Montpellier in the Fall, and Sommières

 

The rooftops of Sommières.

It’s fall in Montpellier again. The leaves are turning, and falling off the trees. It’s not as spectacular as New England, but, unlike California, it’s clear something’s happening. After that nasty hot humid summer we’ve finally gotten relief in the form of weeks of glorious weather. Now it’s still warm, but we’ve lost the sun and gained plenty of atmospheric moisture. Overcast, and feeling of rain… but all we get is humidity. We’ve been waiting for winter like the drop of the other shoe, but it’s still not cold. Hooray!

The Saturday market under Les Arceaux

Another sign of fall: we went to one of our favorite markets, the Saturday market under the old aqueduct (called Les Arceaux—the Arches). This is a true farmers’ market, with producers bringing their fruits and vegetables, fish and cheeses, roast suckling pigs and poor naked little skinned rabbits. (Other weekly markets sell clothes, bedding, housewares… but not this one.)

These mushrooms are called cèpes--they're big!

Sliced up cèpes and some unidentified tiny champignons.

And it's not just the mushrooms that are gorgeous.

And we saw something we hadn’t seen before: mushrooms! Champignons. Funghi. Setas. Big ones, that I’d never seen before. I don’t like to eat mushrooms, but they sure are interesting!

It's a popular place!

Oh, and those arches… the aqueduct was built in 1765 to supply water to the growing city of Montpellier. If it bears a resemblance to the Pont du Gard, the Roman aqueduct from 16 centuries (!) earlier, it’s because the builder, Henri Pitot, built the roadway at the base of the Pont du Gard. And he, apparently, was quite taken with the original design. (Read about our visit here.)

Le Pont du Gard in the winter sunshine; inspiration for Les Arceaux.

Henri Pitot was a local, born—and died—in a small town near Montpellier. Tasked with measuring the flow of the river Seine through Paris, he essentially developed hydrodynamics, the study of moving fluids. Today every modern aircraft has a Pitot tube, a—yes—tube that uses Pitot’s principles to measure air speed.

 

Ran into our neighbors on the street the other day. Nothing makes you feel settled like running into people you know! He pointed out that their building hasn’t had to turn the heat on yet. That’s a particularly good thing, given the run-up in natural gas prices due to the war.

Speaking of gas, France has a different battle going on: nationwide refinery strikes. (Something about windfall oil company profits leading to significant raises for company executives, but nothing for the workers… same old story!) Many stations haven’t had fuel, so we’ve been keeping a low car profile. But after three weeks of not starting the engine we decided that enough was enough, and five of us went on a little day trip.

The bridge into Sommieres.

Our goal was the town of Sommières and its most excellent Saturday morning flea market.

The tree-shaded market place near the river.

We were there about a year ago, and were happy to return. The town is built along a river, quite a lovely site. The market specializes in brocante, stuff that fits in that wide gap between genuine antiques and junk. Kitchen stuff like glasses (both matched sets and bizarre one-offs) and grandma’s china set. Lamps from the 50s and 60s. Odd decorative items in colors long out of fashion. And my personal favorite, tools. Old tools. Mostly cleaned and polished and oiled and ready to go to work. Most with functions that are obvious, but also quite a few purpose-designed for a particular special task in a field that no longer exists. Horse shoeing pillars. Hammers and wedges used in barrel making. One table had an exquisite collection of weights for use in pan balances, fitted boxes holding a dozen or more brass weights ranging from 10 grams to one kilogram.

Pruning tools, used in the vineyard.

Stuff, important to someone, some time. The busts on top are Tintin, a character in the incredibly popular comic
 of the same name, and the Captain (I think), also in the same comic. As for the rest...

More tools! I particularly like those wooden-handled pipe wrenches.
(Wait... are those levels? I need a level! Why didn't I see those before...?) 

Wandering among the tables piled with goods, puzzling over their use, I got the feeling that I would have liked to want something. A tiny hope that something would show up that really spoke to me that I would bring home with great satisfaction and admire every day, feeling so pleased that I had found it.

We take a break for some refreshment, coffee and hot chocolate: Mark, Mary, Debra, Paul, Paula

But no. I’ve never been a collector, and our travels have trained us not to want things, however desirable, that would burden us. Someday we’re going to leave here, and the less we need to carry away the better! Nothing made the cut. 

Heading back to lunch from Sommieres.--our restaurant is at the end of the bridge on the far right.

