Bec Abbey and the village Le Bec-Hellouin

Day 2 of our trip to the Bay of Sommes. Just before hitting the coast of Normady, there was a beau village on the route. The abbey village of Le Bec-Hellouin, built around the  11the century Bec Abbey. This Abbey was destroyed and rebuilt many times, notably during the French revolution and WW2. 

Trip to the coast of Brittany -1 (Montsoreau and Candes-Saint-Martin)

This Christmas break, Blandine and I had taken a trip to the Brittany coast, despite it being winter, as Blandine wanted a blast of cold sea air after being ill for ages. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting photos of this trip. Since it was a long way from Lyon, we made an overnight stop midway, at the joint villages of Montsoreau and Candes-Saint-Martin (the villages are so close together on the bank of the river Loire, that they are one village, for all practical purposes). Both of these villages are in the official list of "the most beautiful villages of France", and if you follow my blog, you will know that I have the ambition of visiting all the villages on this list. These villages are not strictly in Brittany, they are in the department of Maine-et-Loire, at the border of Brittany. With ancient white stone buildings sleeping on the edge of the Loire, these two villages are as pretty as a pair of pictures. Here are the pics I took, with my brand new Huawei P30 Pro, allegedly the best camera phone on the market at the moment. I was impressed with the result. We got there late evening, when it was starting to get dark, and most of these photos were taken with the night mode enabled. None of the previous camera phones I have had could ever have managed these photos...

Christmas Market in Alsace - Riquewihr

These are pictures from a pre-Christmas trip we made to Strasbourg a few months ago, which I hadn't got around to posting. Alsace, the region of Strasbourg, has a fair sprinkling of "beaux villages", which I have made it my life's mission to visit. Many of them are also famous for the Christmas Market they conduct in the run up to Christmas. Here is the first, the village of Riquewihr, not far from the city of Strasbourg. 

Eguisheim - Beau Village in Alsace

Not a short drive from Colmar is the beau village of Eguisheim. It is a major wine growing region, and is also famous as the birthplace of Pope Leo IX. Signs of the pope are everywhere, starting with this statue of him right at the enterance of the village. The first time we saw the village, it was at night. Here is the papal statue with the moon above it.

Malleval - historic village in the bad valley

The historic village of Malleval (old French for bad valley) lies at the base of a rocky valley in the nature park of Pilat, not far from Blandine's home. Converted into a fortified village by Renaud de Forez in the 14th century. Here are some pics of the place I took during a hiking trip in Pilat:-

Long shot of the village from the rim of the valley.

Pictures Inside the village:-



The Lombez Tower

Trip to Aude / Midi-Pyrénées: Day 8 (Afternoon)

Having checked out Space Cattle country, we nosed our steed homewards, towards Lyon, taking a long arc through Toulouse and Carcassonne.

We were zipping along fast, almost halfway to Toulouse. We had taken the ‘scenic route’, as usual, but it was still pretty boring. Nothing like the amazing route from Perpignan to Lourdes. When we were brought up short by this extraordinary structure peeping over the horizon.

Château de Termes

Trip to Aude: Day 2 (Evening)

Leaving behind the beau village of Lagrass, we truly entered 'Cathar Country'... narrow roads winding through craggy, scrubby hill; a landscape littered with ruined chateaus, crumbling fortifications and hidden menace. Of course, the only menace you'll face in modern France is a drunken driver coming the other way. But back in those old days, you could quickly find yourself kidnapped or killed riding through these hills. Some of that still lingers.

A chateau along the way - one of many. This is Château de Durfort, a privatly held chateau, not open to the public. There are any number of such small chateaus in these hills.

Lagrass: André's Cave

Trip to Aude: Day 3

While strolling around the beau village of Lagrasse (see previous post), we came across a signboard: Vin Bio. Another signboard said :

Domaine Henry Carbonnel

It was a garage-like chamber with creaking red doors. The walls were covered with ivy. Intoxicating smells came from within. It was cool and dark inside. Intriguing casks and barrels and vats lay about. A reedy, pleasant-faced man in fading denim pottered about inside. This, clearly, was a cave.

Balazuc, Ruoms and Labeaume in a hurry

Trip to Ardèche, Day 1 (Evening):

It was 5:30 PM. We decided we'd seen about as much of Vogüé as we wanted to see. Blandine suggested we look around for a B&B and turn in for the day. After 6 PM, she warned, it's nearly impossible to find a B&B that's still open. We came across a decent-ish tavern in the village. Yes, they had places. Blandine raised an eyebrow. But I wasn't ready to call it a day. I thought we could squeeze in another beau village before the sun set. Bad mistake.

