picture from Etonnantes-pyrenees.com Montsegur, Southern France.  Unless you know your European history well, you might be unaware that there was another branch of Christianity once.  They were called the Cathars and were based mainly in Southern France in the 12th and 13th century.  Alas, they fell out with the Catholic Church, who declared them heretics and with the co-operation of the French King pursued a religious crusade to wipe them out.  The Cathar’s last stand was held in this tiny castle in the Pyrenees.  A year long siege was ended by a daring raid of French knights who climbed up the cliffs to take the castle in the night.  The Catholic Church then burnt the 225 Cathar priests alive at the foot of the mountain (they apologised in 1979). picture from en.wikipedia.org Alnwick Castle, Northumberland UK.  I had to have this one on the list because it used to be my favourite as a child.  My grandmother had dinner mats of different English castles in her cottage in Northumberland.  I used to always insist I had …