We eventually reached our limit of admiring other people’s junk/fine collectables—lunch time! We’d booked at table at a crêperie on the river, just across the bridge from the town gate. It was endlessly pleasant, watching the water and studying the ancient bridge and the people crossing it. After (yet another!) fine lunch we re-crossed the bridge and entered the small but well-preserved town center.

 

Paula at lunch.

We go through the arch and into the town...

...for another of long-armed Mark's selfis.

We prowled through the stone streets, eventually finding the path to the former castle overlooking the town. After admiring the views out over the town and the countryside we headed back down. Passing a friendly café, we stopped for another round of coffee and hot chocolate.

A rather plain church with a rather plain name, "Eglise Catholique de Sommières". But vibrant. It's purple!

Really purple!

Mark got this photo of me taking a Sommières panorama.

It had been a good day. None of us had found anything that we really couldn’t do without. But it was a fine outing. We made our way back across the bridge to our car, and the drive home.

Nothing to do with Sommières, but a classic view of Montpellier in the fall sunlight.

And finally, from our terrace, a spectacular end-of-September double rainbow over the construction cranes.

The Auvergne

Sunset over the Auvergn countryside.

NOTE: This blog is out of our normal chronologic sequence. It fits in between the return from Brittany blog and the trip to Corsica blog.

 We returned from our Brittany trip feeling very satisfied with our travels, and also, unfortunately, very hot. While Brittany did offer some relief from the heat, we were now back in the south. Back in the heat!

It was a long drive back from Mont Saint-Michel, so we stopped along the way a few hours north of Montpellier, in the Auvergne region, famous for its cheese (like many areas in France!). It was quite pleasant, cool, and not so humid. It was so pleasant, in fact, that we thought we’d revisit it.

We contacted our friends Mark and Mary. Of course they would be up for a trip! And, bonus points, it was Mark’s birthday week. So plans were made…

 

Ah, Michelin! whatever gets you on the road...

We studied the maps, including the thick book of Michelin maps Mark & Mary had given me for my birthday. Lots to see, plenty of villages marked with two and even three Michelin stars. (In this case, the stars mean “worth seeing;” Michelin makes tires, remember, so restaurants, maps, travel advice… anything to get people out burning rubber!)

 

Auberge Les Volilieres

Paula booked us rooms at a true country auberge, miles from the nearest town and surrounded by rolling cow pastures, along a winding strip of asphalt barely two cars wide. This, I thought, is going to be either really good, or really bad…

An early morning walk among the cows.

 

It was really good! Large, comfortable rooms and baths. A huge communal dining room. Enclosed pool. Those rolling green pastures. And cool, cool weather! (We even had a tremendous storm come through.)

Shortly after our return from the Auvergne I found the list of towns we thought we might visit. Of the 12or 15 listed, we only went to two, I think. Yet every day we had a new adventure and found interesting and engaging places.

 

Mark & Mary near Eiffel's Viaduc du Garbit.

One sight we all wanted to see was the Viaduc du Garbit, a steel arch railway bridge spanning the Truyère river. When finished in 1884 it was the highest viaduct in the world, and had the longest span of any bridge (for a few years, anyway). More significantly today, it was designed by Gustave Eiffel, of Tower fame. In past trips through this region we’d caught tantalizing glimpses of it from the highway; this time we wanted to get close.

The bridge deck, arching across the river.

Each of those girders is made of hundreds of short steel strips riveted together.
No, they don't make 'em like they used to!

 We found the region really lovely and full of surprises. The biggest was perhaps the town of Brioude and its 13^th Century Basilique Saint-Julien. We had no idea this gem was there, and were so impressed with its construction, its design, its multi-colored brick walls, its pebble stone flooring, its windows… just its very existence, that we hung around ‘till the afternoon to take the (very amazing) tour of the church.

 

Basilique Saint-Julien in Brioude.

The rear entrance to Saint-Julien.

Waiting outside Saint-Julien's for the tour to start.

A carved face finishes off the bottom of this pillar.

A carved column in the upstairs chapel, with its amazing polychrome walls.

The mosaic floor made of river pebbles.

One downside of our auberge out in the country was a lack of restaurants—the nearest town was a good 40 minutes away. Ah, but not to worry, they had an excellent kitchen! The cost of our room included breakfast, and for a mere 19€ (about $22USD) more we could also have dinner. The dinners were quite good, and quite extensive; to the point that finishing everything became a challenge. The comble (the top; the most extreme point) came Wednesday evening when we were served aligot, the local specialty.

