Travels Continue

Wednesday the 19th and the clouds are sitting low in the Montages Noire and forecast of 20 degrees. Lazy morning reading, having tea, doing some grocery shopping and going to the boucherie (butcher) and poissonerie (fishmonger). In the afternoon, we headed off to visit the small town of Rabastens and two other towns about 1 1/2 hours from Mazamet. We arrive in Rabastens and walk around see the Ramparts, where the highlight was Brenda seeing a man walking 11 dogs. Then onto the Eglise Notre Dame Du Bourg, which is a Unesco World Heritage site. These churches are all very huge, and in some small towns, multiple churches. The three of us are Catholics, o.k. maybe not hardy practicing Catholics, but nonetheless ....enough already! The thing that blows our mind is the amount of real estate and the grandeur of these buildings and what people went through to build them. Maybe someone should start disposing of them; but who would buy them?......won't tell you what Brenda said when I asked that rhetorical question.

I decide to go into the tourist bureau to find out what else we can see. The woman says...have you seen the Ramparts...yes....have you seen the Cathedral....yes...there is a walk around the town centre that you can do....yes we have done that.....she says, I love your French accent...thank you....onto the next town.

Wine tasting in Gaillac

We decide to go to Gaillac, just because we notice a sign at the traffic circle that we are there ...really. This is a town that we were going to visit later in week, but heck, the sign says we are here, besides they are known for their wines. We park find the Caves de Vins and do some wine tasting.....oh my gosh, excellent wines. I am driving , so only a few sips of each. I know that some of my friends out there could not believe that I restrain myself, but I do, as I have an obligation to get Brenda and Robin back to Mazamet. Back home about 5:30 p.m. , where do the days go, we didn't even visit the other two towns on the list for today!

Pezenas was the chosen destination for Thursday the 20th. We had all heard of it as many friends and family have visited. Go to key in Pezenas into the GPS, doesn't accept. Try Beziers, a very large City nearby, doesn't even let us key it in. What's going on? It's overcast....do you think that could affect it? Try Montagnac...it works. Still questioning why it's not accepting the other two places that are larger in size. Aren't computers frustrating when they don't work. We even tried resetting and still no Pezenas. We agree that Robin has the best theory....they must have missed this little section of France in their mapping. Perhaps the mapping people had too much wine with their lunch! Gosh, we might have to use a map!

Brenda and Robin in Pezenas

As you can see by the picture above, we did make it to Pezenas. Had lunch at a small "salon de the" and the waitress was quite delightful. Robin noticed some gentlemen eating sausage and lentils next to him, so he said he would like to order that. I ask the waitress if it is possible to only have the entree of "Le plat du jour". In France, all restaurants offer a plat du jour and there are usually three prices listed. A little confusing the first time you see it, but it was explained to me by a restaurant owner in Albi. The highest price listed is for a soup or salad, with a main entree and desert. The second lower price is for the main entree with either the soup/salad or the desert. The last and lowest price is simply for the main entree. At this restaurant there was only two prices. So when I told the waitress that Robin only wanted the entree, she said the desert was included. I asked Robin if he wanted the desert, he said no. I relay this to the waitress, she says, then Madame will have the desert! We had the desert with three forks! Music in the background is Johnny Cash and Elvis.

Pezenas is a relatively small town , which is classified as "one of the most singularly beautiful towns in the French southwest". Beautiful ancient architecture and certainly a centre for arts and crafts. The narrow streets are filled with hand made goods of artisans such as leather goods, leaded glass, handmade toys, clothing, etc. The town was very busy with tourists and we spent an enjoyable few hours simply walking through the old streets looking into art galleries and shops.

Got home to see the news of the floods in and around Calgary, quite something. Mark and Susan, our kind friends and neighbours have been watching over our home and Mark went over to plug our drains in the basement. Our niece Nicole went over to take any important papers to safety. A big thank you to the three of you. Woke up Friday morning to find out our neighbourhood in Calgary had been evacuated. All of our friends in the neighbourhood are safe and bunking in with other friends or family in the City. Thinking of everyone back in Calgary and surrounding area. Flooding in southern France as well, but closer to St.Tropez, so not affecting us.

This weekend most towns and villages in the area are celebrating " vide greenier - empty the hay lofts". This is their summer celebration of bringing in the first crop. When driving around, we have noticed that the farmers are already planting a second crop. We are told that there will be bands playing at several street corners and in the town square.

Headed to the small town of Rennes-Le- Chateau, about 1 1/2 hours south of Mazamet for the day on Thursday. On the the way there, we stopped in Limoux for tea. Market day in Limoux and the cherries are in season, so we bought some, very tasty. Then onto Rennes-Le-Chateau an ancient abbey town, which is classified as the Languedoc's most intriguing site. In 1885, Father Berenger Sauniere, the new parish priest arrives in the town. Within the space of a few years he renovates several buildings and begins many construction projects. He had also started buying large tracts of land, placing the titles under the name of Marie Denardaud, the daughter of his housekeeper, sixteen years his junior. He built a luxurious home and beautiful gardens next to the church. He also renovated the church in a very garish style.

Statue from the church in Rennes Le Chateau

It is said that Father Sauniere and his consort, Marie gave generously to the local people and threw many parties, but kept a firm grip on the area. The church questioned where the money has come from. A rumour spread that the priest had discovered some sort of treasure. He was defrocked , but he continued the work on his villa and he continued to perform the sacraments in a chapel he built. He died in 1917 and she died in 1953. She refused to divulge where the money came from. It is believed that the priest found some ancient coins in digging up some graves. Due to these stories, the town attracted a steady string of treasure hunters. Also, due to the bizarre decor of the church it was thought to have symbolism and thought to have possible links to secret societies , the Templars, the Cathars and the Holy Grail. They say this was also an inspiration for Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code". Visited the church and museum. Believe it or not, the statue pictured here was inside the church. In all my years I have never seem something like this inside a church.

Stopped at "Le Jardin de Marie" for lunch. A beautiful garden setting, just beside the museum. Brenda and I had a glass of "blanquette de Limoux" a sparkling white wine that the area is known for. The production of this sparkling wine goes back to 1531. Blanquette means white in the Occitan language.

Off to Castres for the afternoon on Saturday. A walk around the various narrow streets, a peak at the gardens, we had seen them before, but Brenda had not, then off to find he Jean Jaures museum. He was born on Castres in 1859, was a writer, journalist and a member of parliament at 36 years of age. He was very concerned by social and economic issues of his day and participated in a local miners' strike, to defend workers rights. From then on, he became a spokesperson for the entire working class, trying to improve their rights . He founded a newspaper which allowed him to write about various socialist views he held. He was also a pacifist and supported Alfred Dreyfus (papillon), a young French soldier of Jewish descent who was wrongly accused of treason. Interesting to visit the Jaures museum.

Enjoying an afternoon sip of wine in Castres

Turned out to be a beautiful day, so sat out in the Castres town square and enjoyed some wine and enjoyed seeing all the young French people enjoying each others company. Anther lovely relaxing day. Out for a lovely dinner tonight and off to Barcelona in the morning.