Sybil and Barbara's Excellent Adventure - Part 1

I haven’t posted for awhile as just haven’t had time – too busy having the most wonderful time of my entire time here. My friend Sybil arrived by train the evening of October 5th and its been a nonstop adventure ever since, some of which will write in this post. As I write this on the October 15th we are headed to Paris on the TGV.

It was hard to leave my little village this morning but I will definitely be returning – more on this later. I miss the place and the wonderful friends there already.

Now to tell a little of what we’ve been up to for the last week and a half.

Sybil’s train arrived in Beziers at 10 pm on Wednesday – it was late as trains often are here. She had just flown to Paris from San Francisco and then caught the train as soon as possible so she was pretty tired. I actually didn’t know her all that well as we’d only met on the OAT Baltics/Russia trip in May. We’d really “hit it off” on that trip and seemed like we had a lot in common e.g., both widows who love a good time and travel. As we’ve spent the last 1+ week here it has become clear that we have lots more in common like being really silly (“the frog song”) and laughing till your tummy hurts. We’ve also had some accomplices in our escapades!!

One unfortunate thing is that several days into Sybil’s visit somehow I lost my camera so I can’t include pictures of the first few days. However, Sybil’s camera did work so I’m using her’s to fill in the gap.

Anyway, poor Sybil hardly had a full night’s sleep Wednesday night. We got up pretty early and off we went for the first adventure. We drove to Bize to have lunch with some of the Bize lunch bunch – Deb, Bonnie, Terry and Deb’s newly arrived friends Diane and Suzy (both Australian). Suzy now lives in Bulgaria, of all places, which she says in beautiful and full of good people – she made us think it would be a great travel destination sometime.

After lunch we drove to Minerve, a beautiful tiny village north of Bize where we met Deb and Diane. Minerve is located on top of a hill sculpted by two rivers. It was able to be defended because it is only accessible by one strip of land. It was a place where Cathars were protected during the Albigensian crusade. During tourist season it is very crowded but now it is very quiet and you can almost hear the ghosts of the turbulent 1200s. When I was there before it was packed with tourists – it was much nicer with the eerie silence of just the wind. The whole place smelled like wine as there are little wineries right in the village with the vineyards across from the village high above the cliffs.

Deb urged us to hike down the cliff to the riverbed and caves below. I hadn’t expected to be hiking so I was ill-prepared, wearing sandals and with Angel in tow. We walked down the cliff face on a narrow rocky trail. Bad enough for me in my sandals but worse for Angel who seems to have a major problem with heights. She wanted no part of walking down the path and there was no way I could carry her. When we got to the bottom it was very rocky and difficult to walk on in sandals that have absolutely no traction. We explored some caves but I chickened out before too long and Angel, Sybil, and I took a metal stairway back to the village

Since Deb and Suzy kept going I missed saying a proper goodbye. It has been so wonderful getting to know Deb and her friends. My many visits to “Bize Land” helped make this summer so wonderful for me! They are definitely a fun bunch and I look forward to seeing more of them next summer.  (I took pictures of the group at lunch that day but then lost my camera!  Fortunately Sybil's pictures of the next few days recorded our escapades)

Minerve

The cliff we hiked down

At the bottom of the Minerve cliff



Fortunately there was another way up the cliff



Inside the cave at the bottom where people have piled up rocks.  Not sure what the significance is.

We drove back to Abeilhan via Beziers and stopped to pick up oysters and shrimp for a seafood feast with two friends. We had a wonderful evening but details will not be posted here.


The next day we drove north into the lower mountains to St. Guillhem-des-Desert a beautiful village with an ancient abbey. This village is also mobbed in the summer but was very peaceful now with just one tour bus. The weather was also very pleasant – much more so than midsummer when I was here before. We also went to Clamouse cave which is the largest cave in France full of huge caverns of stalagmites and stalagtites. On the tour they even include a light show with music.  Very wierd but beautiful.
Saturday we got up early and went to the Pezenas market which is one of the best in the South of France. We didn’t buy anything as we were leaving for Nice the following day but it was fun showing Sybil around the market and the old town. Many of the shops are now closed for the season and some of the outdoor cafes have actually disappeared. Afterwards we drove to Beziers and walked through the old town and had a nice lunch in an outdoor café that was sealed up with plastic curtains to keep out the wind – which was blowing like made – the Languedoc equivalent of the Provence Mistral.

