Montségur – a place where the spirit of the past still moves you

Enjoy spending time in an extraordinary mountain village in one of the most spectacular and beautiful settings in France.

Montségur, the name of the village and the castle - meaning the save mountain - has intrigued people over the centuries for the events is has witnessed and the secrets it is still keeping.

Here the Nazis searched for the Holy Grail, inspiring the Indiana Jones films and the landscape is the backdrop behind the Da Vinci Code novel and the best seller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.

But it is most famous for its place in the history of the Crusades, being one of the last strongholds of the Cathars and the alleged hiding place of their lost treasure.

Montségur lies at the foothills of the Pyrénées, south of Toulouse and north of the principality of Andorra.

The village with its 160 houses still looks as it would have looked one hundred years ago, and the whole village including the castle and castle hill is a listed site. It is officially one of the great sites of the Pyrenees and has over the centuries attracted the great and the famous, musicians, artists, writers, poets, mystics and seekers.

There is a special atmosphere that has captured all those who came here and many have decided to stay or come back year after year. A beautiful and relaxing place surrounded by stunning countryside, it is the perfect place for a holiday and discovery of France’s deep south.

Today Montségur is popular with nature lovers and walkers. The landscape is wild and beautiful - a landscape straight out of Lord of the Rings - perfect for all those seeking adventure, freedom or simply relaxation.

Montségur has two hotels, a restaurant, cafés, souvenir shop, bookshop, charcuterie, small supermarket and a museum.

This is one of the few places that offers both – getting away from it all in a timeless detachment from the modern world and a holiday packed with activities and new experiences. There many things to see and activities possible in and around Montségur. The area boasts cycle trails – off road for mountain biking and routes used by the Tour de France, there are many ancient footpaths, famous pilgrimage and smugglers paths to explore. There is a nearby ski resort that offers all types of wintersports, a lake that offers watersports, rivers perfect for wild water rafting, and a landscape made for horse riding, off-road driving and scenic road trips through medieval villages, nature reserves and old forests, along mountain streams, past waterfalls, winding through gorges and up mountain passes.

The area is most famous for its Cathar Castles which dramatically crown many mountain tops, being a reminder of the Catholic Church’s Inquisition and Crusades against those they declared heretics. Montségur itself was the last stronghold of the Cathars and over 200 Cathars were burned at the stake at the bottom of its castle hill after a siege lasting nearly one year when those sheltering in the castle refused to convert to Catholicism.

The area is also well-known for its prehistoric caves; one named by locals ‘The Cathedral’ as it is as big as Notre Dame de Paris, another is so huge, you can drive through it by car and a third one contains the longest navigatable underground river in Europe.

The Mediterranean, the beautiful town of Toulouse, Lourdes and the UNESCO World Heritage site of Carcassonne are all in day trip distance.

This is the perfect place for a relaxing holiday, an unforgettable experience and an adventure.

On the traces of the past - Combining your holiday with mystery and adventure

For fans of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ which has been now for over 100 weeks in the UK charts and the current No 1 bestselling book ‘Labyrinth’ by Kate Mosse, there is only one place to go to on holiday.

A near undiscovered natural jewel in France, a remote and little populated area, can lay claim to having a countryside which could easily have been the backdrop to The Lord of the Rings: huge caves, waterfalls, dense forests, ancient pilgrimage and footpaths, dramatic mountain scenery and remote villages and hamlets.

In its midst lie two villages, Rennes-le-Château and Montségur, both in stunning natural settings surrounded by breathtaking scenery, that are at the heart of The Da Vinci Code and Labyrinth.

In Rennes-le-Château, a poor country priest came mysteriously into money. The church and churchyard are full of symbols and clues to this mystery, nobody has as yet solved. Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln set themselves the quest to pierce the secret and their result was ‘The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail’. If you prefer fiction, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ offers an explanation of sorts.

Montségur was the last refuge of the Bonshommes or Cathars, as they are called nowadays. The name Montségur means secure mountain and it has provided a sanctuary to those persecuted over centuries. The Bonshommes managed to withstand the Inquisitors during the Crusades who had declared them to be heretics for nearly a year before they were betrayed. The 200 Bonshommes who had been barricaded in the castle on top of the mount were offered their lives in return for converting to Catholicism. Every single one refused and they walked into the fires that were awaiting them at the bottom of the hill, le Camp de Crémat.

Three mysteries remain; what happened to their treasure which four of them reportedly had removed days before their downfall and what was that treasure said to have been more valuable than money?

How did they manage to get supplies to the castle without the soldiers that besieged the mount noticing – rumour is that there is an intricate cave system in the mount.

And thirdly, why did the Nazis believe it was the last hiding place of the Holy Grail – one SS officers spent months investigating and wrote two books about his conclusions and the Germans even tried to buy the castle and the mount it stands on.

So if you long for a holiday where you can get away from the modern world and get lost in stunning country side, if you yearn for some mystery and adventure and would like to step on to the paths of history and if you are looking for the best place to read The Lord of the Rings, The Da Vinci Code or Labyrinth, which has the story of the Cathars and the Holy Grail as its backdrop, surely, there can be no better place.