From Beziers To St. Chinian
Sunday 23rd November. A special day for me as it is my daughters birthday. No I will not say how old she is suffice to say she is old enough to have produced 2 lovely sons. I know I am biased but they are great boys and I do miss them a lot. We miss all of the family but although we do not live near we are still close.
Anyway a birthday near or far is a good reason to celebrate a little bit. We celebrated by driving to St. Chinian. It was a bright and blustery day (there is that bear again) and the drive which is not far goes through some interesting little places. After the village of Maureilhan, a small pretty place ,we arrived at Puisserguier. It did not look very interesting until we got out of the car and had a walk around . We saw a 12th century castle and a Romanesque church. Maybe if it had not been sunday we would have browsed in the little shops. Continuing on our way we reached Cebazan. We felt impelled to take a photo of a painting on the side of a house. This lead to a debate, subject. Was it a mural? or was it trompe l’oeil? 
After some discussion we decided in our opinion the large painting was a mural and the small one was more like trompe l’oeil. It was necessary to make haste so that we would arrive at St Chinian before the market closed.
St Chinian is not a big town but it can get very busy. It is well known for the Cave des Vignerons which sells the A.O.C. (Appellation d’Origine Controlee) wines gathered from the surrounding villages. There are many varieties of wine and I am sure that some of you reading this will have a far greater knowledge than I do. Suffice to say I know what I like. When we did arrive at the market it was still in full flow and after wandering around we made a couple of purchases. Cheese, surprise surprise fancy buying cheese in France. Actually it was a surprise because one cheerful stall holder was selling cheddar cheese. Not the plastic wrapped variety but a whole truckle (why can’t I find that word in a dictionary?) he also had some Blue Stilton or as he said Stilton Bleu . He was fun to be with for a few minutes as he practised his language skills, German with the lady at the front of the queue, Spanish with the next gentleman and then English with us. To coin a phrase “Didn’t he do well”. We also bought some hot chestnuts off another cheery chap who was delighted when I asked permission to take his photo.
By this time we had worked up an appetite for lunch so we looked around for somewhere to eat. We selected a bar restaurant called de la Paix. Not special, not expensive but warm and welcoming. Starters, main course and dessert all for 20 euros. Each plate had something to recommend it but I must admit my dessert of mint-choc chip icecream with creme de menthe could easily have pushed me over the drink drive limit. We naturally had to have wine with our meal and we chose a La Madura not one we had tried before but one we will have again if we see it.
After the meal and a stroll with Peete it was time to return home,not because it was late but sometimes a “petit sieste” is definitely called for. 
What have we got planned? we don’t know. Whatever we do I will let you all know. ttfn
Tags: Cebazan, Maureilhan, Puisserguier, St Chinian