Journey from Paris to Mirepoix, Sète and Sospel, September 2004
In September, 2004, we travelled from our friends' house in Bagneux, near Paris, to the village of Mirepoix, at the foot of the Pyrenees, and then on to the Italian border. After we had hung out, as the expression goes, in the old haunts...
The Pont Napoléon crosses the Seine from the Latin Quarter. In the background is the Pont Neuf, and the Palais de Justice on the Ile de la CIté. Did you know that the name doesn't refer to Napoleon Bonaparte, but his nephew who became Napoleon III, and who built the bridge as well as the city's boulevards?
It was Wijjie's first visit to the Château de Versailles. The tall building in the background is the Palace Chapel. The equestrian statue of Louis XIV greets the visitors.
In the gardens designed by Le Nôtre
a painting of Paris which I love, by the poet Max Jacob
After visiting the Palace, we had a very, very late lunch of steak tartare at a popular brasserie in the Latin Quarter. Nothing like red wine and raw meat to restore you!
Wijjie checking our email in the computer shop on Rue St. André des Arts...
...where we saw this game addict fall asleep at his keyboard! The manager, a large African chap, shook him awake. After rubbing his eyes and looking around to see where he was, he re-activated his manga cartoon.
In Le Brazza, the bistrot at the heart of Bagneux, near Ana's house. Bagneux was once a village in the countryside but is now part of Greater Paris. But, fortunately, it still has a "villagey" feel about it!
My namesake Laurent invited us to lunch near his office at the fashion house Kenzo, on the Place des Victoires, heart of Paris' fashion district. (Laurent is now happily unemployed).
In the gardens of the Champs-Elysées. From Paris we drove south through the Auvergne region.
The great cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand, the capital of the Auvergne region
Cahors
The 14th century Pont du Diable is a fortified bridge in the Dordogne region, south-western France
Convent of La Rieuenette
We spent a few days at this Cistercian convent, to hear the five cloistered nuns (seen on either side of the nave) singing Gregorian. I got up before dawn every morning for the first service, chanted in the 12th century church, totally dark but for a few candles. Wijjie stayed in bed, though...
The lodgings are simple but comfortable, and you are free to pay whatever you want!
Mirepoix
This town in the foothills of the Pyrenees is famous for its arcaded square, La Place des Couverts
The arcades are richly carved with grotesque figures, most of them dating from the Middle Ages.
Pézenas
A trompe-l'oeuil 16th century doorway. But the man standing in it is vintage 20th century and no optical illusion!
Salon-en-Provence
La Fontaine Mousseuse - "Mossy Fountain" - has acquired a thick coat of calcified lime and moss, over the past 400 years! It's hard to imagine, but inside what looks like a stalk of broccoli is a marble fountain dish raised on a column. They say it started getting mossy in the 19th century and for some reason the locals decided not to clean it. It's wonderful to see what happens when Nature is allowed to take its course!
The seaport of Sète
Breakfast on the balcony of Hôtel des Mouettes, on the Grand Canal. Sète was originally spelled Cette, but to avoid confusion with the demonstrative adjective cette - as in "cette femme - this woman" - it was decided to change it to Sète, early in the 20th century.
The very first morning we slept there, we were amazed to see below in the canal a great water festival with gondoliers racing at one another and throwing their adversaries into the water with jousting poles.
It was the Fête de Saint Louis, held every August, with thrilling combats on the canal to entrance the crowds.
La bouillabaisse
Sète's lagoon produces excellent oysters, one of Lorenzo's passions! Wijjie likes them too, since acquiring the taste...
La Pointe Courte, a fisherman's quarter. Valentino was just a few months old then, and easier to carry around. We ended up spending the autumn in Sète, just to soak up the atmosphere...
Thonniers - tuna fishing boats, moored in the Grand Canal.
I took this picture from the lookout spot on the Mont Sainte Claire.
The port and town of Sète were created on a desolate and marshy shore in the 17th century under Louis XIV, as part of the great Canal du Midi, built to cross southwestern France from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. The canal - which still exists and is used by barges for pleasure cruises - started on the west through the Gironde Estuary, but on the east a port that could withstand storms and waves was needed. Sète's Thau Lagoon was ideal because it connected to the Rhône River delta, but there was no natural bay nearby deep enough for seagoing ships, so a breakwater had to be built to create one.
The Mont Saint Claire which overlooks the city was used as a quarry and thousands of country folk flocked to provide the manpower, dragging the huge stones into the sea. This seawall was swept away many times until the current one was built in the 19th century. A grid of canals was built for the ships to dock, and the city grew around them.
The port was greatly expanded in the 20th century to receive ships bringing wine and oranges from Algeria, attracting many Italian immigrants who today form the bulk of the population. But the port sank into decline after Algeria became independent and trade links dwindled. Tuna and sardine fishing are now the main industries, as well as tourists like us, who love the canals and the picturesque streets of the upper city, hung with laundry. It is said that Sète is like Venice below and Naples above!
Sète is famous, also, as the birthplace of the 20th century troubadour Georges Brassens. His songs are also some of the most touching and original poems ever written in French, or in any other language that I am able to read!
You can see and hear Brassens singing his famous song about his birthplace, in which he asks to be buried on the beach of Sête, by clicking below. In fact, his grave is in the cemetery overlooking the lagoon, on the other side of the hill known as the Mont Sainte Claire.
Sète's Chamber of Commerce was made to resemble an Algerian mosque, as tribute to the source of the citrus fruit trade which enriched the city.
The Madonna atop the Church of Saint Louis greets the returning mariners.
Valentino took his first steps on the porch of the same church, near our flat!
The covered market of Sète is famous for its produce, and atmosphere.
The red fish in the foreground are mullet - rouget in French - an essential ingredient of la bouillabaisse.
At the center of the building is a very lively bar where the merchants get together for a drink - the Diego Café. The owner is of Spanish descent and called Diego...
Here he is pouring a drink for the man in the white smock.
Just outside the market, on the Rue Gambetta next to La Mairie, is an excellent cheese shop called Lou Pastrou. The owner, Monsieur Cadillac, and I became great friends. He taught me most of what I now know about cheese!
Here are some of his treasures on display. He comes from a family of Roquefort cheese producers, in the village of Roquefort 100 miles north of Sète.
There is lots of fish and tuna to be had - but no sushi bars, so Wijjie made some at home. She was taught by a sushi man we know in Spain.
One December morning by the lighthouse, on the seawall protecting the industrial port.
Sospel, Provence
This medieval village above Menton is famous for its 12th century toll bridge.
The style of the Cathedral façade is high baroque, since this part of France was for a time part of Italy. But the medieval bell tower belies Sospel's French origins.
Piène, high above the Vallée de la Roya
Italy is just a few miles away from this picturesque mountain village..
We met these hunters coming home for lunch. Valentino seems to be interested in getting a bit of the boar!
