Reading
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Would you like to read a little
about the area before visiting Ferme Christine? Christine
is situated in the heart of the country of Labyrinth
by Kate Mosse, the UK bestselling book
featured in the Richard and Judy Book Club
2006. The novel is partly set in
Carcassonne and the surrounding countryside
including Montsegur. |
 Relax and read by the
pool
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| What can we do? Cycling Reading Birdwatching |
The yellow cross
is a well researched and gripping history of the
extinguishing of the last Cathar heretics by the
Catholic church. Our local town of
Pamiers plays a large part in this story as it
was the seat of Bishop Jaques Fournier (the
future Pope Benedict XII). The yellow cross: the story of the last Cathars 1290-1392, by Rene Weiss. London, Penguin Books, 2001. |
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Saturday by Ian McEwan has a reference to Pamiers market. |
Recommended
reading |
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Hot sun cool shadow : savouring the food, history and mystery of the Languedoc by Angela Murrills. A delightful look at at the Languedoc region including parts of the Ariege and Albi with local food as a major theme. |
The winter ghosts by Kate Mosse. Kate Mosse comes to the Ariege department with a ghost story linking Tarascon (40 mins away) and the Vicdessos valley with the early 20th century and the cathars. The winter ghosts, by Kate Mosse. London, Orion books, 2010. |
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| My
friend Elinor stayed in August 2009 and was inspired to
write this poem. Tournesols Sunflowers are captives of the soil. Factoried in fields, they turn their open faces to the sun forever following its path across the sky, counting its steps. Tethered to the earth, they strain at ropes invisible. Sunflowers themselves are suns kept from the sky where they would float and bob burgeoning until they fill its blue with overlapping brightnesses a canopy of yellow drying to autumn brown raining seeds upon the ground to nourish the dead skyward on their journey home. Sunflowers are worshippers their gaze unwavering: on nightwatch they do not close their darkened eyes but see the stars played out behind the curtain of the Milky Way and planets steadfast as themselves untwinkling stare: now Mars, now Venus, now Jupiter's blood-smeared gold and moons that swim in retinue treading deepest water, holding invisible hands. And yet at dawn, the light that seeps into the eastern sky will draw their faces - turning on their returning god that same look that they gave him when he set. Elinor Brooks Swindon |
 Sunflowers near Christine
 Sunflower in a vase |
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