It features in almost every book and article written about the place, and many people, including Yours Truly, have always thought that it was an aerial photograph. On this crag are situated the ruins of the Chateau de Le Bezu, and it is from right up here on the top, overlooking the sheer drop of several hundred metres, that the photograph of Rennes-le-Chateau has been taken.
But before you begin to set off here in droves, let me give you a couple of words of warning. There is not one single signpost to the Chateau from anywhere. There is no approved rounte and no marked pathway. I found my way by tapping in the co-ordinates of Longitude and Latitude and following a series of cart tracks by trial end error until I could go no further. Here, I was able just about to make out some stone blocks interwoven between the limestone outcrops good job I had some binoculars and so I reckoned that I could well be onto something here.
While I was reflecting over how I was going to reach the top I was joined by another van-driver. I fell in with him and we immediately started talking solar panels as his van was fitted out exactly as Caliburn, even down to the solar panel on the roof and the control boxes. Fortune really does smile on the brave! You can do your own research from that point of view, and good luck to you too.
Let me just tell you this, though. Just beyond that peak is the Mediterranean and the port of Narbonne, and Narbonne has until very modern times been the leading port of Southern France and Northern Spain remember until the late 15th Century the Muslems were in possession of much of the Spanish coast. I counted three mountain passes coming this way from Narbonne, one heading off to the interior and two heading south towards the Pyrenees and Spain.
Just think of all the trade goods that would be coming by these passes into this area for onward passage avoiding the Moorish galleys, and what would be the value of these goods? Any nobleman bent on increasing his wealth and many of these noblemen were as bent as they come would stick a castle right on this promontory so that he could intercept the pack trains coming through the passes and demand his toll. The answer to that is that his mother and sister predeceased him and so he was alone. And we saw yesterday that e relinquished his living in and here on the grave, it has him dying in March It seems, from what I have been able to find out, that he was dying of cancer and it was probably that which caused him to abandon his post.
