Foix and Ax-les-Thermes

Train travel is easy and cheap here, so we took another day trip during our visit to the Midi-Pyrénées region. Heading south from Toulouse the landscape changes quickly from pink bricks and busy streets to vast stretches of farmland and the green hills of the Pyrénées.

Our first stop was the tiny mountain town of Foix, a picturesque village with winding cobblestone streets and a fairy tale castle that overlooks the city from a high peak:



The village of Foix hardly looks real tucked in this valley with the snow-capped mountain peaks as a backdrop. Foix is the capital of the Ariège region, the least populous region in France. The region was historically isolated because of the mountains, and even today, there exist significant cultural differences between these small towns in the Pyrénées.

We climbed into the mountains a bit to see the picturesque farmhouses and terraced fields that surround the city in the hillsides.



The castle is one of a few in France that was never conquered by invaders - the same ducal family occupied it for over 200 years. It's literally perched on a rock, with a hundred vertical feet of cliffs separating the castle from the town. Earlier in history, in the 1200s, Foix was one of the last hiding places for Cathar priests, after the Albigensian Heresy had been crushed by the Catholic Church. Catharism was a religious sect that arose during the 10th century in southeastern France - one of the other Cathar strongholds, Montsègur, was called "the Synagogue of Satan".

A view of Ax-Les-Thermes from above. Ax-Les-Thermes is a small community only 10km from Andorra whose main attraction is a series of hot springs, which have been diverted into fountains throughout the town.



The water from the springs is 170 degrees Farenheit, smells strongly of sulphur, and will cure what ails you. It is supposed to be particularly effective for liver problems.



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