Flaneuring in France 2017: Languedoc-Roussillion.....hard to pronounce but great to visit!

When I was at school in French lessons with Mrs Jackson, I do remember drawing a map of France . Along the bottom of France we all drew very neat lines of upside -down 'V's between Spain and France and carefully labelled it 'The Pyrenees'.

For the past few days we have travelled around and through the Pyrenees, a vast contrast to the flat rolling plains of the North. They are massive sheer grey mountains which one would have thought would be impossible to climb or build on.

Spot the castle as that's where we were headed!

But then, as you round a corner in the road there is a building perched as high up as it can be, clinging to the sides of a rock mountain.

Today, as we left Collioure behind, we drove towards an area known for it's Cathar fortresses. There are four within a short distance so we started with the Castle of Queribus described by Lonely Planet as "providing panoramic views of both the Mediterranean and the Pyrenees", With the weather forecast saying 19 degrees we were looking forward to a "short steep climb" in the balmy air to see the views.

All did not go as planned.....the weather deteriorated as did our optimism about the joy of climbing heavenwards in rain and mist.

After donning our wet weather gear and squinting into the heavy mist to try and see where we were going, we started the climb up stony tracks and rocky stairs. For the first time I remembered to take the long lens for my camera to snap some shots of the fabulous long-range views,

Fortunately we did manage to see some of the views as we carefully negotiated the climb. It was a fascinating castle, much of it in it's centuries-old state and nothing more than rock walled rooms, Some gothic arches designated the chapel and Ewan climbed a steep spiral stone staircase which ascended quite a few levels. We did reach the top and admired the sign asking us to control our children , as it was very exposed.

A lovely view of the clouds from the top!

Then the cloud dropped and we were enveloped in white so panoramic views from the top - NIL! Oh well! Then the rain started and we slowly negotiated the slippery stairs all the way back to the car.

A wonderful panoramic view of....white cloud!

Coffee and lunch was needed so Cucugnan, a tiny town was our next destination, A fantastic 'fournil' (bakehouse) provided lunch, the highlight of which was bread with Roquefort cheese and nuts in it. Superb.

Ewan being a dare devil on the ridge, Don't worry
I checked that his life insurance was paid up!

Fresh warm bread with Roquefort cheese and walnuts, or
jambon and cheese: yum!

It was the windmill bakery so here's the windmill!

As we were on our way to Montpellier a few hours drive away, we had to forgo the joy of staggering up the other three castles in the rain, although we think we spotted a couple of them.

After locating our Airbnb apartment close to the centre of Montpellier we set off to get acquainted with the city.
For future reference- Airbnb: Charming 3 rooms with balcony and parking - Arceaux - host is Matteo

The location was great as it was close to the huge main square of town so had the chance to admire a huge aqueduct at the end of our street, and walk through the large Place Royale du Peyrou which had a huge statue of an unknown important person, a lovely round water tower that looked like a bandstand, an impressive arch and trees which had been carefully made into flat topiary. Very odd!

As we waked towards the centre of town there were lots of beautifully restored buildings and quite a buzz when we got there as it was time for Friday night drinks and every Bar seemed to be full of young people enjoying themselves . We strolled around some of the lanes and alleyways before deciding to have Korean food, which was simple and delicious.
In the main square we were admiring some of the lovely old buildings when we noticed some graffiti in a place that would have been very difficult to access....but there it. We walked home as we had yet to fathom the complexities of the tram system. A challenge for another day!

With a full day before Liz goes hurtling off to Spain we set off in the morning to A get a tram Ticket and B, Find the Tourist Information office, both of which we achieved easily. then we parted ways: Ewan to the Musee Fabre to look at artworks over the centuries,and Liz and I to search for something to look at that was a bit more modern.

The first place we went - La Panacee -was between installations so nothing to see at all. And when we arrived at the second place it was full of people who had obviously just attended the opening of the photographic exhibition. Unfortunately the free drinks were just being packed away so no glass of champers for us! It was the Pavillon Populaire which is the Montpellier city including some lovely impressionist paintings gallery. Despite the lack of alcohol we really enjoyed the diversity of lots of small exhibitions on display. It was a collaboration between photographers from Montpellier and form Rome and covered lots of topics including refugees, snow photos, perfume that had been dripped onto extra sensitive photo paper ( sounds weird but was beautiful) and photos from around the world.
We also enjoyed a very cute playground outside that had a musical theme.

The problem with separating from Ewan is then you have to meet up with him again so we had decided to meet at the Jardin des Plantes - Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately most of the gates were locked so there were a few terse conversations and text messages whilst we all tried to arrive at the same gate at the same time.

We were expecting a stunning garden wiht lots of rare species but instead discovered an unkempt jungle badly in need of attention. It reminded me of home actually!! Any rare plants were probably hidden under the weeds and the whole place looked like a wreck. Very sad to see.

To console ourselves it was lunch in a lovely cafe Napoleon Dynamite) in another of the many squares here. To our surprise when Ewan asked for a beer he was offered a Hawthorn Blonde beer from ....Glenferrie Road Hawthorn!
We had shed our rain jackets as the morning showers had disappeared and the sunshine set in so it was a very pleasant and relaxed lunch.
We decided to fully utilise our daily tram ticket to look at a housing project that turned out to be very ordinary (sad face) but happened to be next to a shopping centre ( happy face!), Ewan allocated us 30 minutes so we did a quick whizz through a few shops before catching one of the colourful trams home again for a rest. Then back on the tram to find a restaurant for our last dinner together, at Teppane which was terrific and not very expensive.

Here's some of the coloured trams which we really enjoyed using: fast, clean and efficient!