A New Adventure in France

Well this has been the last week of this stint of our travels, before we head back to the UK for boring admin issues and important booster vaccines. Important because we’ll have to be able to show proof of those for travel, going in restaurants and public places, in France at least. On another crisp sunny day we headed out for a final day out to another of the Plus Beaux Villages de France at Minerve in the Hérault department. Our route took us through lovely garrigue scrubland scenery and the Minervois vineyards, the vines now bare of their leaves. Minerve is another former Cathar stronghold where Cathars took refuge after the sacking of Béziers and the massacre of 7,000 inhabitants in 1209. Unfortunately Minerve also succumbed to Simon de Montfort in 1210. The village is particularly striking, standing on a mound between the gorges carved out over 56 million years by the Cesse and Brian rivers. A castle previously existed at this site but only the remains of the north buttress are now visible. Houses cling to the cliffs and some sit on precarious ledges that have been eroded over time by the work of the rivers. On this December day the village was completely deserted apart from 2 or 3 other visitors.

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The Aude is another region that we’ve enjoyed exploring and in our last few days here we’ve been treated to some wonderful sunrises over the Canal du Midi and adjacent fields. As we came over a hill on a drive back to the house on our last day here we had the wonderful sight of the majestic snow-capped mountains appearing in the far distance. We were only there in that area a few weeks ago, but how different they looked now.

So we will be signing off temporarily but plan to be back in Europe towards the end of January to explore other parts. Stay well and safe!