Ken's 2nd ancestral now in France -
Day Eight from near Biarritz to Sorrèze

From near Biarritz to Sorrèze

Sunday 16th May 2004 We left at about 10:10 & got onto the motorway from an unmarked new road West of Peyrourade & roared along this for 131km, stopping twice, once for photos of the Pyrenees & once for fuel but there was a splendid sculpture of cyclists doing the passes.

The Cyclist Sculpture

Chateau de Prat

We came off West of St. Gaudens, which might have been worth exploring but we did not have the time. There was a spectacular chateau (castle-type) on a hill at Prat.

St Lizier

La Bastide de Serou

However, St Girons, which looks on the map as if it might be interesting, wasn't. We stopped for lunch at Rimont at the Bar-Restaurant de la Poste (E32 strongly recommended). Rimont again is very pretty & so was la Bastide de Serou.

Foix. More on this link

La Force (Aude) outside the oval bastide

Going down to Foix, more snow-capped peaks appeared which we did not see on the Cathar trip but which cannot be seen from the town. We used the motorway up to the Mirepoix road &, after passing through it, I decided we had enough time to go to the Aude La Force with its oval bastide.

It was a rather poor-looking place & we don't know if there is any family connexion but I have put the pictures on the Force Scrapbook web-page. It was not too far to our friend's, although Sorrèze is a bit bigger than I expected & we had to drive round twice before the village idiot told us where it was. It is an enchanting, ancient town which was much sacked in the past, partly for being Protestant but there are many old buildings including our friend's, which is much bigger inside than it looks outside, last restored 17thC (after the last sacking) but originally built between the 10th & 12thC.