The French Countryside

One of the delightful perks of exploring southern France is that you never have to go far to discover a picturesque little village.  Take any road and you'll spot a huge stone house, a castle turret, the spire of a cathedral or a roman ruin that needs exploring. We'd often start off for a destination half an hour away and arrive a couple of hours later as we'd always find something fascinating on the way.

SETE

Just a half hour drive southwest from Montpellier where the Rhone river meets the Mediterrean Sea is the lovely town of Sete.  The river bank is lined by lovely old apartment houses, cafes and restaurants, and of course a boat for every slip.  Just a block in are rows of shops (Pat and I both bought shoes for 15 Euro) and a large open park where you can sit and watch the flea market vendors, enjoy a beverage and listen to the laughter of the children on the ornately carved merry-go-round.

THE LOVELY TOWN OF SETE

A MERRY-G0-ROUND FOR EVERY TOWN

LE GRAU-DE-ROI

A half hour southeast of Montpellier lies the interesting beach town of Le Grau-de-Roi.  With wide sandy beaches, walking streets filled with small shops and stalls, seaside restaurants serving crepes and buckets of mussels accompanied by local wines, and catamarans offering harbour cruises, this town has something for everyone.  The town is small enough that you could do it all in a day, and we did.

HOMECOMING

THE VILLAGE LIGHTHOUSE

Old meets new in Grau du Roi.  After lunching on crepes and wine while looking at the boats sailing in and out of the harbour, we then hopped on a catamaran to view the modern condos being build all along the sea.

THE MODERN SEASIDE

SAND SCULPTOR AT WORK

The beach was fairly crowded for a mid-week in May.  As this is a tourist town with lots of rentals, I can just imagine how crowded it will be in the high season.

LAROQUE

Having missed our turn on the way to our lovely cottage in Montoulieu, we stumbled across the medieval village of Laroque and stopped to watch the people playing and fishing in the river. An absolutely stunning little village, it became one of our favorite stops on our way into Ganges to do our grocery shopping.

LAROQUE BY THE RIVER

 LAROQUE CONDOS - MEDIEVAL STYLE

We would stop to wander the narrow streets, ducking through low portals or climbing up the hillside to see what was around the next corner.

Of course, we could also stop at one of the cafes along the dam to try the local wines.  France has many, many good local vintages and it would take years to sample them all.  So many choices, so little time.

THE DUCHY OF UZES

Our landlady, Danielle, suggested we might want to travel to Uzes on a Saturday to experience the market.  Uzes was originally established in Roman times (1st Century) as an administrative center to oversee the building and operation of an aqueduct to bring water to Nimes.  Over the next few centuries it came under the control of Jewish Scholars and then the Archbishop of Narbonne, before becoming part of the royal peerage in 1088 (with a lot of history and bloody battle between, I'm sure).  In the 1600's the title of First Duke of France was bestowed on Uzes, and the Duke's castle is still reigning over the centre of the town.

THE DUKE'S CASTLE IN UZES

Uzes is known for it's market, which takes over the streets on Saturdays and goes on for many blocks in all directions.  Stalls filled with fresh produce, cured meats and local cheeses (and of course wines) line the streets.  Uzes has historically been known for its fabric makers, and silks and local woven goods are in abundance on market day.  Unfortunately our suitcases are filled to bursting, so we were unable to pick up any of the tempting fabrics, table cloths, bed covers, scarves, etc.

Pat did have her first encounter with one of the gypsy merchants in Uzes.  She stopped to buy a 5E watch, and when she handed the merchant a 10E note he showed her another watch that she had supposedly dropped and broken, so he wanted to keep the 10E.  It quite upset her as he was yelling at her in French and I was yelling back in English and calling for the Gendarmie while trying to grab her 10E out of his hand.  After some more yelling and gestulating we finally got her money back (but not the watch). As we were walking away we saw the woman who had supposedly witnessed Pat drop the watch knock another one off the table for the next unsuspecting tourist.  My poor sister is going to have to get a little more hardened in her travels.  Oh well, another adventure and another story to tell.  And just a little dark blot on the delightful Duchy of Uzes.

AN UNKNOWN VILLAGE

On our drive back from Uzes, we spotted some fairy tale like turrets evoking visions of Cinderella's castle off to the side and took a detour to explore a small village.  I'm not sure what it was called, but we spent a magical hour exploring it's streets - not another person in sight.

WHERE FORE ART THOU ROMEO

Every building was covered with colorful rosebushes.  The one above looked like it had been placed for climbing up to the balcony - an illicit nighttime visit perhaps.  The one below added beauty to a cracked and weathered doorway.

A ROSEBUSH FOR EVERY DOORWAY

The patinas on the buildings, shutters and doorways were spectacular and made me wish I was a talented artist.  I could see myself wearing a beret and sitting with an easel while trying to reproduce the colours in oil.

BEAUTIFUL PATINAS ON EVERY DOORWAY

BEST GARAGE EVER

At the start of our tour we were picked up by one of the locals who decided to guide us through the streets, waiting patiently as we stopped to take pictures and comment on the multi-coloured roses at every doorway.  A double for the old TV dog 'the littlest hobo', he led us out of town, then walked us around the outskirts to find our car.  Once he made sure we were safely back where we belonged, he gave us a final wag and returned to wherever he had come from.

PAT AND HER GUIDE - 'THE LITTLEST HOBO'

Finally finding a spot to snap a picture of the turrets that had drawn us to the village in the first place.  We think this might actually be a private estate.  I had to laugh when I checked my shot and discovered I had been 'photobombed'. A perfect end to our exploration of a magical unknown village.

PHOTOBOMBED!