Tag: Occitaine

We spent the weekend at the Yelloh in Montclar and had a most relaxing time although by Sunday night all the good beer had gone. That was not all my doing – there was a birthday party on the Saturday night and the attendees pretty much finished the draught beer off.

We were off to Limoux early on the Monday morning for a wine tour. Vanya had been able to organise another tour with Guinot Wine for 10.30 am. It was really informative and of course the actual tasting was enjoyable.

Our guide was named Eltonjean (he told us his father was a great fan of Elton John) and over about an hour and a half he introduced us to Guinot’s whole range of wines (and very good they are too). An hour and a half is not a lot of time to “Sacrifice” at a wine tasting and you could tell I didn’t drink a great deal because “I’m Still Standing”. In any event, I “Believe” I could have managed a great deal more and “I Guess That’s Why They Call This The Blues” that I’m now suffering from. This is utter nonsense and I should stop this and apologise but “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word”. Bloody hell, seems like I could go on forever. Truly sorry. Just a bit of fun.

We came away from Guinot much more knowledgeable regarding Cremant and Blanquette wines. All the Guinot wines are made using the traditional method (i.e. by hand) using Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and, peculiar to this region, the Mauzac grape varieties. Their Rose also has a little Pinot Noir. It is the mix of these grapes which tell the Cremant and Blanquette apart with Blanquette being predominantly Mauzac and the Cremant using considerably less. If I understood Eltonjean correctly, Cremant comes in at 12% and will keep a good 5 years. This is a feature of a good Cremant; like most Champagnes it will last (until such time as you open the bottle).

We came away too with a mixed case which included two bottles of their best wine and, yes, it is the same wine as the one we had been gifted by the owner last Saturday (i.e. the Cremant Imperial Tendre Boise). Sounds fanciful this but Vanya and I each consider it to be at least on a par with the Louis Roederer Crystal that we drank at Rohan’s graduation last year and at a fraction of the price. It could have been the atmosphere in the cellars that made us feel this way but we can put it to the test again when we return to the UK. Ironically and I discovered this much later, Guinot’s Cremant Imperial Tendre Boise and Louis Roederer Crystal were both favourites of Czar Nicholas II and both companies mention the Czar in their marketing. Not many people know that.

We had a good wander around Limoux before moving on…

This was a busy day. Finishing brunch at the Gruissan Marina, we set off for Limoux for a pre-arranged wine tour with Guinot Wine. Vanya had booked it over the Internet with the Limoux Tourist Office.

Having allowed plenty of time for our journey, Limoux is only an hour and a half away from Gruissan, we decided to call in on the UNESCO World Heritage site of Carcassonne. Almost fully restored during the 19th century by Eugene Viollet le Duc, Carcassonne is one of the most impressive walled cities in France. It has an almost fairy-tale appearance with it’s watch towers, imposing double walled fortifications and labyrinth of narrow winding passageways. It also has a fair share of history with the Romans having built fortifications here as early as 100BC. The city is perhaps best known however as a primary city of the Cathars until it was captured in 1209, during the Albigensian Crusades, by Simon de Montfort.

The downside of Carcassonne is, unless you choose both to visit during Winter and stay well away from the place at lunchtimes, you’ll more than likely find it packed with tourists. Because of the significant crowds we didn’t stay long but, if you haven’t seen the place (as was the case with Vanya), it is always worth a visit.

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We arrived at Guinot Wine with 5 minutes to spare only to learn that no tours take place at weekends because of the Corona issue. By chance the owner of Guinot Wine turned up at his office with a Finnish client as we arrived and it was he who gave us the bad news. The Tourist Office were remiss in booking us on a Saturday tour. He was very apologetic but said he could do nothing for us until Monday. Having said that, he gave us a bottle of his very best Cremant – seriously good it is too!

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There was nothing to do but find somewhere nice to stay – we settled on a Yelloh Campsite some 20 minutes away in the countryside at a place called Montcalm. Very nice that was too. We stayed for two days taking advantage of the hot weather and Yelloh’s swimming pool – it has both a slide and a bouncy castle!! The wine tour could wait until Monday and we’re already behind schedule for Greece – so what?!?

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I think I could live here. It seems to have everything – not that we stayed long enough to check everything out but, certainly, this is a place I would visit again and next time I would be taking a closer look at property prices..

I was getting tired after the journey from L’Escala not least because on top of the drive we had spent a few hours wandering around the stores in La Jonquera and so, instead of continuing to our target destination near Montpelier, we decided to overnight in Gruissan. Not sure as to why we picked this particular place but pleased we did.

Gruissan is an old fishing village, now a small town, situated on the Languedoc coast less than 10 miles from Narbonne and 70 miles from the Spanish border. It is full of contrasts comprising as it does the old circular village of Gruissan (Languedoc has a few of these circulades mostly dating from the 12th or 13th century) with its narrow little streets overlooked by the Barberousse Tower and; a newer area of apartments, restaurants and cafes built around a 1960’s marina which I am told can accommodate 1300 boats and; a number of fine sandy beaches of which the Plage de Chalets is perhaps the most original.

That’s not my photo above but it conveys how Gruissan is structured. You can see the old circular village in the foreground almost encircled by the lagoon. The grey smudge in the centre of the circulade is the Barberousse Tower. Top left of the photo is part of the 1960’s marina. There are actually two basins in the marina. The straight line along the top of the photo is the Plage de Chalets. As mentioned above, the Plage des Chalets is a most original and I should have added “picturesque” beach made up as it is of more than 1,300 old fashioned colourful holiday chalets, almost all of them built on stilts.

