The cathedral was mainly built between 1658 and 1689, with a brick tower of the fourteenth century. Notre-Dame-du-Camp has a colossal red brick façade of the fourteenth century, with machicolation and two towers, a most astonishing illustration of the Church militant. The Church of the Cordeliers dates from 1512, and is in the style known as Toulousian Gothic, from the town a little to the north. There are a number of old houses in Pamiers, but they are near the ironworks, which are an ugly feature of the town, and in most instances they are frowsy and dilapidated. From the site of the destroyed castle there are fine views of the Pyrenees, but they are no better than those that the road commands.
THE ROAD TO CARCASSONNE
goes south-westwards from the southern side of Pamiers, and turns to the left at a fork, crossing the railway, and running in a straight line over the level plain to the valley of the River Hers, upon which is built the exceedingly attractive little town of
MIREPOIX
It is disposed of with a few cold words in the ordinary guide-books, but it is nevertheless a place of singular picturesqueness. There is an old nucleus, surrounded by wide tree-bordered boulevards, and the hurrying tourist sees none of the antiquity of the town if he does not penetrate the central square. It is surrounded on all sides with arcaded houses resting on heavy wooden pillars, with rows of curiously carved brackets in between. There are pictures everywhere, for at one end of the square is a medieval gateway, and on one side stands the Church of St. Maurice. The interior of this building is a vast aisleless space, and the whole of the walls and the modern roof are covered with painting. The building dates almost entirely from early in the fifteenth century.
All the rest of the way to Carcassonne there are huge views north and south, and there are only two small places to be mentioned. The first is Fanjeaux, which stands out most picturesquely on the left side of the road, with a pair of quaint windmills on the hill opposite. The church dates from the thirteenth century, and is believed to have been built on the site of a temple of Jupiter the present name coming from Fanum Jovis. The little town standing out boldly against the sky at sunset is an exceedingly fine sight, and the colour of the foregrounds of nearly every picture the road presents is the burning gold of gorse.
Montréal stands on an isolated hill, and has a fourteenth-century church, built upon a terrace commanding a vast view of the Pyrenees.
SECTION XV
CARCASSONNE TO MONTPELLIER,
94¼ MILES
(152 KILOMETRES)
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE