Languedoc Trip Diary, Part 1
Added 6 June 2010. Pictures and stories from our trip to the Languedoc-Rousillon region of France, from May 15 to May 25, 2010.
We had some trouble deciding where to go on our spring vacation, that wouldn't be too expensive, the wasn't somewhere we'd been before, etc. We resisted this one somewhat because it was France again, but the region is pretty attractively priced, and the fact is we love France. So to heck with it; that's what we went with.
We booked a package with the Great Canadian Travel company that included a week's accommodations, a car rental, and a two-hour wine course. We were given some flight options as well, but in the end, we booked that ourselves, as all the options offered us seemed to involve early morning flights, which would have required leaving at 2:00 in the morning, or so, to allow time for drive, car return, and international. Ugh.
Booking it ourselves proved a little complicated, though. (Be so much simpler if we had no budget limits.) At one point I was about ready to despair and give up. But Jean persisted and came up with a reasonably priced option: Air Transat flight to Paris, then switch to EasyJet for a flight to Toulouse. As both were at the same airport and there was a good gap between flights, it seemed safe. The only problem was on the return. Air Transat doesn't fly every day, so we'd either have to leave early, or add a day in Paris. After some discussion (since this is also meant having to go back to work the very next day after arriving), we went with that.
We booked our Paris accommodations ourselves, using Expedia.
Saturday, May 15 — Leaving
Of course, all of this was booked before the volcano eruption became such news. So that added a layer of worry to the whole thing. (Jean was more worried we wouldn't get there; I was more concerned about not being to get back.) And although there was some volcanic activity on our travel (the very first bit of news we heard in our rental car was about that), it didn't affect us. And to save the suspense, we weren't affected on the way back, either.
So happily, there isn't much to report about the trip there, as it all went well. We got to the airport on time, the flight left on time. We had some concerns about the luggage weight (especially after witnessing another passenger having to divest of stuff to meet the requirements), but both bags passed muster, in the end.
The seats are narrow on Air Transat, but we managed to sleep some anyway. And before that, the meal they served was actually OK.
Sunday, May 16 — Arriving
Our transfer to the other airline was equally fine. We did have to switch terminals, but you can actually walk between terminals there. We were in plenty of time—too early to actually check in our luggage right away. We had a little lunch, checked the bags then (after switching around some items to balance the weight between the two better), and go on the Easy Jet flight. It didn't have assigned seats, but we were able to sit together. And we just slept the whole way.
At Toulouse airport, we picked up our car, and programmed our GPS. It took some adjusting—setting it to the French voice to not get weird English pronunciation of French names, using the fastest route option (which caused some problems later, but was OK at this point), but ultimately, it got us to our B&B with minimal detours.
We were quite happy with the accommodations. It was in a lovely little town (Espéraza), we had a very large room (for Europe) with a balcony and a good view. (No TV in the room, but that was fine. French TV isn't so hot anyway.) The place was owned by a British couple who were very friendly and gave good travel tips. This day, they greeted us with a choice of three local wines. Both the rosé I had and Jean's "award-winning" Syrah were very good.
Our B&B in Espéraza
The view from our B&B
The first piece of advice we wanted were suggestions on where to eat in town. He listed four places that should be open on a Sunday: A pizzeria, a creperie, a family-run French restaurant, and another restaurant associated with the Dinosaur museum in town. (Bones had been discovered here.)
We had decided on the French restaurant, only to find it wasn't actually open Sundays. So, we went to the T-Rex restaurant instead, which literally has a big tree in the middle of it. While not a stellar meal, it's actually pretty decent. For the first of what will be many times during this trip, we had duck as the main course.
We managed to stay awake until about 10:00, then drifted off to sleep. As I predicted, we both awoke around 2:00 AM for a while, but managed to fall back asleep and get up in time for our 8:30 breakfast. (At this B&B, we were able to have whatever breakfast time we requested.)
