Saint-Martin-du-Canigou

To my shame I have to admit that in twenty five years of coming on holiday to this part of the South of France, an area dominated by Mount Canigou, the highest peak in these Eastern Pyrenees, that I have never set foot on that mountain; until last week. Wherever you go down here, Canigou is always there. You go to the beach and look inland and this huge snow capped peak is always there. You go up one of the three main valleys in this Department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, and Canigou dominates the landscape. Every time we drive to the supermarket, or travel into Perpignan, it is there in front of us. We only need to open our bathroom window, or walk to the end of our road, and on a clear day, it is there too. There is no escaping Canigou, a mountain with special religious significance to the local Catalan population, and one beloved of ramblers as well.

Last week during our stay at La Mirabelle Hotel in Casteil, I had the opportunity to rectify my omission. Casteil sits at the foot of Canigou, just a kilometre or so beyond Vernet-les-Bains, a spa town often visited by Rudyard Kipling, who wrote:

“I came here in search of nothing more than a little sunshine. But I found Canigou, whom I discovered to be a magician among mountains, and I submitted myself to his power… I watch him with wonder and delight. Nothing that he could do or give birth to would now surprise me, whether I met Don Quixote himself riding in from the Spanish side, or all the chivalry of ancient France watering their horses at his streams, or saw (which each twilight seems quite possible) gnomes and kobbolds swarming out of the mines and tunnels of his flanks.”

Well, we saw no gnomes or kobbolds, but I can understand Kipling’s imagination, as we made our way up the mountain. In recent years the pathway has been roughly concreted over, allowing 4×4 vehicles to transport less mobile visitors and pilgrims to reach the top. Our journey was on foot, and we made our way up the steep and winding pathway in a steady drizzle, armed with umbrellas. The clouds were low and the tops of the surrounding mountains were wreathed in mist and cloud. As the pathway zig-zagged up the mountainside we soon lost sight of the village of Casteil below us, and all was quiet save for the birds above us and the sound of a stream cascading down the mountain.

Half way through our journey we entered a densely wooded area and  passed a sign informing us that we were entering the Domain of the Abbey of Saint Martin of Canigou, home to a community of Catholic monks and nuns who live their life of prayer and service on this mountain, in an abbey originally built in the eleventh century, but restored at the beginnng of the twentieth. But we were still quite a way from our goal, we had to go higher up the mountain. The abbey, which was our destination is situated one thousand and fifty five metres, or nearly three thousand five hundred feet above sea level. Through the woods we continued, until we turned a corner, and there through the mist we had our first glimpse of the outline of the Romanesque tower of the abbey church.No doubt the view from the abbey over the surrounding hills and valleys would have been superb, but sadly we were not to see very much. We were now above the clouds, but we had made our pilgrimage to this place where prayer had been offered for nearly a thousand years.

Visiting this wonderful site on a clear day, and climbing higher to look down on the abbey, this would be the view. Sadly we didn’t see it from this angle!

On our way down the mountain, the rain started again, but we had so much to see, including the old church of Saint-Martin-le-Vieux, or the original church of Saint Martin built even before the abbey was constructed.

But what remains in my mind was the beauty of the wild flowers  all the way along the path from Casteil at the bottom to the abbey at the top. The weather may have been awful, the view from the top impossible, and the abbey itself closed because the monks and nuns were at prayer, but this walk was superb. We were away from the noise that we are so used to in daily life; just enjoying being with friends in this lovely place was something to treasure.

Here are some more photos that I took as we walked along.