Aligot is made from the light semi-soft local cheese, Cantal, added to whipped potatoes, cream, and garlic. Lots of garlic. Lots of cream. And, for that matter, lots of Cantal. While we managed to clean our plates (most of us!), this local “comfort food” was much more than simply filling. We didn’t feel the need to eat much the next day, and in fact opted out of dinner in the dining hall that night for a picnic on the floor of our room!

Dinner time at the auberge: the 81-year-old grandma serving up her specialty, aligot
 (potatoes whipped up with garlic, cream, and lots of Cantal cheese).

But I was glad to try it. I’ve seen aligot offered in local restaurants and always wondered what it was. I expect the restaurants in Montpellier will come nowhere close to what we were served at the auberge!

 

One thing that made this trip stand out from previous ones is that we had our own car, releasing us from the constraints of a rental. Specifically, we weren’t limited to one driver (rental companies charge a hefty premium for multiple authorized drivers.)  

Mark is an enthusiastic driver. He likes to drive and he’s good at it. We were glad to have him with us! And he got to spend his birthday behind the wheel.

Another surprise: the village of Saint-Saturn. This is most of it.

Another corner of Saint-Saturn.

We found it novel and very fun to be driven around. We got to be tourists in our own car, relaxing in the back seat, watching the countryside roll by, and—very important—controlling the music.

On the final drive home we were able to share the hours behind the wheel, so we all arrived home more relaxed and in a better mood.

It was another very satisfying trip. We explored a new-to-us part of France, discovering some incredible sites. And we explored some new ideas in shared travel!

Some of the modern stained glass windows in Saint-Julien.
Painted by Kin En Jong, a Dominican of Korean descent. 

We’re now fully into the fall weather, and loving it! Nights are cool but not yet cold, days are sunny and warm. Good traveling weather! Our only plans at the moment are Seville for Christmas and New Years, and California after that. I’m sure we’ll work out a few day trips between now and then, though.

Corsica, 2022

View of Calvi, Corsica from a not so distant hilltop.

 We’d been to Corsica before, two years ago. We liked it! We went in September, which we found to be the perfect time to go. As we've said before, this year the weather in Montpellier was still hot and humid in September, and we were still looking for relief. Time to revisit Corsica. 

This time, though, we did it differently: we took a boat. Last time we flew from Montpellier to the south of Corsica and rented a car; this time we took our own car on the ferry, to a town in the north of the island. And this time, we’d get more beach time, because Corsica really does have some fabulous beaches, with delightfully warm water!

And also this time, we were accompanied by our friend and fellow adventurer Kate, who contributed some of these photos.

 

The beach at Algajola.

First thing: the ferry doesn’t leave from Montpellier, but from Toulon—at 7 in the morning. So, we drove to Toulon, about two and a half hours, and spent the night. We were up very early to be at the ferry dock well before departure.

Meanwhile, while we slept, a tremendous storm passed through Toulon, with torrential rains and heavy winds. But by the time we left, around 5AM, the streets were deserted—and very clean! It was surreal, driving through the empty streets to wait at the ferry dock, with hundreds of other cars, in total darkness. 

Waiting in the dark...

The air was scrubbed clean by the storm but was still warm and very humid. The sky lightened, we saw the massive ship, and we all slowly began to move into its cavernous opening.

...and finally packed into the hold of the ferry.

It was a seven-hour ride to L'Île-Rousse, the ferry dock on Corsica—much longer than the one-hour plane flight! While not an overnight, we booked a cabin onboard because… hey, we got up at 4AM! Beauty sleep, yah know… There was too much to see and do aboard the ship (including breakfast) to spend much time below in our cabin, but we were still very glad to get our heads down for a bit, and to have a place to leave our things. 

The trip itself was uneventful (except for being on a ship at sea!), and soon enough we were driving out those huge doors onto solid land. And waiting, and waiting, as the tremendously long line of cars slowly made its way through town and onto the highway.

Sunset, from our hotel in Algajola.
(This one by Paula.)

Same spot, a few hours later.

Our first stop was a 20-minute drive down the coast: the village of Algajola, where we spent three nights overlooking the crashing ocean. The ocean wasn’t supposed to be crashing, it was supposed to be calm and picturesque; but the wind was up. In fact, it blew like stink—as we used to say in our sailing days—for our entire stay. That made lounging on the beach less pleasant, so we drove up into the hills to visit the very historic and endlessly interesting villages there. And take in the tremendous views out over the sea. 

Our beach-side hotel in Algajola had a pleasant garden for breakfast, or just sitting.

