bring their tools to be
40:31
sharpened or fixed to this area.
40:35
And they also have workshops for kids where they show you things like
40:42
pottery and all different things.
40:46
It's fantastic with kids, I think, because, and again,
40:50
it's not open year round. It's not open every day.
40:53
You know, you have to go to the website and make sure it's open, but
40:56
I thought it was a great visit because it helps you see what it was like.
41:01
And it's the sort of place where you do, you go, you spend two
41:03
or three hours, you bring your picnic and then throughout the...
41:07
they give you a schedule. So at this time they do this workshop and then half an hour
41:12
later there's another one, etc. And so you want to stay a little while to enjoy all the workshops.
41:18
I thought it was great. I remember, I've only been there once, I think, but my husband
41:21
loved it, you know, it was like, it was all this kind of metalwork
41:25
and then woodwork and, you know... It is, it really shows you the inventiveness of humans before we had,
41:31
you know, hydraulics and all this stuff that we use today that makes life a
41:35
little bit easier for things like that, you know, it is pretty impressive.
41:38
A lovely place to visit, really. And you don't get to see metal work up close like that very
41:44
much, but there you can see it. They actually work the giant hammer.
41:48
Elyse Rivin: Do you remember if they sell any of the things that they make?
41:51
I don't remember. Annie Sargent: Probably because they, I remember them explaining about
41:56
nowadays, you know, if you're...
42:00
If you, how do you say pioche in English?
42:02
Anyway, you used to get them fixed and to get them fixed you had to
42:05
go to a place to a place like this, but nowadays you just buy a new one,
42:09
right, which is kind of unfortunate. I think the only ones, the only forgerons and forgers that still exist
42:14
are for making horseshoes, I think.
42:17
It's a pickaxe. Elyse Rivin: Oh, pickaxe.
42:20
It's a pickaxe. Oh, wow. Okay, talking about houses and things like that, we're going to...
42:26
now, basically everything from now on in is really about nature, and a town
42:31
that I actually didn't mention, cause I was going to, I guess include it
42:34
in the part that talks about hiking and skiing, there is another town
42:37
in the Ariège called Ax-les-Thermes.
42:40
Ah, yes. It's up in the mountains on the way to Andorra.
42:46
It's fairly high up. It's famous for its thermal baths.
42:50
That's why it's called the Ax-les-Thermes. And for being basically the hub of all the skiing and the serious hiking in
42:59
the southeastern part of the Ariège.
43:03
Annie Sargent: And last time I went through there, it was snowing.
43:05
Elyse Rivin: Yes, it gets lots of snow. It's really, we're in serious mountain country.
43:09
It's very interesting, it's, I don't know, I mean, you can't really say
43:13
it's beautiful, but it's typical of a really nice, lively mountain town.
43:19
There's one day a week that has a market which I've been to, it's really fun.
43:22
It has lots of hotels. It has the thermal baths.
43:26
It has lots of shops for people who need to get stuff to go hiking or skiing.
43:31
It's a major center for all of this.
43:33
And if you go from there on this very windy road, you get to a park
43:38
that's called La Maison des Loups. There you go.
43:42
I went with my husband once, you know, he takes me on these roads
43:45
and I go, Oh my God, where are we? And we're going to fall off this cliff and that'll be the end of it,
43:49
you know, and lo and behold, at the end of it is this nature preserve,
43:54
and it's an interesting center. It's actually a center that's for preserving wolves from all
43:59
over the world and for doing research on them genetically.
44:02
But at different times of the year, during the holidays and everything, it
44:05
is open, and it's a great place to go with children, and not just by, you know,
44:11
I love, I am fascinated by wolves, so I want to just go up and say hi, you know.
44:16
But it's great, it's a whole big park, with, you know, a
44:19
whole bunch of acres, and it's a fascinating nature site to visit.
44:23
Annie Sargent: I haven't been, so this is when I should go, because,
44:26
Elyse Rivin: It said, you know, it's got educational things and it explains about
44:29
the lives of wolves and how they're not these big bad animals and stuff like that.
44:34
And they're kind of neat because they have wolves from all over, and the
44:37
Canadian, and American wolves, and the Siberian wolves, and I don't know
44:41
if they get along with each other. I hope so. And then we get into, of course, this is the other half of what
44:47
it is to be in the Ariège. Just mentioning a few things.