We drove down to the next beau village on our list. Balazuc. It was, if anything, even more spectacular than Vogüé. Another medieval gray-stone village, this one was perched at the top of a limestone cliff, rather than at the bottom, peering over a yawning gorge at the frothing river Ardèche. No time, however, to take pics. Here's a pic I've borrowed from Wikipedia (it doesn't show the cliff):-

Vogüé

Trip to Ardèche - Day 1: 

Having digested the plastic Neanderthals on our detour through Soyons, we set sight once more on our original destination: the la plus beau village of Vogüé. Don't ask how it is pronounced. Even Blandine wasn't sure, and she is a bona fide Frenchwoman. But it is officially listed in the very official list of "The most beautiful villages in France". Since I have made it my life-mission to visit all the villages in the list, and since the district of Ardèche has no less than four of these villages, there was no way I could skip this one, no matter how difficult it is to pronounce.

The first time I caught a glimpse of it, it took my breath away. Here it is, viewed from the highway, nestling at the base of a limestone cliff, perched on the banks of the river Ardèche, its medieval stones merging into the escarpment like so many boulders.

Amour in St. Amour

Skip to Good God                                              Passez à Mon Dieu

A week after we tackled the bottom end of the "Wine Route of Beaujolais" (check out my post 'Golden Stones in the Beaujolais Region ), we decided to tackle the upper end, starting at the very top in the romantically named village of St. Amour, which also gives name to one of the eight grand 'crus' of Beaujolais: the cru of St Amour (A Cru, for the non-cognoscenti, of which I used to be one not so very long ago, means a sub-region of a wine region). This, by the way, is not the same St Amour where the Chinese notoriously go to get married - that is another village of St Amour, close to Paris. This St Amour turned out to be a plain-Jane postage stamp-sized village, with a plain-ish town hall and a church and a couple of houses. And a Cave. No, not that thing lions use for setting up dens, although there was a lioness in this one. A Cave, also for the non-cognoscenti, is what the French call a wine cellar, where a vineyard stores its wine in oak barrels and allows visitors to sample their produce for free - and then look at you meaningfully, expecting you to buy the bottle.

Well, here was a wine called St Amour in the village of St Amour in a cave called St Amour... wouldn't it be unromantic to let it pass, I told Blandine? Blandine, always the practical one, pointed out it is not comme il faut to walk into a cave and sample the stuff and not buy it - and she had no intention of buying a Beaujolais, a wine she detested. But I gurgled and quacked and gave my dying duck impression, and she sighed and gave in.

Here is the cave...

And here are the village town hall (Mairie) and church...

Sorry, no interior shots of the cave. This is where the lions come in. We strolled in, it was deserted. We clanged the bell. We clanged it again. After a sinister stage wait, a lady of formidable aspects stalked in, tail swishing, eyes glinting.  We took her to be the proprietress. She looked a bit like a lioness. And not just any old run-of-the-mill sunny-tempered lioness, but a lioness in a distinctly foul mood. Possibly we had woken her up from the mid-morning siesta. Or possibly she had been in the midst of polishing off her mid-morning zebu. In any case, there was no question of asking permission for taking photos of the interior, a thing most French detest. No question also of sidling out sheepishly, saying we'd pressed the bell by mistake. Here, clearly, was a woman who would not laugh it off as a joke.

We sampled her stuff. I found it a rather jolly wine, full of strange, intoxicating scents, and sweet - which is how I like wine to be. But who am I to say? To me all wines taste more or less the same - funny smelling colored liquids in funny shaped bottles. Blandine said (later, not out loud), that it was a rather ordinary wine. But no question of not buying it. Oh no. One look at the lady's eyes and Blandine pulled out the euros. I felt rather guilty about it all. Luckily, it wasn't terribly expensive, as French wines go.

Here is the blessed bottle we bought, placed in the backdrop of the lady's vineyard (or what we took to be her vineyard - no question of going back in to reconfirm).

Nope, we still haven't drunk that bottle. Blandine refuses to touch it. She says to take it back home and share it with my friends. My MALE friends, she specifies. Oh well, male friends back home, you're gonna get to sample some Beaujolais soon...

Here is the countryside around St. Amour... a lot more romantic than the village itself. As Janet Jackson once said, That is the way amour goes, that's the way amour goes...

Golden Stones in the Beaujolais Region

Blandine lives just a short drive from the Beaujolais vineyards. Last weekend, we did the first part of the 'Wine Route of Beaujolais' - we covered the villages of Charnay, Alix, Frontenas, Theizé, Oingt, Bagnol. This bunch of villages are also known as the 'villages of the golden stones' (Villages des Pierres Dorées) because all the houses there are constructed of a kind of yellow stone that makes them shine golden in bright sunlight. It bright and sunny and it was dazzling on the wine route. I ought to have gone punch drunk with the camera. Unfortunately, it was one of those 'bad camera' days. We had left the iPad at home - I take all my best photos with the iPad. Blandine had forgotten to insert the memory card in her Pantax, and I had left my dinky little camera at home. I tried some shots with Blandine's iPhone, but they came out muddy. Most of the photos turned out crap. Here are a few of the better ones... some day we'll return and finish the wine route...

Perouges

Pictures of Perouges , officially listed as 'one of the most beautiful villages of France'