Saturday evening we spent back in Abeilhan at Rogier and Suzette’s with the usual Saturday night crowd. A lovely evening…… and again no details will be recorded here!

Pezenas market

Clamouse Cave

Then Sunday – next adventure – the Cotê d’Azur. The first night we were going to stay in La Ciotat which is just past Cassis so I figured we had time to do something “different.” I thought Sybil might like to see the town of Aigues Mortes in the Camargue. The Camargue is the swampy area just west of Marseilles – actually the delta of the Rhone river. It is mostly high yellow grass and a land of gauchos, white horses and flamingoes (yes France has lots of flamingoes).


As we approached Aigues Mortes we noticed signs posted saying something about a dangerous taurine (bull) demonstration taking place this day. There were a lot more cars than you would expect on a routine Sunday and carnival rides set up outside the walls of the city. We parked the car on a side street and were walking toward the town when we heard hoof beats and here came six gauchos on their white horses. I couldn’t believe our good fortune – we were about to see another “unexpected “ running of the bulls!!! We went to the tourist office which verified that the running of the bulls was about to occur and warned us to stay behind the barriers as “it is very dangerous.”

We found the street where the bulls would run – with the barricades designed to keep bulls out but would allow people to pass through. There were a lot of people milling about in the street where the bulls were to run. We positioned ourselves behind the barrier but where we could be “front row”. Announcements over a loud speaker were made periodically in French, Spanish, English, and German saying that there would be an explosion that would announce when the animals would enter the beginning of the route and a second explosion would announce the end of the event. Again the announcer stated emphatically that this was very dangerous and to stay behind the barrier.

After about an hour we hear the loud “bang” and heard the hoof beats. Many people didn’t heed the warning to stay behind the barrier but did move out of the center of the street. Then came the galloping white horses with gauchos astride and a single bull in the middle. It was thrilling! Then right in front of us two horses fell down and a female gaucho was under them and the bull. Everyone screamed. Miraculously the horses seemed ok and got back on their feet. The young woman gaucho was slow to get up and did seem injured but not seriously. She was very, very shaken though and the other gauchos surrounded and consoled her for some time. Eventually an ambulance arrived and transported her. It was truly a frightening experience for us and certainly showed how quickly things can go wrong and that, in fact, this is a very dangerous event.

There was a second running but it was quite delayed due to the accident. After the ambulance departed an announcement was made that the next running would be a little more delayed because the bull had gone out into the field and had to be retrieved. When the second running took place it went smoothly without incident and Sybil got a great picture of it which I will post later. We then followed the crowd outside the city walls which was set up for a bullfight or perhaps toro piscine. There didn’t appear to be a very substantial barrier between the bullring and the spectators so we climbed onto a crowded platform and waited for awhile. I had to carry Angel and eventually we decided that this was just a bit much and we decided to go have lunch.

After the running of the bulls we had lunch in the main square, moules and frites of course. This was obviously not a usual day in Aigues Mortes. There was a stage in the center of the square with a pretty good band playing American rock music. There were also many folks hanging out drinking at the open bars around the square. Some young women were dressed in Languedoc old traditional costumes. It was quite a spectacle. Somehow on our way out of town I lost my camera!

Clamouse cave

Waiting for the bull run

Gauchos coming down the road outside Aigues Mortes - going to pick up the bull



Just before the fall

 Sybil got the above shot right before the two horses and female gaucho went down before our eyes.  I had always thought that the bulls run wildly on their own down the street but not so.  As you can see the horses and riders surround one bull.  Notice that the people across the street are not behind the barrier.  As we soon saw this is very dangerous and these people could easily have been injured.

As you can see we were having a pretty good time in the square having lunch

After the running of the bulls we had lunch in the main square, moules and frites of course.  This was obviously not a usual day in Aigues Mortes.  There was a  stage in the center of the square with a pretty good band playing American rock music.  There were also many folks hanging out drinking at the open bars around the square.  Some young women were dressed in Languedoc old traditional costumes.  It was quite a spectacle.  Somehow on our way out of town I lost my camera!