Cycling in Search
of the Cathars: Introduction

For several years, we had been working as teachers and for some time we had both felt in need of a change. The atmosphere in education was demoralising and we were feeling the need for some fresh inspiration. We decided to give up our jobs and try something different.

We had often daydreamed about how we would like to live the life of writers. We would spend our days researching fascinating areas of human existence or creating new worlds for ourselves from blank paper. Of course, the trade of writing is notoriously unprofitable for those new to it. We had some savings from our years at the chalkface, but not enough to live on.

Some of our friends had attempted setting up various businesses of their own, backed by one of the Government schemes for the unemployed. We decided to call ourselves a writing partnership and apply for similar backing. In this way, we persuaded the Manpower Service Commission to give us each £40 a week Enterprise Allowance for a year to help us establish our "business". Although we would have received more if we had simply signed on as unemployed, this way did have the advantage that we didn't have to be around to sign on. We could, if necessary, go abroad to do research for our writing.

To be eligible for the Enterprise Allowance, we submitted a synopsis of writing projects that we intended to work on. We had plenty of ideas for short stories, plays and general articles. Both of us tend to be "Francophiles" and enjoy a bit more sunshine than the English weather has given us during the previous few years. Therefore, our main project was going to involve an extended visit to France. It would have to be something relatively unusual, something that would appeal to the interests of a sufficiently wide public and something that would have a chance of being accepted by a publisher.

In the 1970's, Chris used to spend most autumns picking grapes in South-West France. During that time he came to hear of a medieval French heresy called Catharism which held some surprisingly modern ideas. They were, for example, in favour of equality for women and even had females in their priesthood. They were also vegetarians. But most surprisingly of all in a brutal and violent age, they were unconditional pacifists. They'd presented such a threat to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church that the Pope had declared a Crusade against them in 1209 and by 1244 the religion had been more or less destroyed.

We'd gone on a short cycling holiday in the region in 1983 where Chris had told Elaine about the Cathars. She too became fascinated by the presence of ideas she'd thought of as beginning in the 18th century existing in the 12th and 13th centuries and was determined to find out more about them when she returned to England.

She'd not been able to find the type of book she wanted to read and found the Cathars mentioned only briefly in many works. Occasionally, her interest in them would come out in discussion and people would recommend a certain book. She'd then pursue the book, only to find it out of print or unobtainable from libraries. We started to think that maybe we ourselves should write a book about them; especially as we were also vegetarian with strong pacifist and feminist leanings. It would be a book which would provide the sort of introductory information we had been unable to find.

Consequently, right from when we first thought of writing, we had been interested in doing something on the Cathars. Although the Cathars became influential in many parts of Europe, the area in which they prospered and rivalled the Church of Rome, was Languedoc. This was the country that existed in what is now southwest France.

But was it a subject that would have appeal to others? We tried the idea out on friends and were amazed at the interest aroused. Few had heard of the Cathars, while those who had done also wished to know more. This initial market research was re-confirmed during our time in France. We met many, many people who were either interested in or knew something about the Cathars.

Forty pounds a week was not going to pay for endless gallons of petrol. We had already had a couple of cycling holidays in France and had been pleased at how fit we had become. But four months was a complete different matter to three weeks and would impose serious restrictions upon what luggage we would be able to take. Nevertheless, after much discussion we decided to park up the car and clean and oil the bikes.

As soon as we had made this decision, it became apparent that the book would be about travelling on bikes as well and very early on we settled for "Cycling in Search of the Cathars" as being the title for the book we wished to write.

Although we have tried to write about cycling, we feel we should make one thing clear. We are not professional cyclists and don't pretend to be. We don't wear those smart skin tight cycling shorts that are all the trend. We don't spend our weekends training. And we get off and push our bikes up steep hills!

Our friend Kevin is a keen and sporty cyclist. Shortly after our return, Chris was telling him all about our trip. In the course of this, we talked about going over the cols (passes). He soon realised that Kevin was used to much higher passes than those of the mere 3-4000 feet that we had tackled. And when Chris talked about "pushing the bike up steep hills", he gave him a stern look.

"I never push a bike uphill!" Chris felt put in his place.

Afterwards, when we talked about this, we realised that there were only a few people who are going to be able to cycle like Kevin and his friends. And if such high standards prevail, people are going to be put off cycling as a form of transport.

Well, we are not a couple of superfit types. Some days, we might only travel ten to fifteen miles. The most we ever did in one day was 50 miles and after that we were really proud of ourselves and took 2-3 days to recover. Our average was about 20-25 miles for each day that we cycled and we certainly did not cycle every day.

We are not really sporty types either, but we would like to see a lot more bicycles on the roads and with many more roads having special cycle tracks. The Tour of Britain cycle race (1987) showed how much potential support cycling has as a sport in Britain. But cycling should be much more than a sport. It is a form a travel that could be undertaken by every able-bodied person in the country. Instead of taking the car each time we need to go to the shops, or to make some other short journey, why not the bike? The air would be less polluted and people would be fitter.

Having decided that our weekly allowance would not have to be used up at petrol garages, we still had to consider the question of whether we would be able to live on forty pounds a week in a foreign country. To many people, the idea of living in the south of France sounds very expensive. However, from our previous holidays, we knew that this wasn't necessarily the case. Camp-sites away from the coast were very reasonably priced - often no more than a pound or two a night each. Some were completely free. Although this sounds unlikely, free campsites can attract business for the traders of a village.

When we told people that we were going on holiday, camping in France, a question they would invariably ask would be: "Are you all booked up?" Even at the height of the season in July and August, there is no difficulty finding places at camp-sites as long as you are at least a few miles away from the coast. Even if you travel in a car. We were never turned away.

After travel and accommodation had been sorted out in our minds, there were still two main things left that could easily make us spend too much money. The first was food. We decided against taking cooking gear. Even with a simple camping gas, we would need a pan and basic foods, such as condiments and a jar of coffee. The weight would soon add up. We opted for a mainly raw-food diet peppered with the odd meal out at restaurants. More of this later.

The second thing that might make or break our budget was "bad" habits. These included buying wine of too good a quality too often and too many rests for drinks at bars; especially if these rests involved drinking cups of large white coffee.

When we embarked upon our researches, we knew very little about the Cathars. This book is about how we found out about them. For this reason, the reader won't necessarily be presented with events in a chronological manner. We explain things as and when we discovered them.

Most travel books will describe the story of a journey or an expedition. The reader will probably learn something about the countries visited, the sights to see, and some history the author thinks relevant. The book we envisaged writing didn't seem to fit into this or any other particular mould. Certainly, it was going to be a travel book, but it was going to be about cycling as well. And unlike so many other travellers, we weren't just doing it because it was there. Our journey was going to be one of investigation. We wanted to research and find out about an important part of our area's history. As our book began to take shape. we wondered whether we might have created a new genre: investigative, travel writing by bike!

Although we started off with what we thought was a fairly simple intention of researching the Cathars, we found that this led us into many other areas of knowledge and history.

At first, we'd thought the Cathars were an isolated historical phenomenon but we learned that they were part of a tradition which had many influences and connections. A whole historical kaleidoscope opened up before us, involving such things as Gnosticism, the Knights Templar, Solomon's Treasure, the Bogomils, Manicheism, the Wisigoths, the Troubadours and more.

We found similarities between the Cathars and other religious movements, especially the Hindus, the Buddhists and the early Christians. We may well spend the rest of our lives trying to get to the bottom of it all.