Minerve

The Minervois

Between Beziers and Carcassonne, lies the area of the Minervois. Famous for it's wine, but also for the inhospitable, but beautiful countryside. The Minervois is not an administrative area. It cuts across two Départements, the Aude and the Hérault, and incorporates 75 communes.
The Minervois is largely associated in many people's minds with the area in which the wines of the appellation Minervois are made.

In its center lies the village of Minerve one of many Cathar towns. The road winds up the valley from the direction of Beziers, first climbing steeply then falling into the town of Aigues-Vives, and then following the valley of the River Cesse, a river that disappears underground, in the heat of summer.
Shortly, the banks of the river become sharp, and defined. Tucked under a cliff we find La Caunette.

La Caunette has developed on a narrow ledge, between the bed of the river Cesse, and the cliffs. Coal mining was a local industry from the mid-eighteenth century, and continued into the twentieth century, but was never really prosperous. Mining was revived after the 1914-18 war, but finally closed in the 1940's. The old treatment plant with its tall chimney, can still be seen at the eastern edge of the village. Today, viticulture is the main industry. Continuing along the valley, the terrain becomes more and more rugged, until we find Minerve, perched on the cliff tops over the meeting point of two rivers, the Cessiere and the Brian, where they tunnel through deep gorges.

Minerve, and its inhabitants, were involved in a massacre inflicted by Simon de Montfort during the crusades against the Cathars in France in 1210.
With the backing of the Pope, and employing men hungry for loot, and blood. Simon de Montfort laid siege, to the impregnable fortress village. To speed things along, he attacked St Rustique's well, the principal water source for the village, that is found at the base of the village.
Four catapults were set up around the village, three towards the city gates, and the fourth - the largest, named "Malevoisine" (Bad neighbour) to destroy the well.
The village was well protected, with double surrounding walls, and overhanging ledges, but this did not stop the fear that Simon de Montfort instilled.
Viscount Guilhem of Minerve knew that the 200 men of his garrison, couldn't resist the onslaught if the gates were breached, and St Rustique's well destroyed. He negotiated the town's surrender, and saved the villagers, but the 140 Parfaits who had taken refuge in the village, refused to deny their faith, and were burnt at the stake.
The burning of the parfaits was a terrible act, that was to be repeated for another 34 years until the fall of the Cathar stronghold at Montsegur.

Little is left of the fortress at Minerve, except for the "Candela" - a single slender octagonal tower. The village is a maze of narrow alleys, topped by a simple 12th century church. Around and about the village, are wonderful walks that test one's agility. Walks that skirt edges of cliffs, with drops to the churning waters below. The river Cessiere tunnels under a hill next to the village, and one can often walk through when the river dries during the summer months. The natural bridges provide the ideal background to grand spectacles of Son et Lumière in the Summer months.

The Magic Road
Not far from the villages of Minerve, and Siren, set in some interesting but inhospitable countryside is a section of road known to locals as “Le Route Magique”. Look out for the signs for the "Couriosite Laguiole". This section of road has to be seen, to be believed, and then you have to ask the question, is it true? - a phenomenon that shouldn’t be missed if you are in the area.

St Jean de Minervois

It is said that the sweet muscat wine of Saint-Jean, has been cultivated since the 10th century, but prior to 1948, only three wine-growers were producing large quantities of a natural sweet wine with added alcohol They owned this precious right by inheritance from their fathers, grand-fathers and forefathers.
The other wine-growers did have some small fields of muscat, but they could only use them for their own consumption. This inherited "right" was linked to land, and not to people, these 3 wine-growers had a production limited to roughly fifteen hectolitres each. It was not very economic, so, in 1948, they asked for the creation of an Appelation with respect to this sweet muscat wine, for the benefit of the entire village.
A remarkable wine considering the stoney fields which the vines occupy.

SAINT-FRICHOUX
At the western end of the Minervois, and not far from Carcassonne, is the village of Saint Frichoux, a very old fortified village, well off the beaten track, and rather sleepy. It lies on the edge of a fertile plain formed by the dried out lake of Marseillette. The area is covered in apple farms, in startling difference to the majority of the minervois, which is covered in vines.

Between the towns of Marseillette and Puichéric, the Canal du Midi drained the Lac du Marseillette. The sea once covered this earth. When the sea retreated it left lakes behind. The Marseillette was a large lake, and would still exist if it had not been drained by man.

To live here was certainly very difficult. Mosquitoes there prolific, provoking many diseases: plague, choléra and other fevers... and the waters constituted a handicap for farming. The history of the drying up of the Marseillette Lake is very old. The first attempts date back to the 16th century. Later, Henri IV, issued a decree making it imperative to dry up the lake.
But the realisation proved difficult.
Under the reign of Louis XIII, a trench was dug in order to evacuate the waters to the River Aude. That work was not sufficient, and it appeared the difficulties were insurmountable, and the work was abandoned.
It was in 1851, with the building of a tunnel canal linking the River Aude to the lake that the project of drainage was finished. A drain was also constructed to take some of the water to the Canal du Midi

Today the lake is traversed by irrigation canals.

During the XIXème century, rice was cultivated. Today, the pond essentially planted with vines and fruit trees, and little by little rice is beginning to make a re appearance.