Monday, May 17—Mirepoix, Aix-les-Thermes, Andorra, and more
At breakfast we met a couple from Spain and man from Yorkshire who were also staying at the B&B. We got some advice on the drive we were considering—that it might be a little over-ambitious. But also that this morning was market day in Mirepoix.
Mirepoix was about an hour's drive away, so we decided to start with that. The GPS made it pretty simple to get there, and it was a pretty cool market. Naturally, there was all kinds of delicious-looking fresh food, but there were also booksellers, clothing vendors, leather goods, jewelry, and so on.
Market day in Mirepoix
We first made the rounds of the stalls, then came back for the items that had particularly struck us. Having lost a couple necklaces on our Indiana trip, I had in mind to look for replacements. I did buy a pretty crystal heart-shaped pendant and matching earrings. Then I also tried on—in the back of a truck!—this Bohemian-looking dress. It seemed to fit well enough, and for 10 Euros, why not?
We also tasted and bought a couple types of local cheese. And it's good we did get to taste before buying, because although delicious, we basically forgot to eat any after buying, and ended up having to throw it out! A shame.
It was around noon when we finished “marketing,” so we decided to have lunch. (We had been warned about the fact that mealtimes in this region were strictly noon-2:00 for lunch and 7:00-9:00 for dinner.) We went for the moules et frites, which is always a solid choice when you're in the vicinity of water.
We then went to Ax les Thermes, a city known for its hot springs. We didn't actually sit and soak our weary bones, though, because we didn't really want to pay the hourly fee required to do so. (Plus, at this point, we didn't really weary bones yet.) Jean was particularly taken with the rapids running through this town, bringing to mind his newly purchased blue canoe. So we walked around the village getting different views of that.
Rapids running through Ax les Thermes
The gentleman from Yorkshire we met at breakfast had told us that the drive to Andorra was spectacular, so we decided to go for that next. The road there was incredibly twisty, but was indeed spectacular. (I thought, for the first time of many on this trip, that it's very good neither of us are prone to motion sickness.)
Twisty but gorgeous drive to Andorra
We had our passports with us, but the “border” crossing was really just a wave-through. And Andorra itself was kind of a cross between a ski resort and an Indian reserve, in that there was all these ski facilities there, but also many big stores where you could buy booze and cigarettes. (We checked on other items also, but they didn't seem to be the good deal that booze and cigarettes were.)
Andorra proper
Having had our fill of that, we left Andorra, and the reverse border crossing was nearly as simple. (Though we did spot another couple whose car was being searched—apparently there is some limit to just how much booze and cigarettes you get.)
Our next stop was Liivia, a former Spanish town that had always resisted becoming French. Indeed, it still had all its signage in Spanish, which is apparently tolerated by the French government. We parked on the main street there, and walked into the town to see an old church there.
After that, we drove to the walled city of Mont Louis (a Unesco world heritage site), thinking we might have supper there. It was a cool-looking place, worthy of some photos.
Entering Mont Louis
But when we started looking at restaurants, we noticed a common pattern: They all seemed to be closed. Not permanently; just as a Monday thing.
There was one on the main road that was open, but when we entered, so did a large bus tour of people. That, coupled with the fact that it kind of smelled like cigarettes, made us decide to heads for the hills instead.
Did I say hills? Maybe more like cliffs. While targeting our B&B as the destination, our GPS had us on these twisty, narrow roads, sometimes close to an edge. There was no driving quickly on them, of course. The GPS's at first optimistic estimates of when we'd reach a city with restaurants gradually increased to more realistic timelines. We were inching ever closer to past 9:00. The supper window was closing! And I was hungry!
This made for a fairly silent, somewhat tense drive. But we did get into the reasonably sized town of Quillan just as the 9:00 hour was approaching. If nothing else, we figured we'd be able to get a pizza, but we decided to try for the Pierre Lys, a restaurant that had been recommended in this town. Although we did arrive slightly after 9:00, they agreed to seat us. Oof!
Though this wouldn't prove to be the best supper of the trip, it was the one we were most grateful to have at all. And it wasn't bad. Just a bit more of the traditional saturated fat than we really needed.
