Day 9- Bram to Castelnaundry

Not to bore you, but here is a little history about Bram….”Bram was a centre of Cathar belief, a heresy from Christianity. Their difference from Rome brought the intervention of Simon de Montfort who, following a Spanish monk who became St Dominic, besieged the town in 1210. He succeeded in three days and took revenge on resistants by cutting off the top lip of all his prisoners and gouging out the eyes of all but one. For the last he gouged out only one eye so that he could lead the others out of the town to the château of Lastours .” Needless to say, but this area of France is so rich with history!

Leaving Bram we walked through mud, stopped to have a little cocktail along the canal, which has been a rare thing to do as so many places are still closed. In fact, finding a open hotel/B&B is not the easiest thing to do. So many places are still closed and will open around April 1st.

When we reached Castelnaudary, we found a hotel, washed our sock out as we do each night and set out to find dinner! Adam had already been up to the square to buy things to make tomorrow’s lunch and he said he had a surprise for me….it was an oyster truck!!! We stood and had the most delicious oysters and mussels! I think we need to have these at the beach. So fun! Then off for dinner which was Chinese food where we met all kinds of folks. It was a good day despite my achey, achey feet.

Castelnaudary is birthplace of Cassoulet (French pronunciation: ​[ka.su.lɛ], from Occitan caçolet [kasuˈlet]) is a rich, slow-cooked casserole originating in the south of France, containing meat (typically porksausages, goose, duck and sometimes mutton), pork skin (couennes) and white beans (haricots blancs).

Our hosts at Domaine Les Magasins

The Occitan cross – the sign of this area

Here he comes!

Watching a boat go through a lock.

Cheers!!

Me

Adam

It looks like a painting

At the intersection of the Camino de Santiago and the Canal du Midi

Oysters at the oyster truck!!!!

Yum!

Yum!

They love Jefferson here 🙂