Gîte Abbé Arnulphe

This 32m² gîte has a bedroom (8 m², facing East, overlooking the river and the woods) and a living room with a kitchenette (19 m², facing South, overlooking the garden). It benefits from a beautiful sunshine by the bay window giving on the garden as well as from the freshness of the river and the nearby forest.

This gite, equipped with a double bed of 140 x 200 cm in the bedroom and a sofa bed of 140 x 190 cm can accommodate a maximum of 4 people.

The equipment provided is the cooking plate (gas), the oven, the microwave oven, the refrigerator / freezer, Internet (WiFi). A wooden terrace with a teak table is located in the garden (next to the rose trees) and is reserved for the tenants of this gite.

The gite is on the first floor, entirely on one level and all the doors have a useful passage of more than 77 cm.

It is classified three stars in Meublé de Tourisme.

But who is this Arnulphe?

It is said that during the dark times of the Middle Ages, around the year 1000, Vallespir was plagued by fantastic monsters: Simiots, dragons, lions, bears, and wolves, plague epidemics and the unleashing of the elements. To ward off the bad luck, Abbot Arnulphe (or Arnulf) left Arles-sur-Tech for Rome, to ask the Pope for help.

According to Prosper Mérimée, “When he arrived in Rome, Arnulphe explained to the Holy Father the misery of his fellow citizens and presented his request. The pope, moved with compassion, welcomed him with kindness, and allowed him to choose among the relics preserved in Rome, excepting however those of Saint Peter and of a certain number of saints, of which it would have been imprudent to divest himself.

After spending a whole day in prayer, he fell asleep and had a dream in which two young men appeared to him: “We are,” they said, “Abdon and Sennen, both saints [Sant Nin and Sant Non in Catalan].

While we were alive, we were princes. Persia is our homeland. We were martyred in Rome, and our bodies are buried in such and such a place; exhume them and carry them to your country, they will put an end to the evils that afflict it.”” When they arrived in Arles, the relics are said to have cured plague victims and driven away lions and other ferocious beasts.

Some of them must have survived, because even today you can see Simiots walking through the streets of Arles sur Tech every first weekend of February, for the Bear Festival.