Some time in mid 2016 I received authorisation, from a Higher Authority, to organise a trip to the Cathar Castles area of South West France, for Easter 2017. I put out an invitation to the Trekkers to put their names down for the trip and after an initial burst of interest, it slowed down. A plea for more at the Trekkers AGM got no takers. I had to cast the net wider and even invited vegetarians to come along. That helped, and eventually, the Trekkers Christmas dinner got the last 3 needed to bring our total to 32 travellers, of whom about 19 were Trekkers or partners of Trekkers. This large number was necessary to keep down the cost of the coach per person and to enable us to get a good deal in hotels.
We had a very early start on Saturday 15th April with our flight to Carcassonne at 7.20. On arrival at Carcassonne, we spent some time in the "Cite", and then headed to Mirepoix, dropped our bags at the hotel there and went to Foix. A quick trip to our first chateau, an 'appetiser', required a stop at a bar in the town to get the acclimatisation going. Seemed to work a treat.
The next day we headed for Montsegur. We must have had a drop too much wine the previous night , as we did not spot the discrete sign to say that the climb to the Chateau was closed for that morning.
In profound ignorance of this impediment, we did the climb, greatly inconvenienced by hundreds of runners who kept passing us, both going up the mountain and down. Pity they didn't make up their minds as to what direction they were to go in, or pick another day for their run, and not be inconveniencing us! The stress of their nuisance to our climb required a chance to re-charge our batteries, so a lunch at a local restaurant was welcome, and this was topped off by a significant and happy announcement by 2 of the Trekkers!
Monday saw us visiting the painted cave at Niaux. The last few KM's drive to the cave caused many a Trekker to fish out their rosary beads, which had not been used for decades, in the hope that Alexander would not go off the road in the coach. It worked, and our walk for the day was accomplished, within the cave. That night and every following night we were entertained to great music and singing by some of our Comhaltas colleagues.
Tuesday saw us, intrepid Trekkers, at Roquefixade, and an initial stop at a War Memorial there, where the group were finally told the identity of a young lad, whose photo had been circulated to the group a few weeks earlier, and the group were told the story of the approx 100 German Jewish children brought to this area in 1939 to avoid what might happen to them in Germany. We then did a circular walk, bringing us behind some hills around the village. The route chosen for our descent to the village proved that there is a United Airlines version of a C walk. Somehow, we all got back without too many falls, and so a few glasses of wine were required to calm the nerves and reassure the gang that we had no plans for a repeat of such a descent over the coming days.
Wednesday was a free day which saw many a familiar Trekker face in various outdoor restaurants/bars, but all were well enough on Thursday for our trip to Puilerans,
Friday saw us taking on the climb to Queribus,
and the walk down to Cucugnan, with lunch at the windmill there. Suitably refreshed, we headed for the Gorge de Galamus, 
then back to the hotel in Quillan, to experience the excellence of Olivier's wife's Vietnamese and French culinary achievements.
Friday morning, with our hotel bills paid, we sadly said goodbye to this fabulous area and headed for Carcassonne, but not without missing a heartbeat, when the coach threatened to leave us stranded. Out with the rosary beads again, and a similar satisfactory result was achieved, and we were on time to get our plane back home and to put on the central heating to full blast.