Algajola from a distance (vertical as well as horizontal!)

The village of Corbara, in the hills above Algajola.

Another view of Corbara.

We did make it to the beach, finally, for a half-hour or so on our last day in Algajola. It was relaxing in the sun, but the beach in Algajola was steep and the wind-driven wave action serious, so we stayed on the sand.

 

We really did like Algajola! Another view of the water front.
(A great photo by Kate.)

A windy day on the beach.

Our next stop was back in L’Île-Rousse, of ferry dock fame. We had a very nice apartment a short walk from the town center. The beach along the city front was gorgeous—long and clean, with the water an incredible azure, and warm. Oh, so warm! So enchanting! We were only in that lovely sea once, though. It was still windy! 

The warm, shallow waters of L'Île-Rousse, with the ferry dock in the distance.

There are only a few train lines on Corsica (maybe the amazing thing is that there are ANY train lines on this very mountainous island!), and one terminus is L’Île-Rousse. We thought we might take the train to Corte, a city in the interior, one-time capital and center of a powerful independence movement. Thing is, the train leaves at 7AM. Up at 6? On vacation? Ah, don’t think so!

The Citadel: the highest--and oldest--point in Corte.

Place Gaffory; the statue is of Jean-Pierre Gaffory, a hero in Corsica securing independence from Genoa (it's a long story...) 

Corte is a very vertical city!

We drove. But only half way, to Ponte Leccia, where we got on the train to Corte at noon. That way we avoided the most tortuous part of the mountainous road, as well as the city traffic and the need to find parking in Corte. (And avoided rising too early!)

Turns out that the train station is on the edge of town, in the flats. The interesting part, the Citadel—the old fortress—is up. And up. And up…

An engraving by MC Escher of a church and tower. (We tend to forget that Escher was an accomplished artist before he became famous for his series of fantastical designs.)

Eglise et campanile l'Annonciation as it is today (well, a few weeks ago).

We did make it though, thanks to a well-placed restaurant half-way up. We spent some time exploring the city center, then began the long descent to the station in time to catch the afternoon train back to Ponte Leccia, and then back, by car, to our place in L’Île-Rousse.

 

Our path back down to the train required crossing this bridge.

Almost there! Looking back at the Citadel.

Our final stop was in the relatively large city of Calvi. Again, we had a pleasant, modern apartment, this one with a good view of the bay. And the wind-driven whitecaps. But the wind came off the land, leaving the beach itself calm. Ah, we thought, tomorrow will be a great beach day!

Except, the next day the wind changed, and came off the ocean, driving waves far up the beach. Ah well… 

The beach at Calvi on a calm day.

On this not-calm day we headed for the hills. Calvi and its gorgeous bay. 

The church A Madonna della Serra with its broken statue in the hills above Calvi. It was blowing hard enough to imagine the wind was responsible!

Wind-carved rocks near A Madonna della Serra.

The water around Corsica really is beautiful!

So it was not the beach holiday we had envisioned, but it was interesting, and adventurous, and steeped in history and culture. And, we ate very well! There was a huge choice of tourist restaurants everywhere we stayed, and all those we tried served good food at a good price, with good service. (Well, there was L’Île-Rousse, but we’ll skip that part…)

 

Our final dinner in Calvi.

Then it was time to go. This time the ferry left in the afternoon, so no early rising! But we still booked a cabin, because we’d be arriving around midnight, and a bit of a rest on the ferry seemed like a good idea.

 

This time, in the daylight, we could see the ferry arrive.

In a few moments, we'd be driving on board...

 

...to nap in our cabin while the car waited below.

As it turned out, the departure was delayed, which meant we’d be on the streets of Toulon around 1:30 in the morning, faced with a 2-1/2 hour drive. That was too much of a stretch, so Paula did what she does so well, and found us an Airbnb for the night; arrival time 2:30AM. Ouf!

On the ferry, leaving L'Île-Rousse behind.

And, after a half-hour drive on the nearly-deserted but very dark Autoroute, that’s exactly when we arrived. We were very glad to get off the road, and after a bit of unwinding, gratefully laid our heads down. 

The next morning the drive went well, and we were soon home to a cooler, less humid Montpellier. Yes, the weather in the South of France is now fantastic, sunny and warm and dry. We did have a tremendous rain storm that has greened things up nicely, but, conveniently enough, it happened at night. We know this winter we will be griping about the cold, but right now the weather is just where we want it!

L'Île-Rousse seen from its peninsula; that's the ferry dock on the far left.