44:50
I mentioned very quickly at the beginning, 40% of the department is this regional
44:55
park called the Parc Naturel Régional des Pyrénées Ariégeoises which means
45:02
it's got a certain amount of protection. It's kind of like the Bureau of Land Management would be in the States.
45:08
There are villages, there are gites, there are all kinds of things inside
45:11
this area, but it's a vast area. It's got some of the skiing sites, it's got some lakes, it's got valleys, and
45:18
it goes high up into the mountains.
45:20
Just to mention very quickly, there are two lakes.
45:23
One of them is the Réserve d'Orlu, which also has hiking trails and an animal
45:28
sanctuary and a few tiny villages, and some gîtes that are inside this area.
45:34
It's a really beautiful part of the higher part of the mountains,
45:37
but it's not inaccessible. And in the summer, there's actually a shuttle that can take you, if you
45:43
want to go and do some serious hiking, they actually are nice enough to take
45:46
you to a starting point higher up. And then there's the area around the lake of Bethmale, which is in the
45:53
region called the Couserans, on the southwestern side of Ariège, and the
45:58
Bethmale is famous for its cheese.
46:02
Annie Sargent: Oh! Elyse Rivin: Oh, I expected you to say cheese away
46:05
Annie Sargent: No, I didn't. Elyse Rivin: You know, Bethmale is one of my favorite cheeses.
46:09
It's a cow cheese from the Pyrenees.
46:11
That's a hard cheese, but not super, super, super, super hard, like a Conté.
46:18
It's a little airy inside. It's very delicious.
46:20
I really love it a lot. And it's made in the town, the little village of Bethmal,
46:25
which is right on the lake. It's very pretty.
46:28
I've walked the lake a few times.
46:30
What's nice here is that, if you go, you can do a cheese tasting, you can
46:34
see how they make it, but also it gives you an idea of what a typical
46:37
Pyrenees town or village looks like.
46:39
Because they have a special kind of architecture, which of course, you know,
46:42
from your brother's house and area too, that's very specific to the Pyrenees.
46:47
Annie Sargent: So. I've had Bethmale cheese. It's just not one of my favorites.
46:51
It's like a Tomme kind of cheese. Elyse Rivin: It's like a Tomme, but with a bit more taste.
46:55
And now, maybe because there's more demand for it, they also are making a Bethmale
47:00
that's made with sheep's milk, not just with cow's milk, you know, which...
47:04
I might like that better. Sheep's milk is always sharper.
47:07
It's always a stronger taste in the end, but it's a very nice little area
47:10
and this is a place where if you go down into this valley, because it's,
47:14
you go up and then down into the valley where the lake is, you have two or
47:17
three very cute little villages and then these little chapels that are very old.
47:22
It's just very picturesque and a very sweet area to walk around
47:26
in if you're not into going to the higher part at 3000 meters.
47:29
Annie Sargent: Yeah, this is easier to do, this is for most people can do this.
47:33
Elyse Rivin: Yeah, this is really nice. And then you have skiing.
47:36
Believe it or not, of course, this is not as famous as the Alps, but there's
47:41
a lot of skiing in the Pyrenees, a lot. Annie Sargent: But the season is short.
47:45
So like it's been like it started snowing 10 days ago and they're probably going
47:51
to have snow for a month and that's it. Elyse Rivin: This year, there was no snow earlier.
47:55
I think that was the problem, right?
47:57
Annie Sargent: The season is short. This is not a place where you can, you know, book a vacation
48:02
a year early to go ski there. This is not the Rockies, okay?
48:06
We have snow sometimes.
48:08
And if there's snow, locals go skiing.
48:11
But you wouldn't come from across the world just to go skiing there,
48:14
because you would never be sure if there's any snow be snow or not.
48:17
But I think it depends because to the part that's Haute-Garonne and to the
48:21
west, the stations are higher up and they are more permanent ski stations.
48:26
The Ariège, it's more, there's a lot of cross country.
48:29
There are smaller stations. They're not stations for people who are super expert skiers, I think.
48:35
There are two or three close to Ax-les-Thermes, Font-Romeu is,
48:39
I think it's technically in the Aude, but it's that whole area.
