SPOTLIGHT ON: Mirepoix

SPOTLIGHT ON: Mirepoix Medieval jewel of the Midi-Pyrénées Mirepoix Say ‘Mirepoix’ and if onions, celery and carrots are the first thing that springs to mind, it shows you know your way around the kitchen. And in a roundabout way (see below) the mirepoix you dice comes from this charming medieval market town located on the river Hers in the Ariège at the crossroads of Toulouse, Carcassonne and Foix, in the heart of Cathar country. Dana Facaros explains… With 600 members of the heretical Cathar sect and a Cathar lord, Pierre-Roger de Mirepoix, the town was an early target of the Albigensian Crusade to eliminate them all. Simon de Montfort captured Mirepoix in 1209 and bestowed it on his right-hand man, Guy de Lévis. The Lévis would rule Mirepoix until the French Revolution, while Pierre-Roger de Mirepoix went on to lead the Cathar garrison in the lofty citadel of Monségur. Here 225 Cathars were besieged by the crusaders until they were starved out in 1244. All preferred to be burned at the stake rather than convert to Catholicism. ‘Mirepoix’ comes from Mira Peis (‘see the fish’ in old Occitan), hence the golden fish on the town’s coat of arms. Originally the Mirapiciens looked at the fish from the right bank of the river Hers, until a flooded dam swept Mirepoix away in 1279, leaving only its castle, the Château de Terride. Jean de Lévi built a replacement town higher up on the left bank and created, bastide-style, a rectangular grid of streets around a market square, with a church off to the side. The Lévis rebuilt it after the Black Prince sacked it in 1355 in the Hundred Years’ War. A decade later English mercenaries, the Routiers burned it down again. A bit after the fact, Mirepoix was fortified: one gate, the Porte d’Aval, is still intact. But karma was done with Mirepoix, leaving it one of the most beautiful (and biggest) market squares in all Occitanie: the colourful, 112m by 55m Place des Couverts, lined with wood pillared porticoes where merchants could trade in all weathers. “The unique half-timber framed houses around the marketplace, naturally create a shopping and restaurant arcade,” say locals Mark and Kay Wilson of Real South of France Tours. “And there are amazing wooden gargoyles along some of the frontages.” The best gargoyles and carvings (103 of them!) adorn the ends of the beams of the Maison des Consuls, once seat of the local magistrates. © Stephane Meurisse Ariege Pyrenees Tourism 62 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 63