So that was a big first day. We got back and pretty much went to bed.
Tuesday, May 18—Carcassonne and Lagrasse
I hadn't mentioned the breakfast food, but it was very good: Always a big fruit salad, various cereals and granolas, fresh pastries, various breads, and good bodum coffee. It seemed to leave me full, yet totally ready for lunch during the “critical lunch window.” And the second day, we spoke to the Spanish couple again (we'd speak in French), and found out they were planning a trip to Canada later in the summer!
Today we decided to go to Carcassonne, which is the second-most visited city in France, after Paris. That was a surprising fact to me. The drive there was quite straightforward, the trickiest bit probably being getting through to the parking lot area at the end.
Carcassonne castle
Carcassonne is a restored castle, mostly faithfully restored to its look at the time, except, of course, for all the little shops and restaurants that now dot the interior. We looked into a few of those after entering the walls, then tried to climb the ramparts, only to find we needed a ticket for that. So we got tickets, which also gave us passage into the museum.
We actually started with the museum, rather than the ramparts. There were some interesting artifacts, but my favorite thing was probably the temporary artistic display. The artist would depict medieval themes in a modern sculpture form.
Part of the art exhibit at Carcassonne
We ended the tour out in a courtyard. The ramparts were closed for lunch, but we visited another art display with some interesting paintings.
Then it was basically lunchtime, so we looked for some of the restaurants recommended in one of the guidebooks, and settled on a brasserie. This turned out to be the slowest, poorest service we got the whole trip. It took forever to take our order, to get our bill, and the waits between courses somewhat substantial, also. This is one point where you wished the tip wasn't already included in the price, so that could omit it!
But at least the food was good (though the dessert was very uninspired), and we did end up talking to the French people at the table beside us, who were very nice. One was a WW II vet who expressed his appreciation for what Canada had done in the war. Another mentioned the various friends who'd immigrated to Canada and really liked it. They also had their big, very well-behaved dog with them. All very French!
And then we finally did go up the ramparts to get higher views of the castle and the city. On our descent, we visited some other spots, including a church. A Russian singing group was there, a quartet. They performed a couple of hymns, their harmonies sounding absolutely beautiful in that space.
34-second video we took of the Russian men's chorus
We then left the walled area and walked into the town. You got nice views of the castle there, but the town wasn't that much fun to walk in, because the streets were very narrow, and the cars got very close! So we didn't stay too long there, but decided to get back in the car.
View of Carcassonne castle from the city
The B&B owner had recommended that we visit Lagrasse, which had won some sort of “most beautiful city in France” type of award. But as we walked down the main drag, and stopped and had a coffee, we didn't really see what made it so particularly beautiful. It just seemed to have the usual old-stone charm of all the villages we'd seen here. We figured we were missing something.
So we walked around more, finding a hiking trail that seemed too arduous to tackle, then spotting what seemed to be an old castle in behind. It turned out to be a monastery, and indeed, that part of Lagrasse was quite lovely (though “most beautiful”? I don't know). We were too late in the day to actually go in and visit the buildings, but we did walk around the grounds. We saw some actual monks, and their beautiful horses. And did I mention that there were poppies growing all over this part of France?
Horse amid the poppies
We then decided to head to Couiza, which is very close to Espéraza, for dinner. The GPS led us onto another set of narrow, twisty, slow roads again, though this time we weren't in as much danger of missing the dinner deadline.
We targeted a particular restaurant that was recommended in both our guide books, and the route through Couiza that the GPS was suggesting seemed insane—crazy little alleyways and tiny bridges. Jean at one point just refused, found a parking lot, and we made our way on foot.
Le Duc de Joyeuse restaurant was in a castle. The menu was a little pricier than some we'd seen, but it sounded good. So we went in. It was a white-linen place, and we weren't really white-linen dressed, but we still got excellent service, albeit from a table near the back corner.