48:42
And yeah, and it depends on the year. Like this year, you're right, there was no snow until recently, but now there's
48:47
oodles, and oodles, and oodles of snow. So there's high avalanche warnings at this point.
48:51
Okay, so there's a meter of snow, but in the Rockies, you
48:54
have five, six meters of snow. So it's not the same.
48:57
Of the ski stations you mentioned, as you mentioned, Ascou, Goulier, Méjean,
49:03
Donnezans, Les Mondolmes, and Guzé. I've skied at Les Mondolmes and Guzé.
49:07
The other ones, I've never even heard of them. Elyse Rivin: And Ax Trois Domaines, no?
49:11
That's the biggest one, well that's the big one, that's the big one, that's near Ax, yeah.
49:14
And then there's the Plateau de Beille, which is very close to where my friends
49:18
have a small country house, which is great for doing a little cross country skiing.
49:24
It's really pretty. It's a nice plateau high up, you get to see some of the mountains.
49:28
It's family skiing. This is, you know, it's not super serious.
49:32
You know, my stepson is a ski monitor in Courchevel.
49:36
I don't talk about the Rockies, I talk about the Alps because that's what I know.
49:39
Annie Sargent: Right, but there's more snow in Courchevel usually. Elyse Rivin: Oh, well, the Alps, you know, usually gets a lot more
49:43
snow and it's a lot more serious, serious, serious, you know, downhill.
49:47
Although there are some stations on the western side of the Pyrenees
49:50
that have more skiing than these stations do, but it's kind of nice.
49:55
It's just all, I would say it's all very low key.
49:58
If you're around in the wintertime and you want to get a little feel for these
50:02
kinds of things in the Pyrenees, and you're not here on a vacation, that's
50:06
just for skiing, you know, you're not going to go to these places for that.
50:08
Annie Sargent: All right, we got to get back to the food and then call it a day, woman!
50:11
Food, food! Talk about food!
50:13
Okay. The Bethmale and the cheeses, the Le Moulis, which you probably would
50:18
like more because it's a little bit sharper than the Bethmale.
50:21
Again, you're not, these are not your favorites.
50:23
Mountain cheeses, not so much. I like them, see, I like them.
50:26
It's like the Comté, I like. Though the three mountain cheeses that are harder are the Bethmale, Le Moulis,
50:31
and the Tomme des Pyrénées , which is very creamy and very, very mild.
50:35
It's the least tasty in the sense of it's the creamiest, really.
50:39
And then you have La Croustades. Yes, I like that.
50:42
Yeah. Well, you know, we both do.
50:44
What can you do? It's sugar, you know, it's... Elyse Rivin: And then, they have, I didn't know, I've never had
50:49
it, I wonder if it's good, it's called a "velouté de chataignes".
50:52
Have you ever had it? Annie Sargent: I've not had it, but I'm sure I would like it because
50:56
I like everything chestnuts. Elyse Rivin: Oh, you like everything chestnut?
50:58
Okay. See, you have to like everything chestnut.
51:00
That's not my thing. Yeah. I just, I don't know why I'm just, okay, I can take it or leave it.
51:04
And then the last thing, I don't know how to pronounce it, it's
51:07
the Ariège version of cassoulet. Annie Sargent: Okay.
51:09
It looks like Mounjetade to me. Okay.
51:11
But Mounjetade is what I would say.
51:14
We'll call it Mounjetade if you want, that's fine.
51:16
Elyse Rivin: It's exactly that. It's the Ariège version of a cassoulet.
51:20
Don't ask what the difference is. I haven't figured out.
51:22
I don't either. No, but it looked pretty good when I was looking at the pictures of it yesterday.
51:27
Annie Sargent: So in summary, in summary, my friend, lovely place to go
51:32
for a leisurely vacation, especially for families, especially for people
51:37
with young kids that want to have a little something to do every day.
51:42
You know, an outing that we can go do as a family every day, but
51:46
that also wanna take it easy. And perhaps enjoy your swimming pool time or some good meals or make crepes
51:54
together, or something, you know, like the sort of low key vacation that we
51:58
enjoy in the Southwest that I think would suit lots of people as well, but not the
52:05
sort of place you go because, you know, you need to check things off your list.
