Why visit Bram?

It’s unlikely that you’ve heard of Bram, a charming village in the Aude department, but it is well worth a visit if you are in the area!

Bram is about 20 minutes from our house by car, and we decided to take our most recent guest to visit this fascinating place which is rich in history; not least because it is the largest circular village in Europe. The streets are in concentric circles extending from the Eglise Saint-Julien et Sainte-Basilisse.

Bram developed at the crossroads of two Roman roads and, according to the archaeological remains discovered there, it was occupied as early as the 2nd century BC.

The best way to show ‘La Circulade’, the circular streets, is by taking a bird’s eye view as shown in the clip below:

As we wandered around (!) these streets, I was fascinated by the stone heads above some of the doors.

Some of the doors were very low.

There is a dark side to the history of Bram. In the 13th century, the town was a Cathar centre. The Cathars were a heretical Christian group, and the Albigensian Crusade aimed to eradicate them. In 1209, the Crusade’s leader at the time, Simon de Montford, besieged Bram and overcame any resistance in three days.

The heretics were captured and mutilated – all but one had their top lips cut off and their eyes gauged out before being led on a forced march to the town of Lastours as a warning to others. Later, Simon de Montfort took to burning Cathars alive.

Bram is not only known for its history but also for its scenery. It is a small port on the Canal du Midi that has a restaurant ‘L’ile aux oiseaux’ which was closed on the day we visited. I was rather taken by the chairs made from barrels.

There also is also a nearby lake, ‘le Lac de Buzerens’. We decided to investigate as we are fans of lakes as venues for walking Zeph. I’ve written previously about Le Bassin de Lampy, Le Bassin de St-Ferréol and Le Lac de la Ganguise, so I was hoping that we would be able to add another local lake to our walking itinerary!

The Buzerens lake is somewhere to swim, dog walk or have a picnic. There is also an onsite café. The lake, a former gravel pit, is probably most well known for being home to ‘Teleski’. There are several other water based activities to experience, including paddle boarding. It was a very quiet day towards the end of the season, so there was little activity.

The video clip below gives an idea of some of the activities available at the lake in high season.

Although we had visited Bram before it was fun and interesting to discover more about this local village. Thank you for accompanying me!