France April 2012 ( 2nd )

BIZE MINERVOIS

We had a lot of good times visiting Deb and the interesting places in and around her village.

Bize Minervois nestles beside the Cesse River. The hills around have dark green pine trees which give their name to the Black Mountains and the many vineyards produce wine of the Languedoc Roussillon.

The River Cesse flowing through Bize.

Walking by the river in the sunshine

Around town

The butchers shop

Deb’s courtyard is a picture, so French with blue shutters, wisteria and iris in bloom.

While on our walk along the river Deb met a fellow who is the oyster shucker at a bar on the outskirts of Bize, he said fresh oysters from the Sete were being sold that night. Early in the evening we drove down and joined the crowds of oyster lovers.

They were the biggest oysters I have ever seen

Kevin was ready to tuck in.

After a couple of reds I tried Oysters Natural the first and last time leaving Kevin 11 fat oysters to enjoy.



NARBONNE

We went with Deb to Narbonne and had our photos taken on the canal de la Robine which connects to the Canal du Midi. You can tell it is warmer No Hats!

Then we visited the cathedral buildings and were impressed with the floor made of an amazing bright red marble mined in the south here.

Narbonne was established 118 BC and located on the Via Domitia  the first Roman Road in Gaul connecting Italy to Spain. The road was uncovered during some building in the centre of town.

  Next we visited the market hall. Outside was a sign about the disease that is affecting the Plane trees along the Canal du Midi. It is very serious and as the sign says it is almost at the doors of Narbonne. The trees are world heritage listed about 6000 of them. All the diseased trees have to be totally removed to stop the spread. It has been tracked back to the wooden cases arriving in ships in Marseille which were packed with American rifles for the WW2 .

 It was fun strolling around checking out the various stalls. We bought some good looking Gorgonzola from one of the many stalls with wonderful cheeses, drooled over the variety of olives on sale

then made our way to the butchery section. What an eye opener, the yellow chickens, I think they were corn fed.

the Offal stall, UGH!!, hard to imagine eating some of the offerings. Tongue I can perhaps imagine eating but the boned head of a calf is beyond my imaginings.

The Cheval butchery caught our eye

Opposite the Chevaline Butcherie was Chez Bebelle 

As it was time for lunch we lined up at the bar waiting for a place. We gave our order with Kevin trying the Cheval steak. 

 What fun watching the orders go out while waiting. Obviously a speciality of the bar about a third of the orders were for Steak Tartare either beef or cheval. The pile of raw meat was amazing in size with a raw egg cracked on top and served with chips and other unknown condiments. The Cheval butcher was kept busy as the waiter yelled across the aisle and next minute a parcel of raw mince was thrown over the heads of the sitting diners into the hands of the chef and put straight on a plate ready to serve.

A customer tucking into Steak Tartare

Ongelet was another speciality and this order was shouted up to the beef butcher on the other side. Deb looked this up on the web and it is an amazing cheap cut of meat which must be very tasty judging from the other third of the orders.

Deb and I along with the last third ordered very safe chicken or lamb brochettes. Served with our meals was a pile of chips cooked in some sort of beef fat and were very tasty, reminding us of the days when our mothers cooked in salty dripping before we all went healthy and changed to vegetable oil. There was a healthy salad on our plates as well to calm the cholesterol police.

GRUISSAN

Leaving here we were whisked away to the Mediterranean seaside at Gruissan. The castle ruins across the lake at Gruissan 

Before heading to the beach we climbed the path to the castle ruins on the hill for a wonderful view over the medieval town across the marinas full of boats and out to the Med. And yes that is Kevin still in his woolly beanie.

Which house is yours? The one with the red tiles!!! 

Gruissan was a fishing village famous for its houses on stilts lining the shores of the Mediterranean, about 1300 of them, now it has become a holiday village on the Med.

Never in my wildest dreams as a teenager did I think I would one day be drinking coffee at a cafe on the Mediterranean.

Today we went to a Vide Grenier, translating to empty out the attic. I found a couple of treasures which will have my children groaning when they read this, Kevin found a little saw which he needed to complete putting the skylight in. What every good cook should have, a carving set with deer feet handles!

 We called into winery to sample their wares and bought some very nice Syrah (Shiraz) and a great St Jean de Minorvois Muscat to drink while  resting our feet tonight.

MINERVE

The Languedoc region was a stronghold of Catharism and makes interesting bloodthirsty reading of the times here in the middle ages, another side to the story of the Crusades.

We have been reading about the Cathars and have visited Beziers and Carcasonne when we were cruising the Midi in 2002 so now we are driving to another Cathar Castle at Minerve. It is a fortress perched on cliff top surrounded by river gorges of the Cesse which have carved out very high cliffs almost totally surrounding the town.

The Low entrance walk is along the river bed and through a cave system to come out at the foot of the cliff, then a climb up through the South gate into the town.

 

The high road entrance is along a narrow part of the cliff top and into the town.

 All the buildings are in stone and the pathways are cobbled. There are lots of interesting pathways through the town and the rampart houses on the walls are where the artists have their shops. Other shops and museums are on the Rue de Martyrs.

This courtyard is a picture.

I love the way trees can grow out of nothing.

Minerve was besieged in 1210 by Simon de Monfort and taken when their water supply was captured. The Cathars who escaped when Beziers and Carcasonne were sacked in the crusades and sheltered in Minerve would not renounce their faith and were burnt at the stake. The feeling when you walk along the Rue de Martyrs following where the Cathars walked down to the river bed to be burnt at the stake in is truly creepy.

Now it is time to leave Bize Minervois and the Cathars and head off to Toulouse to more modern things. We are off to do the tour of the Airbus 380 Complex. We flew on Qantas from Singapore to Heathrow.in a 380 and it was very comfortable even in cattle class.