I have a dream

Deep in the valley, surrounded by the forest, is an old house. It is reported in the Cassini map (1750) as being barns. Around 1900, at the time of electrification of French rural areas, the house was equipped with a small hydroelectric generator using the water of the creek next to the house. Even more than today, our ancestors already used renewable and clean sources of energy. The man made channels are still visible and I clean them every year to help our guests in the gîte when they come to discover the valley.

But I would like to do more.

If nothing is done, this nice romantic place will turn into a mountain of stones in the next decades, so I have a dream: before it is too late, I would like to renovate it into a Robinson cottage: wood, sun and/or water energy sourced, spring water for drinking, creek music to fall asleep and birds’ songs as an alarm clock, all the forest around and its biodiversity to enjoy.

All dreams cannot come true but what matters is having some and sharing them.

Eight centuries ago

Destroyed in 1212 by Simon de Montfort during the Albigensian Crusade (Cathar Crusade) relics of the castle are still visible on top of one of the Black Mountain peaks  (southern part of the French Massif Central). Between rocks and pine trees the foundations of the keep and houses and fortifications are there to be discovered.

The castle, situated between two other castra, Bernicaut (on the mountain close to Sorèze) and Hautpoul (on the mountain close to Mazamet), provided a strategic overview of the plain from Revel to Castres.

On top can still be seen the foundations of the keep, directly built on the rocks.

On the Northern side, in defense of the weak point (a plateau), a ditch and long defensive walls together with a big house with arrowslit.

As in the case of Château Gaillard (Normandy), the castrum may have been conquered with siege engines settled on the plateau.

In the middle of the vestiges, two caves are still visible above the keep, one of them may have been used as latrine.

Much remains to be seen and discovered about the history of Contrast.