Driving towards the Haut-Languedoc.
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
As you can see the garden is now reasonably tidy and everything is beginning to grow. The weather forecast did not look promising so we made the most of Tuesday and headed for the hills.Leaving Beziers on the road towards St Pons, passing by the new spring colours on the trees and noticing that the grape vines were beginning to have little green tips on them lakes or hills that was the question. Why not both as there is a lovely drive through the forest called Foret Somail.
It took us about 25 minutes to reach St Chinian and a further half hour to get to St Pons where we followed the D907 to the Lac du Vezoles. It was not cold but as you can see from the photos it was cloudy in places. Certainly not enough to deter the fishermen,who we think were angling for trout. There is a bridge there that crosses over the end of the lake and it was a good spot to let Peete (the dog) have a run and answer the call of nature. It was also fresh enough to increase our appetites in expectation of the lunch we were hoping to get.
We had visited the area before and found a restaurant called Auberge La Resse and were keeping our fingers crossed that it would be open. Before getting to the restaurant which is just outside the village of La Salvetat the road rises above said village and it was possible to take a photo overlooking the village. Carrying on we were delighted to find the restaurant open, and welcoming. After perusing the carte we all decided on the 23 euros menu, entree,plat,fromage et dessert. Of course a demi pichet of wine and coffes to finish. The photo shows Lamya with an entrcote steak and Geoff with a very large plate of veal which had been cooked to perfection in a very nice sauce. I could quite easily have curled up in a corner and gone to sleep but it was necessary to continue our drive. We realised that we had climbed a long way up to La Salvetat but it was still a surprise to see daffodils and violets in full bloom when ours had finished weeks ago.
After leaving the restaurant we went into La Salvetat itself.In the 12th century the village was moved from the valley on to a rocky spur hopefully to flee the many wars of that time.The name derives from “A place of Salvation”. The village has undergone a lot of architectural modifications (demolition of fortifications) over the years but some vestiges still exist.The portanelle (small door in Occitan) and the well in the donjon square are two of these. After the 1st world war many people left the area and its main income now comes from tourism and agriculture. if you look carefully you will see the sign for take away fish and chips (How much?) which I think shows the tourist influence very well. We met some of the residents chatting in the afternoon sun when we walked around and they were very friendly and sociable even making a fuss of Peete. The lady in the touriste office was also very helpful and pointed us in the right direction to find English lierature about the village. (Useful for this blog.)
We drove home via Olargues where I took some photos to whet your appetites for a blog in the future. Until then may I take this oppurtunity to wish you all a peaceful Easter. Maybe I will meet some off you at sometime. 
