While this spring is full of horrible and disappointing events both for us and the whole world, we wanted to distract a bit and remember one of our favorite memories from last spring - a photo shoot of “Knight” dress. We were on vacation in the south of France – Occitanie, to be exact. Most of the time we were visiting few medieval Cathar castles, which the region is famous for, but also searching for a place for the photo shooting of our new dress.

At some point we stumbled upon Chateau de Puivert – 14th century Cathar castle, which is famous as a location for many films, including The Ninth Gate by Roman Polanski. During our first visit there was a very strong, almost stormy wind blowing us away from the hill on which the castle stands. So we quickly ran inside and found ourselves in the spacious halls of the keep with high, rib-vaulted ceilings. We were completely charmed by the atmosphere of this really ancient building that survived through centuries with it’s chainmail armor, tapestries and quiet medieval motifs playing in the old recorder – later we found out that the town of Puivert welcomed a great gathering of troubadours during 12th century and later on. And at that moment we knew that this is what we were searching for.

Next morning Lisa put on the dress and make up, I took the camera, and we headed right to the Puivert. In our second visit the castellan let us in for free because he remembered us from the previous day. We were completely shocked by his kindness and awkwardly thanked him a few times.

The weather was in our favor that day, so we could properly look around the castle’s territory. Nearby one of the destroyed walls there was a beautiful horse grazing outside. We couldn’t hold ourselves from taking some pictures near him. The horse was so calm and gracious, we still remember him with great admiration.

After that we made some photos in the shadows of the castle’s walls and proceeded to the keep. Since the weather was much nicer, that day there were some French tourists doing the sightseeing around the castle. They were all very kind and cheerful and never interrupted us, which came as a complete cultural shock compared to Russia. The lighting was much darker in the keep, but we still could make some atmospheric shots inside too.

We remember these days as some of the brightest moments in our lives, but also, at some point, a real small adventure. And we hope it won’t be the last one.

Do you have any moments of your life you could call an adventure? You can share your stories in the comments.