52:10
This is a low key, lovely area.
52:13
Elyse Rivin: Absolutely, and it's less expensive than a
52:15
lot of other parts of France.
52:17
True. And lots and lots and lots of places to rent.
52:21
Annie Sargent: Right, lots of these places have, because lots of French
52:24
people have a family home of some sort, and sometimes they don't use them very
52:30
much, and sometimes they rent them out. Elyse Rivin: And they have gîtes and they have Airbnb, and all that kind of
52:35
stuff, you know, pretty much everywhere. Annie Sargent: Yeah, not a lot of hotels - hotels.
52:39
This is a sort of place where you should plan on cooking for yourself, going to
52:43
the local stores, making your own stuff.
52:46
There are some restaurants and some hotels, but not lots of them, you know.
52:51
If one of the things I have done is look at how many visitors
52:54
does the Ariège get every year?
52:57
Well, of all the departments around here, it's the one that gets the least.
53:01
Yes, it gets the least because, you know, Haute-Garonne gets the most,
53:05
surprisingly, because of Airbus.
53:08
There's a lot of visitors that just come for work.
53:12
Aude gets quite a bit, Pyrénées Orientale gets a bit, but the Ariège not as many.
53:19
I think you should go, I really think it's a beautiful place to
53:23
go spend a leisurely week or so.
53:25
Elyse Rivin: Absolutely. Merci Elyse!
53:27
De rien, Annie. Au revoir. Au revoir.
53:37
Annie Sargent: Again, patrons get the episode as soon as it's ready and ads
53:41
are free because I want to thank them for giving back and supporting this show.
53:47
There are several exclusive rewards besides the episode ad free, and you can
53:53
see all of that at Patreon.com/JoinUs.
54:02
And a shout out this week to new patrons: Kalena and Janet, and welcome back to John
54:08
Schoenlein and David Whitehead, and to all of my current patrons, it's wonderful
54:14
to have you on board in the community of francophiles who keep this podcast going.
54:19
Patreon just added a messaging feature, so we'll be able to message back and
54:25
forth when there's things happening. So that's going to be exciting.
54:29
And you can get to all of that through the Patreon app, you log
54:33
in and a lot of things are going to appear that you can enjoy as patrons.
54:39
To support Elyse go to patreon.com/ElysArt and when you do, please don't click on
54:47
'Join for free' because if you do, you won't help me, or you, or anybody else.
54:51
Instead, choose your membership level of support.
54:54
And it starts at $2 a month.
54:56
Thank you, Isabel Colescott for your one time donation.
55:00
Let me remind everyone that you can tip your guide on joinusinfrance.com,
55:05
look for a green button. Isabelle wrote: Annie, I really appreciate your podcast knowledge
55:11
and wonderful conversations with the many people you've had on your show.
55:15
You do an amazing job and have found your calling.
55:18
Your podcast has been so helpful to me in so many ways.
55:21
Thank you. Thank you, thank you for the kind words Isabel, and thank
55:25
you for supporting this show. Somebody left this review of my Latin Quarter Tour this week.
55:30
Very nice way to explore the city.
55:32
Highly recommended. The narrator is just perfect.
55:36
Well, thank you. With the amount of information to keep one interested, and we actually
55:41
pause in so many places to go inside churches and the garden, just how we
55:46
wanted to explore the neighborhood.
55:48
Well, thank you very much, whoever you are.
55:50
And you know what? I realize that most of you don't ever think, Oh, yippee, I'm going to the museum
55:56
and I will listen to the audio guide. No, you won't.
55:59
If the last audio guide you listened to was 20 years ago and it was
56:03
boring as can be, I hear you.
56:05
I know that audio guides can be boring.
56:08
I do not write boring audio guides, okay?
56:12
I just don't. So, try one and I think you will have a good time.
56:18
Another review of the Latin Quarter, this person knows me from the podcast probably.
56:22
He says: Annie is just wonderful to listen to while walking the city.
56:25
We would have missed so much had it not been for her.
56:29
My wife and I are blown away. Well, thank you very much for posting that review.
56:34
And if the podcast is leaving you wanting more, I offer two levels
56:38
of itinerary consultation on Zoom.
