Languedoc (Sam)

On Saturday we left the cold and rain in Auvergne in search of warmer weather in Languedoc. The Motorway was amazing. It hugged cliff sides as it climbed up gorges, and then crested hills with views over the plains for hundreds of miles. On our way south we got to cross the Millau Viaduct: one of the tallest bridges in the world, and certainly the tallest in France (although it was designed by an Englishman). Our gite here is great. It is really big, in a nice town and only a short walk from the bakery. Since the owners are British, we get British T.V.   As I write I am watching the England vs France football (soccer) match on i.t.v. So far it’s not looking good for England.

Sunday was the town’s “Vide grenier” kind of like a big town garage sale. People had set up shop right outside our window, and since the main floor is at ground level, with no front yard and the house has a big “For Sale” sign on it, there were people looking in our window all day long. It was very weird.

Later that day my dad and I went for a bike ride with the bikes that came with the gite.

Well, our attempt to find better weather seems to have been futile as today (Monday), was wet, windy and cold. Luckily our destination today was nice even with the rain. We went to the medieval city of Carcassonne. The city is on top of a hill and it is surrounded by not one, but two rings of ramparts with a combined 52 towers. It was so well built that no one dared to attack it. What a shame seeing as they built the second ring of ramparts and thickened the walls to defend from the Spanish who never came. With the weather as such we had the place to ourselves, (not even the shop owners to keep us company). The French store hours are very hard to understand).

Where we are staying there are vineyards everywhere and olive and almond trees growing on the side of the road. It is very strange.  Although I do not recommend eating raw olives off the tree because they taste so bitter I thought they might be poisonous. They are much better after soaking in whatever they soak them in. They’re also good on bread, and in pizza (mmmmm…)

On Wednesday we went to a pretty town called Minerve. They had a big gorge and in the side of the rock was a giant entrance to a cave that passed under the cliff to the other side of gorge (The gorge does a U-turn).