Matt E's Food & Travel Blog: September 2006

Visited this beautiful garden inside Bois de Boulogne which is nice to do on a weekend.

Brief History of Bagatelle

In the eighteenth century the west part of the 'Bois de Boulogne', near Paris, was an area where several members of the royal family and their favourites used for the building of discreet and rural hideouts, away from the court.

In 1720 The Duke of Estree built the original house for his wife, this house was sold in 1772 to the Comte of Artois, brother of Louis XVI, The King of France. By 1860 the domain was surrounded by the public part of the 'Bois de Boulogne', a forest landscaped between 1853 and 1860 as a 'public promenade. After some difficult negotiations the City of Paris bought the domain in 1905.

Paris established a plan wanting to create a park as

- A witness of the history and styles of the garden history of the 18th and 19th centuries
- A garden to demonstrate gardening technics
- A garden to present the newly created plants.

These sculptures must be art nouveau

a wildcat...

I had a good time this summer. In mid August I took the train from Paris to Toulouse in the south of France and from there, we travelled to a friends house in the Pyrenees mountains right along the border with Spain. Let me just say it was some of the most breathtaking views I've ever witnessed. It wouldn't be too bad to buy a summer home there one day... So we stayed in this small village called Auzat which was nestled away in a valley and you felt completely secluded from the world. It was nice. We visited this old Catharist fort called Montsegur which was pretty incredible. I included some pictures of it below.

Brief Hisory of Montsegur

The ruins of Montségur are perched at a precarious 3000 foot (1,207 m.) altitude in the south of France near the Pyrenees Mountains. Located in the heart of France's Languedoc-Midi-Pyrénées regions, 80 km south-west of Carcassonne, Montségur dominates a rock formation known as a pog.

In 1243-1244, the Cathars (a religious sect considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church) were besieged at Montségur by 10,000 Royal Catholic French troops at the end of the Albigensian Crusade. In March of 1244, the Cathars finally surrendered and approximately 220 were burned en masse in a bonfire at the foot of the pog when they refused to renounce their faith. Some 25 actually took the ultimate Cathar vow of consolamentum perfecti in the two weeks before the final surrender.

After staying in Auzat for 5 days, we went to visit Pierre's sister who leaves near the city of Montpellier which lies right near the Mediterranean. Montpellier is a city in the south of France. It is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon région, as well as the préfecture (administrative capital) of the Hérault département. Montpellier is one of the few cities in France without a (Gallo-)Roman background.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

-Later