56:41
It's all explained on joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
56:45
But yes, I'm still offering this service and still doing Zoom calls with people
56:50
who need a consult about their trip just about every day, and that's a
56:54
wonderful thing for me to do, I really enjoy my time talking to my listeners.
57:00
The Nuit des Musées, Night at the Museum, it's back for its 20th edition, and it
57:05
will take place in Paris and in a lot of cities in France and throughout Europe,
57:11
as a matter of fact, on May 18th, 2024.
57:15
Some places will have special conferences, some will have shows, concerts.
57:20
Most of them will be free and open to the public, but many require a
57:26
reservation, so make sure you visit their website to see what's what.
57:31
Here are a few of the museums that are participating in Paris: La Conciergerie,
57:36
so that's next to Notre Dame, l'Orangerie next to the Louvre, L'Hôtel de la
57:42
Marine, also not far from the Louvre, on the Place de la Concorde, La Bourse
57:47
du Commerce, now we're on the other side of the river, Les Halles, and that's
57:53
actually if you walk my food tour, you'll walk right to the Bourse du Commerce.
57:57
In the Marais, they have the Picasso Museum, the Museum of Jewish Art
58:01
and History, the Swedish Institute, which is also in the Marais,
58:06
the Centre Pompidou, Archives Nationales, Maison de Victor Hugo.
58:11
And in Saint Germain des Prés, they have the Polish Library,
58:14
which I didn't know was there. The Latin Quarter, there's the Curie Museum, and that's not open
58:19
very much, so it's fun that it's going to be open on that Saturday.
58:23
Grande Galerie de l'Evolution, which is a marvelous, marvelous place
58:27
that I think anybody should go to.
58:30
The Museum of the Paris Prefecture has a special event planned.
58:35
I think it's going to be just spooky because it's about the,
58:39
it's about big thieves in Paris and murders and things like that.
58:43
I've been to that museum. I should really do an episode about it.
58:47
It's a very fun museum, but it's not open all that much.
58:51
Le Musée du Service de santé des l'armées at the Val-de-Grâce, so Val-de-Grâce
58:56
is another beautiful, beautiful place, not open very much, so it's, it would
59:02
be a great place to go, I think, if I were in Paris that day, I might try
59:06
that one, or, oh, I'm not sure, maybe I would go to the École des Mines.
59:11
So that's by the Luxembourg Garden.
59:14
Yes, oh, I've been wanting to go to that one.
59:17
They also have the Musée du Luxembourg is going to be open, the Musée de
59:21
l'Histoire de la Médecine, Maison Auguste Comte, who was a philosopher.
59:26
So philosophers have museums in France.
59:28
How about that? The Orsay Museum is going to be open.
59:31
Le Musée des Plans Reliefs, the Legion of Honour Museum, the Musée
59:36
de l'Armée, where Napoleon's tomb is.
59:39
The Canadian Cultural Centre is going to be open.
59:42
The Museum of Freemasons, didn't know it was there, but there you go.
59:46
Gustave Moreau, who was a painter.
59:49
Anyway, I didn't list all of them, if you can believe it.
59:52
Lots and lots of places are going to be open in Paris on May 18 in the evening.
59:59
So most of these things start at 6 p.m and they go till 9 typically, okay?
1:00:06
So I hope you get to go, and if you are in Paris on May 18, look up the websites,
1:00:12
try to get a ticket as soon as possible because they sell out, they will only
1:00:17
hand out so many tickets for these events.
1:00:20
My thanks to podcast editors Anne and Cristian Cotovan
1:00:24
who produced the transcripts. Next week on the podcast, the trip report with Joel Jocelyn.
1:00:29
He spent 21 days solo in France.
1:00:32
He went to a lot of different places and some of it worked out great and
1:00:36
some not so much, and it's important to keep it real, so we discussed
1:00:40
his highs and his lows on this trip.
1:00:43
And I think you will enjoy hearing all about that.
1:00:47
Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time so
1:00:50
we can look around France together. Au revoir!
1:00:54
The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted, and
1:00:57
produced by Annie Sargent and Copyright 2024 by AddictedToFrance.
1:01:03
It is released under a Creative Commons, attribution, non-commercial,
1:01:07
no derivatives license.
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