Languedoc, France April 29-30, 2013

The little town we stayed in with its fountain dedicated to the French revolution

Lovely medieval church in the town, nave dates back to 14th century

Flowers everywhere were gorgeous, saw these on our post rain walk on Monday

I was very proud of my wildflower picking and arrangement

View from house window

Our day trip on Tuesday. we passed by the E'tang du Montady. This area was drained by making radial ditches from a single center point out to the extremities.   The center point has canals radiating from it in a star shaped pattern. The water flows to this center point and is then drained through an underground collection point and through the  hills and under the Malpas Tunnel of the Canal du Midi. It is still in use.

Our destination was the Oppidum of Enserune. A celtic, greek, roman site.

 Another photo of the lake (or pond) of Montady, famous for its star shaped drainage system dating back to 13th century, originally built by monks. Was a very cool view.

The 4 hearty sightseers. Site was inhabited continuously from middle of 6th century B.C. until the 1st century A.D.

fields of flowering thyme at the site

 Monet like scenes. They had a nice pathway to walk on around the site.

A spurt of purple

roman storage wells, used for storing grain.

Back wall was very ancient, pre Roman.

Such gorgeous perfume coming from these lilacs which were next to the museum.

Celtique art found on site. Their little museum has some very nice treasures, all from the site., displayed in chronological order. Site was first excavated in 1915 and there is more to excavate.

A  Roman well with a flowering Judas tree growing out of it

Map of the site which they called
"The Gaul Village of Enserune"

The canal du Midi ran very close to the site

View of the hill top where the site was located. Building you can see is the museum.  Site is 100 meters above the plain offering the protection of a fortified village. Was completely abandoned in the 1st century a.d. in favor of lowland settlements.

The Malpas tunnel  under the hill d'Ensérune excavated in 1679,  allowing the passage of the Canal du Midi. It was Europe's first navigable canal tunnel. 

A more typical canal du midi sight, very tranquil

It couldn't have gotten more pictureque!

The boys and I

risotto, at the Michelin starred restaurant "Octopus" in Bezier. Everything was delicious. We did the 4 or was it 5? course surprise menu.

Octopus

perfect lamb

a fuzzy cheese cart

The birthday boy and friend  looking sad confronted with only water!

can't remember what this dessert was but everything we ate was exquisite

loved the dessert wine glasses

some sorbet, chocolate etc. was delicious. Wonderful birthday meal!

A fun and busy two days.   Monday, Peter and Joe kindly fetched us from the train in Montpelier and we stayed close to home as the weather was bad. We ate, drank and were merry and did get a nice walk in after the rainfall on the pretty local trails. Tues. we had fun at the local "huilerie d'olive" store buying all kinds of wonderful dishes, soaps, edible treasures etc.  and in the local French Hyper U supermarket. Went back "home" for a lunch of cheeses and breads and once it appeared that the raindrops were letting up we piled in the car and drove to the Oppidum at Nissan-lez-Enserune between Beziers and Narbonne. Great day exploring and then out for a fabulous dinner to celebrate Peter's (and my) birthdays in Beziers.