Paziols contribué par Annie Spens

En cours de traduction

The best way, the magic way, to come to Paziols is via the Lezignan turn-off from the A61 onto the D611. One minute you're whistling down motorway, traffic and towns flying past, cypresses and olives mere flashes in the mirror, and the next - silence, space, a country road, fields of vines reaching to the dark Corbieres ahead. Point the car towards the hills and soon you're driving up a small river valley, hugged by hills, following a brown, glinting stream. The valley widens, the road climbs, the watchful silhouette of a medieval castle appears above you. As the yellow lights of Tuchan appear, you know you're safely through, into an enchanted land.

Paziols and Tuchan are both tucked into the foothills by the side of a wide plain. Overlooking the plain, on its own rocky island, is the Château d'Aguilar, a stargate into the medieval past. Unlike most of the Cathar castles, Aguilar has no bloody history. Nonetheless, like all these ancient places it feels other-worldly. In the spring it's heady with flowering rosemary. In the summer, the rocky ruins and sheltered corners are home to exquisite flowering honeysuckle bushes. It has a tiny, romantic chapel and a wonderful view. The castles of Queribus and Peyrepeteuse - both of which are within easy distance of Paziols - are far more imposing and magnificent, but Aguilar is a castle you could call home.

Behind Paziols and Tuchan the hills and rocky gorges provide magnificent scenery. Although Mont Tauch may have a dusting of snow in winter, in early spring the lower slopes are covered with flowering rosemary and thyme and lavender. Early in March the tramontane still blows: there are rainbows every morning, translucent and vivid against the silvery background. In early summer, the air is sweet with the scent of flowering broom. In late September the grapes hang purple beneath their leaves and on the hills the dorychnium is still flowering for the bees. There is a Miellerie at Cucugnan where you can taste and buy each season's honey, soaps and beeswax candles. But in May the wild flowers run riot, down the roadside verges, clinging to old castle walls, carpeting the uncultivated fields in blue and yellow and white, with the pink cones of the Rosy Vanilla orchid everywere.

Paziols is well placed for exploring the south of the South of France. The Mediterranean coast is 45 minutes' drive away, and every beach is sandy and every harbour picturesque. You can be in Spain in an hour, and in the high mountains in two. Tautevel, Narbonne and Perpignan offer museums and culture and eating. Rennes-le-Chateau has a strange unsolved mystery, an exquisite little church and excellent lunch. But you can easily spend the hot afternoons dozing beside the Prade, where the river Verdouble opens out into an almost-swimming pool, and you can sit on the ford with your feet in cold mountain water and watch the little grey fish for hours. For your evening meal, wander up to the Merle Bleu, or take a barbecue to the Fontaine des Eaux. At twilight the frogs chorus, and there are glow-worms in the car-park. And as you drive back, the illuminated church on Paziols hill glows like a welcoming lamp in the window of the night.

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