Because of its key

Because of its key location, Mirepoix has always been an important market town, and Place des Couverts is the perfect stage for Mirepoix’s massive Monday morning market as well as for festivals, including the Swing à Mirepoix jazz on Easter weekend and the themed Fête de la Pomme in October. The local apple artists love a challenge: bulls made of apples? Musical instruments? Tintin? No problem! Looming over all is the 58m tower of the church of Saint-Maurice. The Lévis began it in 1298, but in 1317 when the pope elevated Mirepoix to a bishopric (part of the Church’s scheme to keep a close eye on heresy danger zones), they went a bit mad and carried on building for the next six centuries. The nave is a tour de force of southern Gothic, where width rather than height was a thing: its 22.2m single span nave is surpassed only by Girona’s Cathedral (22.98m). Walk along Avenue de Pont to see Mirepoix’s other monument historique: an 800-year-old holm oak, last survivor of the forest chopped down to re-build the 13 th century town. Even older is the remarkable three storey Église Rupestre de Vals, 12km west of Mirepoix. Partially built into the rock, a holy site since the Bronze Age and once a temple to a Celtic god, its mid-level is decorated 12 th century Catalan frescoes. There’s no place in France like it. Mirepoix © Stephane Meurisse Ariege Pyreness Tourism 'Real' South of France Tours EXPERIENCE THE AMAZING CULTURE, HISTORY, FOOD AND WINE IN THE REAL SOUTH OF FRANCE realsouthoffrancetours.fr And the Mirepoix? One of the last dukes, Gaston Pierre de Lévis-Mirepoix (1699-1757) despite being “an incompetent and mediocre individual... who owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV felt toward his wife,” had a chef who invented a sauce and named it after his boss. The original version included wine and meats, but over the decades mirepoix simply came to mean the diced carrots, onions and celery that you sauté to start dozens of sauces, soups and stews. Dana Facaros has lived in France for over 30 years. She is the creator of French Food Decoder app: everything you want to know about French food, and co-author of the Bradt guide to Gascony & the Pyrenees. Find out more about Mirepoix at: ariegepyrenees.com 64 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 65