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| The restaurant Le Bourdieu serves excellent regional cuisine in Durfort, just a few kms from St Martin d'Oydes. Les Peyrouses Bed & Breakfast a few kms away offers vegetarian cuisine. |
| Rent a château in Ariège:
Château de Beauregard Château Rhodes |
St-Martin d'Oydes
If you take the scenic route from Toulouse along the Lèze river valley, you'll see a sign for St-Martin d'Oydes a short distance after the turnoff for Carla-Bayle, a hilltop medieval fortified village also worth visiting. For the past several years, before and since he became the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and his family have spent part of their summer holidays at a chateau in this village.
16 km northwest of Pamiers, the village is a striking example of medieval circular architecture, initially conceived for the defense of the inhabitants. The houses surround the church in a closed elipse, and until the middle of the 19th century a moat around them made a third line of defense. (If both the moat and circle of houses were breached by attackers, the inhabitants took refuge in the clock tower.) The moat was filled in and paved over in the mid 19th century to suppress the stench given off by the stagnant water. According to local lore, there was no entrance to the village until 1862 when an entryway was created on the north side 
opposite the chateau. In 1880 a second was created when the post office was built. Before then, everyone had to pass through one house to reach the interior.
The interior walls of the church show several frescoes that retrace the traditional May pilgrimage to the miracle spring of Saint Anasthase, the parish's patron saint, a Benedictine monk who cared for plague victims. He died in St-Martin and was buried in the church in 1085.
The chateau dates from the 11th century and is surrounded by a brick wall, but not so high that a tall person can't see into the grounds.
The village is located in the gently rolling farmland of lower Ariège. Commercial activity is minimal--don't go to St-Martin-d'Oydes hoping to find a café. If you had a friend with a lovely old chateau here, who was happy to lend it to you, you too would cheerfully spend every summer holiday in this green and tranquil part of the department.