Montaillou

The last Cathar village

This little village lies at around 1,300 metres on the high plateau between Ax-les-Thermes and the Pays de Sault, next to Prades. It became famous worldwide through the historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's book Montaillou, village occitan de 1294 à 1324 (1975), based on the interrogation records of the inquisitor Jacques Fournier. In it you meet the villagers – shepherds, farmers, the powerful Clergue family and the noblewoman Béatrice de Planissoles, arrested in 1320 – with their beliefs, love affairs and quarrels. The ruined castle, built by the lords of Alion in the late 12th century, stands on the hill above the village.

42.7867° N, 1.8939° E