A New Adventure in France

When we’re not travelling further afield from our base, wherever that is at the time, we tend to do walks that are more local to us. For the last couple of years we’ve used a very good app – Visorando – that gives you details of all nearby walks, graded by difficulty, length, etc. The walks are generally based around a local point of interest, a village or some special fetaure of the area. We can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of underwhelming walks we’ve done and we’ve generally enjoyed them all.

Two recent walks have been particularly scenic and interesting. The first was based around the village of Montolieu and the Saint Roch chapel high on the hill above it. We rarely see other people on our walks but, as we approached the chapel, we found ourselves in the middle of an army orienteering exercise of some kind, with the soldiers poring over maps before setting off. Fortunately they didn’t seem at all interested in our presence. Further along we came across a working party, not felons doing hard labour community service as Joe suggested, but volunteers who were rebuilding a dry stone wall and making a good job of it. When we do come across other people we try and engage in some conversation and later in the walk we came across a lady wine-grower, cutting back her vines in a pretty drastic way. Joe had been musing a few days earlier how much they prune back the vines over the winter, so we asked the question. As it turned out, this wine maker was cutting off all branches and foliage as the vines were past their peak and were going to be grubbed up and replanted. Presumably she was cutting the vines right back so the wood could be sold separately for firewood – it’s supposed to be popular as a barbecue wood and can be used to smoke meat. We were interested to see her using pneumatic pruning secateurs with an air line attached. What hard work it must have been before those tools were available.

The village of Montolieu is beautiful from a distance and also very interesting close up. It is known as the ‘Village du Livre’ because of the number of bookshops – between 15 and 20 – specialising in second-hand and antiquarian books. On the edge of the village by the river stands the former ‘Manufacture Royal’, a factory established by royal decree in 1739 to produce woollen textiles for military clothing and blankets, one of 12 such factories in the Languedoc region. Today the buildings are used for holiday accommodation and artist workshops. We’ve seen vending machines for bread and pizzas in other locations, but in Montolieu the organic vegetable producers have set up a vending machine to sell their wares. Each compartment contains a selection of vegetables – cost about 10 euros – for your eveneing meal or casserole.

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A recent walk from the small village of Laurac probably ranks as the most stunningly scenic of all the walks we have done, although photographs simply cannot do any justice to the magnificence and splendour of the views, all enhanced by beautiful autumnal colours. The walk description said there were views to take the breath away (as well as the uphill stints) and it did not disappoint. Despite being a small and sleepy village now, Laurac was another Cathar stronghold and has been politically important at various times as well. The original settlement was a wooden stronghold on a hill, with satellite strongholds nearby and the landscape all around the village has remains of what would look like iron age settlements in the UK. The views unfolded as we left the village and gave a wonderful panaorma over the plain, the Montagne Noire, The Pyrenees and beyond. At the peak we met a local man who was keen to talk, rather than us having to accost him. A retired teacher, he was proud to say that he could enjoy the fabulous view every day and, on hearing that we were English, he suggested that our PM should come and get some fresh air there – sounds like good advice – for Boris and M. Macron.