Our first stop on this day trip though was in Bugarach – we’d been past this village before but had never stopped. The temperature had dropped to 1ºC in the 30 minutes it took to us to drive there from Fenouillet. The reason for this likely being that the village sits at the base of the tallest mountain (Pic de Bugarach) in the Courbières. Geologists have found that the rocks on top of this hill are older than some of the rocks lower down the hill, hence it is sometimes referred to as the upside down mountain.

We wandered the almost-empty streets of the village (which is famous for several reasons) for only a short time – as we were all freezing.

The most well-known reason for being famous is because the upside down mountain is thought (by some) to have mystical powers. For some who believed the world was going to end on 21st December (21/12) 2012 – it was predicted Bugarach would be spared.

And it was.

The other not-so-well-known reason is because it was very near here in 2016 that Mick and I picked up a hitchhiker and his friend who told us he was the New Messiah. He was off the Limoux to complete the necessary paperwork to nominate himself for the upcoming Presidential elections.  (Refer to this website if you’d like to read more.) And no, his name was not Emmanuel Macron.

After we had picked up the Messiah on our first trip, we were unable to stop at Rennes-les-Bains. It had looked very interesting and we were sorry to have missed it.

But on this trip, it was where we stopped for morning tea.

The word ‘bains’ in French means ‘baths’.

There are hot springs in lots of different villages throughout France and Rennes-les-Bains is one of them. The natural spring led to the construction of thermal baths in this village that attracted lots of tourists and visitors for health benefits – rheumatism and certain skin conditions. Even though it was just above freezing, we were very lucky to witness a young woman in the water.

She emerged from a cave and plunged herself into the freezing waters of the River Sals.

A closer look indicated a large pile of clothing and voices from underneath the pavement indicated she was not alone.

The photo doesn’t show the others, but there were at least two more people in that little cave. I’m sure it would have been beautiful until they had to get out.

Mick and our friend Michael opted for a different vantage point from one of the many bridges, but they missed some of the action Jeanie and I saw.

Everywhere you looked there was something very cute to see. Apparently the original thermal baths that were built here have been closed and a newer version has been built; something to do with a dangerous microbe being found in the old pipework.

After a very pleasant break in the local cafe, we headed for Rennes-le-Château. If you click on that link you can read about our previous visit.

But, in a nut-shell, this place was made famous relatively recently be being mentioned in the Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code. It was made famous before that because of a very enterprising and mysterious parish priest who was thought to have buried a massive treasure in the tiny hill-top village. Hence this sign…..

… stating that no excavations are allowed (and it has been that way since July 1965).

No-one really knows how this priest (Saunière) became so rich, but it is documented that he was involved in Mass Trafficking – where people paid him money to say masses and he never did. But that certainly doesn’t account for more than the equivalent of €2 Million he supposedly spent in his time there as the priest.

We visited here for the first time on 4 December 2016, and less than 6 months later on 23 April 2017 a woman went berserk and vandalised several statues including this one which is (or was) very well known.

That scary face on the statue is no longer there, just a metal prong emerges from the shoulders with a sign next to it stating that the community is raising money to have the statue repaired since the attack.

We just missed out on being able to visit the museum as it was 12.30pm, and like most things in France at that time, it was closed for lunch. But we did enjoy the walk through the church and the surrounding gardens.

The views from up here were amazing.

A most enjoyable day trip. But not voted the best of the week.