The Minervois is littered with ruined castles in addition to the spectacularly ‘repaired’ old fortress city of ancient Carcassonne, La Cité.

“the famous words of Gustave Nadaud: Il ne faut pas mourir sans avoir vu Carcassonne” are brought to mind by one of the characters in Kate Mosse’s book Sepulchre (Orion, 2007) page 420. This 19th century French songwriter certainly waxed lyrical in one of his later songs about the tragedy of approaching senility while still not having seen

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