The place where we camped doesn’t feature in the photo. We were parked a few kilometres further up the beach at Les Ayguades Gruisson. That wasn’t to stop me heading for Gruissan “propre” that first afternoon/evening and I set off on Shanks’ Pony immediately after the Van was settled.

It was a fair walk in and very hot but there was a good cycle path that I used for most of the way and I reached the town in about 1.5 hours. I breezed through the marinas (promising to myself that I would bring Vanya in the next morning – she likes boats) and then around a large part of the lagoon (looking for potential photo opportunities) and finally on to my primary target – the old town and it’s tower.

Wandering around the old town was quite an experience. There were a surprising amount of people around and I was so totally immersed in watching them go about their daily business that I lost all track of time. I must have sat for quite a while musing over how little life has changed over the centuries in this place.

Eventually, I started towards the centre of the old town, easy when it is a circulade, and quickly found both the church (the 13th century Church of the Notre Dame of the Assumption) and right next to it the entrance to the ruin that is the Barberousse Tower.

There’s little left of the Barberousse Tower to look at but the views from the hill on which it sits are fine. The tower is all that remains of a 10th century castle built to help protect Narbonne (then a coastal town) from Moorish pirates. It was dismantled in the 16th Century on the orders of Cardinal Richelieu.

Finding a place in the centre of a circulade is easy; you simply keep going in. Finding your way out at the correct point of the circle is nowhere near as easy. I came out at the opposite side of the circle to the one I wanted and it took me more than half an hour to correct that mistake but I figured there was just enough time to get to the other side of the lagoon for a couple more photos…

Running very late, I had to jog most of the way back and it was after 8pm when I finally arrived back at the Van. Gosh I needed a drink!

Next morning we drove to the marina for something to eat. We enjoyed brunch in the sunshine and then walked a while; exercising the dogs before we retraced our steps west to visit the town of Limoux. Vanya wanted to find out more about Cremant wine. I admit I was looking forward to that too.

Limoux, here we come.

I said once before (while doing my 4-5 month tour of the Balkans) that driving around in a motor-home or camper-van, call it what you will, is not so much an extended holiday (although it may appear as such) as a long series of Saturdays. The fact is certain chores need to be completed from time to time and it was this that brought us to an AirBandB in Labistide-Marnhac for two days and nights. This was that “Saturday” when we had to catch up with our chores. Vanya wanted her hair done. I needed to start catching up with my Website entries although I’m so far behind it will not happen in the one go. The Boomobile needs a bloody good clean too but that one will have to wait. It is after all a Saturday and not a work day.

The place we selected, an Equestrian Centre (the owner trains horses but, it seems, more for Eventing and in particular Dressage than racing) is very quiet and seriously remote. It took us a while to get to the place and not for the first time I had to reverse the Van out of lanes that I should not have contemplated going down in the first place.

It was clean and it comfortable and it served it’s purpose but, bloody hell, I do not want to go through another two days like it again. Nala, bless her, was suffering badly from sickness and diarrhoea. She woke me up constantly to go outside and, well, to cut a long horrible story short, I didn’t always wake up in time and nor did I bring any slippers on this tour. Add to this that while Vanya and I were cleaning up, Beanie would go walkabouts outside in the dark and… you can imagine!

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Still, it is over now and we are back on the road. We had to spend our last morning cleaning up the gite and I had to substitute a door mat with one of my own from the Van (Fortunately, Lidl door mats are the same the world over!!) but like I said we are back on the road.

We’re on our way to Saint Jean Pied de Port.

Cahors is cracking; even on a typical French Sunday when, except for the occasional local market, just about everything shuts. Almost enfolded by a loop of the River Lot (a bit like the Isle of Dogs in London) it is a very compact town easily explored on foot. We stopped off here for a brief look and some lunch on our way to our chill out gite in Labastide-Marnhac and we saw pretty much everything within just a few hours. Having said that, the place is worth revisiting again and again.

A confession before I carry on. Vanya is correct; I do have a thing about bridges. Not all bridges but, bridges with history and/or character and you only need a glimpse of La Pont Valentre (aker Pont du Diable – see my footnote below) with its three towers to know that Cahors has an absolute cracker of a bridge…

Built during the period 1308 to 1380 and restored in the 19th century it was the first medieval fortified bridge in France and it is a great example of medieval defensive design with its crenellated parapets, battlements and pointed arches. More photos I hear you say…

I have plenty more photos of La Pont Valentre but Cahors is not just about its bridges. It is another of those lovely French towns with an old quarter of narrow cobbled streets and timber framed buildings packed with quaint bars and restaurants. Cahors old quarter is dominated by the Cathedrale St Etienne which I’m reliably informed was the first cathedral in the country to have cupolas giving it a Romanesque – Byzantine feel…

Lunch was a shared platter – easy and very tasty…

… and I cannot forget to mention Cahors wine, where the focus is on the Malbec grape (and of course I purchased a few bottles) but, the final word goes to the town’s landmark bridge…

… how the PONT DU DIABLE gained it’s name: Le Pont du Diable took more than 70 years to be built and it is said that the builder responsible for the final stages was so far behind that he did a deal with the devil so as to complete within the terms of his contract. He traded his soul in exchange for the devil’s help but then cheated the devil. He gave the devil a sieve with which to carry water for the final batch of mortar and, as the water kept draining away, the final stone was never laid. The builder thereby saved his soul because technically the bridge was never finished.