Sunday drive in the Minervois

Frescoes in the ancient church


More frescoes



Ancient Church outside Siran

Today Patrice and I drove to the Minervois region which is north and west of Abeilhan. My favorite guidebook described this region as having lost much of its population over the last century but now due to its new wine production people are moving back. It has some of the oldest and most preserved villages and early sites of civilization in France. The area is named for the town of Minerve which has been inhabited for 5,000 years. It was largely deserted but now has 100 inhabitants, artist shops, and a few restaurants.

The drive getting to Minerve was lovely. The countryside was rolling hills, vineyards (of course), limestone outcroppings, and pine trees. The town of Minerve is on a high plain at the confluence of two rivers. There are steep cliffs surrounding the town and it was obeviously selected by ancient humans as it could be quite easily defended. However unfortunately, when Cathar survivors of Simon’s (whatever his last name was) slaughter of the Cathars in Beziers arrived in Minerve, Simon followed them and killed them in Minerve. The village is beautifully preserved and the current inhabitants have restored a number of the homes. It is a peaceful place and hauntingly beautiful. The artisan shops are pretty tasteful too. There were some visitors besides us but it was not at all crowded. So far it is my favorite village.

We had lunch at a lovely outside restaurant, something like “The Troubadors.” It had a huge wood burning oven and they were cooking red meat and pizzas in it. We were sure we had a celebrity sighting, Andre Agassi and Stephi Graf, and their two children! They sat quite near us. However close observation of the family revealed that they were speaking only French and using their eating utensils like Europeans so we concluded that they were not the Agassis or were certainly carrying out French impersonations very, very proficiently.

We left Minerve and drove to Siran which wasn’t far. The guidebook said it had three wonderful sights which were not much visited – a 12th to 15th Century church with frescoes , a 7-sided Cathar church, another ancient church with a “beautiful” sculpted aspe, and a “dolman.” First we found the church with the frescoes. Most of the frescoes I’ve seen in France, Italy, and Turkey are pretty faded and much of them are no longer very visible. These frescoes were unbelievable. They covered almost the entire interior of the church with vivid colors and the figures were still very recognizable. We were awestruck and felt very privileged to be able to see such intact ancient artwork. Patrice lit a candle.

Our next stop was the Dolman which had a small sign saying “Dolman” on the roadside directing you to a very rough dirt road. We didn’t know what Dolman meant so we weren’t sure we’d even recognize it if we found it. We climbed the hill and there without a doubt was the Dolman. It was an ancient tomb (5,000 years old). It had a huge stone placed over the sides of the structure. It reminded me of the pictures I’ve seen of Stonehenge. There was nothing else there and nothing spoiling it (e.g., graffiti, trash).

Next we drove to what was the church with the sculpted “aspe”. We found it up a dirt road. It was locked but we saw what we assumed was the “aspe” (the area in back of the alter) from the outside and it had some sculpting even on the outside.

The seven-sided Cathar church was literally in the very center of the town of Siran and there was nowhere to park. The streets surrounding it were probably the narrowest I’ve encountered this trip so we just passed by it.

We headed home about 5 pm. It was a great day for seeing some very special places.