The Beziers Blog

 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. 

  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