Lost in France: Part Sept - Coming to a Close

I haven't posted a photo of it yet, so before we leave, here's a photo of the house we've been staying in, complete with statue of David and stream running out the front.

Monday was a public holiday in France for all saints day, so we decided to stick close to home in case things were shut. We climbed up to the chateau ruins above Mas. Unfortunately it was drizzling, but we managed to get a few minutes of sun and for those few minutes, the view was great.

The ruins aren't well maintained like the others that we've seen, so they're covered in vines and have trees growing out of them. In some ways it gives them more character.

From the ruins, we walked to the nearby town of Roquefere, which is very pretty. There is a chateau (or really big house) in the town that's built on top of some rocks, like most houses in this area seem to be.

We turned up at the local Auberge, which had come highly recommended, to see if we could have lunch there, but it was all booked out, so we had to go home and eat this instead.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and drinking wine.

We went for a drive along the coast on Tuesday. We started out in Narbonne, which isn't strictly on the coast, but it used to be before it silted up and now it's 10km from the coast. There's a massive cathedral there, but after they'd finished building the Choir and the Towers, the halted construction, so it's only half finished. It does look a little funny, but it's massive now, so I can't imagine how huge it would have been with a Nave added on. Here's a tower and the choir to the right. Unfortunately it was a bit difficult to get a photo of the church in full because the other buildings were so close.

There's a museum of archaeology next to the cathedral with apparently a fine collection of roman mosaics and paintings on stucco. Unfortunately we discovered that it's closed on Tuesday. So we made do with wandering around the cathedral before we headed off.

As we drove south, we could see the mediterranean to our left and the pyranees to our right. Pretty impressive!

It was really windy, though, so we couldn't spend much time on the beach at all. We managed to get this photo of me on a mediterranean beach before the sandblasting drove us away. Poor Paulie did not even want to get out of the car, but I forced him to so he could take the picture.

We drove as far as Port Vendres, which is a Catalan Port, despite being in France. Apparently Catalonia extends into France. It's all very confusing, but it did mean that they have tapas bars, so I just went with the flow.

The architecture here is a blend of French, Spanish and seaside, which makes it quite quirky, unlike many of the towns we'd driven through that looked like French versions of Noosa or Surfer's.

One thing that I found particularly disturbing is that they park their boats in the same haphazard way as they park their cars. There were no marina berths, you just tie up to the harbour next to another boat. Crazy!

Our final full day in the south of France was spent castle hunting again. We started out at Chateau de Puilaurens, which was built on another rocky mountain. We arrived just as it opened, so we were the only ones there right up until we were leaving. The views were spectacular (again).

The next castle on the list was Chateau de Puivert. This one was on a plateau, so a lot easier to get to than the previous. The owner was apparently living there whilst rennovating. Hmmm... rennovating, you say... I guess there was some scaffolding there in some areas, but it wasn't looking super sturdy and there weren't even handrails on the spiral staircases. I'm pretty sure the owner must have been a crazy/eccentric old man. You'd want there to be central heating in the areas you were living in!

The view from the top of the central tower was pretty amazing, but due to lack of handrails, I got to the top of the staircase took my photos, yelled at Paul to be careful and then bid a hasty retreat.

The final castle was called Chateau de Arques. This was in a valley, so even easier to get to. This one was partially rennovated. Although it was pretty good, Paul and I both agreed that it could be improved with the addition of some replica furnishings, so you get the idea of how it would have looked at the time.

We're now in the final stages of packing up. The bags are packed, the house has been cleaned and we're about to sit down to a farewell lunch of pate, roquefort, saucisse and tarts. A fine way to bid farewell.

We've had an awesome time here in France and have already started planning the next trip. Although we're sad to leave, we're looking forward to seeing family, friends and our puppies again.