We both decided to have the same 35 Euro menu. We both started with cold foie gras that was just amazing—Jean thought maybe the best he'd had. As the main, I had delicious fish in Pinot Noir while Jean went with cassoulet, which he judged far superior to the once he'd had at the Pierre Lys. Our wine was a very nice red Minervois. For dessert, he had creme caramel while I had this complex thing with a sauce that I can't accurately describe, but it was just delicious.
Another long day, though not quite as long, and another good night's sleep.
Wednesday, May 19—Perpignan and Gorges de la Fou
Our tour package included a two-hour wine course. Somehow I had thought it was for this morning. But our B&B host had called to check for us the night before, and informed us that it was actually on Thursday.
So we had to regroup a bit and figure out what to do this day. This was our last breakfast with the Spanish couple, who gave us some ideas for areas they had visited and enjoyed. We finally decided to start by going to Perpignan, in the mountainous south. The drive there took about an hour, and was mostly on relatively wide, normal highways.
Perpignan was one of the biggest cities we visited, so driving through the city wasn't that much fun. It was a relief to park and make our way on foot. It was quite a nice day—sunny again, and already at 20 by lunchtime. Relying on a map from one of our guidebooks, we walked down the tree-lined streets, and ended up heading toward the Palais des Rois de Majorque.
A little like the Palais des Papes in Avignon, these were very large castle grounds, but they hadn't been restored or refurnished much, so you have to rely on imagination to figure out how it might have been. The size and width does remain was impressive, though.
We then headed back to what seemed to be more of the town center to find a restaurant for lunch. Some were a bit pricey here, but we settled on a bright cafe with an appealing-sounding daily menu and a huge dessert counter. I did have the special, which was rabbit, pasta, and ratatouille, while Jean went for a shrimp and scallop dish. Both were nicely done, if not spectacular. And we decided to resist dessert.
Afterward, we left Perpignan for nearby Amélie-les-Bains. It was supposed to have the best preserved remains of Roman baths in France; however, we weren't able to find them. Nice little town to walk around in, though. We also stopped at a cafe for coffee and rosé.
We then drove to Gorges de la Fou, the narrowest canyon in the world. They have built a bridge through that you can walk on. While Fou can mean crazy, here it's used in the sense of precipice. Indeed, it didn't feel very risky walking through it, though you had to wear a hard hat, there were fallen rocks about, and the walkway was wet and bit slippery in parts. It was a pretty good workout: It's about a mile in and a mile out, and you do have some stairs to climb. It was remarkable how much cooler it was in there as well.
The view inside Gorge de la Fou
The road the GPS then took us on for the drove the drive back to Espéraza was probably the hairiest yet, and that's saying something! It was largely along narrow cliff edges. We were really nervous about meeting someone, because you couldn't see ahead around the corner, and it just didn't seem that two cars would actually fit. Thank goodness the road was pretty quiet (most people were probably bright enough to avoid it), but I was tense and getting tired of these twisty (even though I was just the passenger).
This is supposed to be a two-lane road!
It was somewhere around here in the trip that we realized that the GPS was getting tripped up the French custom of giving any connecting road a 90 K speed limit, even those so narrow and twisty there was no going more than, say, 40 on it. So when we'd punch in fastest route, these crazy little roads would come up as the shortest 90 K road between the two points. Anyway....
We had decided to just have dinner in Espéraza. We went back to the French restaurant that we had tried to dine at the first night, but it was closed again. So then we wandered down to the Creperie, only to find that it was also closed. So back to the car after all, but we just drove as far as Couiza. We stopped outside a restaurant that our B&B host had recommended. And—you guessed it!—that was closed, too.
So it was that we ended back at le Duc de Joyeuse for the second night in a row. We got a somewhat better table and a very friendly host. We had a different 35 Euro menu this time, both getting the same items at each course. We started with a shrimp and asparagus amuse bouche, followed with a tuna tartar appetizer, then had a bouillabaisse as our main course. Dessert was a creme caramel with oranges. And we had a different but still delicious Minervois red with the meal.