Our flexible itineray!!
You just have to love the French...days of closures due to whatever reason meant our group enjoyed another relaxing day in Montpellier on Monday. Our intended visit to St Guilhem le Desert still didn't happen as the shuttle bus which takes visitors around the three preserved villages doesn't operate on Mondays in September ! Grrrr...... However this wasn't a massive issue as many in the group welcomed a free slow day with still many places to explore either on foot or the very efficient tram system. My time was once again spent wrestling with the increasingly frustrating internet. More Grrrrrrrŕrrrrrrrrr. ..
Our final day had a bit of everything with a morning cruise on the Canal du Rhone Sete starting from the ancient sea port of Aigues-Morte. This is a striking walled medieval town sitting on the flat marshes of the Camargue and is considered the purest example of 13th century military architecture. The cruise departed and returned to the town in a loop of canals considered to be an engineering marvel built in the 17th century. Along the way we visited a cattle yard where we had a display of working with the bulls used in bullfighting but unlike Spain the animals are NOT killed during the fight. Mmm....am unsure about that as something I would want to watch. In the brilliant sunshine we then wandered through the many canals and finally the marshes blended into marinas and a reserve where the flamingos abound. Gorgeous. Unfortunately we didn't have a long stop in the village and have decided that in the future it is worth a longer stay.
On our return to our hotel which had been our home for the 2 weeks, our host Nathalie had prepared a special farewell with wine, nibbles and speeches. This lovely hotel has been perfect and we will miss the staff when we leave. It will be a joy to return here in 2017 for the repeat of this tour.
The final event of the tour was just glorious. ...a dinner at the private home of our local consultant Chantal. We each brought a bottle of wine from the many wineries we had visited and he dinner was a celebration of local products such as rabbit, cheeses and THE MOST DIVINE dessert. ..a combination of meringue, chocolate mousse,cream etc..etc..oh my poor hips and waistline!!!!!!!. More speeches and presentations and it was timeto depart. Thank you to Chantal and all of our local friends who have done so much to make our 'Byways and Boudin 'tour such a fantastic experience. It has been superb. See you again in May 2017...a French spring!!!
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