Minerve

Up in to the hills we go and make another pilgrimage to a favourite village

Minerve in the Hérault dept is the actual 'Holy Grail' for us two tourists as it represents the centre of all things 'quaffable' in life

Minervois wine in all its grades hits the back of our net very easily and its just good for the soul to come here.

'Wellease Bwyan'

The village is precariously placed on a rocky outcrop which many years ago the 'Cathars' tried their best to defend

Not if you live in a glass house anyway...

Happy face, happy village

'La Poste'

Ahhhh, they've started then...

very cheap and very simple…

Next morning after spending the night overlooking the gorges we cruise the canal to arrive at Ventenac

The restaurant opposite the parking spot were doing another 'Plat du Jour' deal for less than €13.00 and it was rude not to join in

Main course was Boeuf Bourguignon and it was simply gorgeous 

Probably quite relieved at having not made todays menu one of the house hens joins us for lunch

Local wine seller's den of sin

We bought several fine wines...

Carcassonne

We've been here so many times before but not in 'Vanning' mode so it was good to be able to stay just a short walk from the old city and wander in and out at will

Quite surprisingly opposite us in the wire we see an early Autotrail with left hand drive in Belgian colours

The Holy Grail...

Bit of a fantasy place this as it has been added to many times over the centuries

An American child 'on holiday'

A stroll back in to the walled medieval city later that evening proves much nicer for us as the bus loads of trippers have long gone and the place takes on a different atmos

Nina was half expecting Kevin Costner or the like to leap out somewhere, fat chance!

Nina's go at shadow art

Its blurred Nick but you get the point!

We leave satiated (with wine too) and make a note to leave it a while before revisiting as we don't want to over visit this place

Our fondest memory was a few years ago sitting watching (with hundreds of thousands of others) the Bastille Day fireworks here and were left stunned!

Canal Du Midi

Finally we make it down to one of our most favourite areas, namely the southern Midi Pyrenees

The weather here is usually superb with both the warmth and sunshine eagerly lapped up by those seemingly endless vineyards

Our favourite wines (and there are many) are Corbieres and Minervois and we aim to visit these areas following the Canal du Midi which effectively connects the Atlantic with the Mediterranean across Southern France

Our aire for the night is next to the canal and we set off for the usual evening stroll

The lock keepers cottage

As we remember it, miles of plane trees and green canal water

We guessed this as millet 

Heaven for us biking...

Middle of a quadruple lock

There's a memory there somewhere...

The ride next day takes us past Castelnaudary, the home of Cassoulet which is in my top ten all time favourite dishes

The French alas miss a trick with this canal as its very popular but sparsely littered with cafes en route

Glad we eventually found this one

Rank and file

Officers on parade...

Every tree has a number..