Aniane

Whimsical mosaics of Aniane

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This post has been updated to include new finds and put them all in one place.

These appeared subtly. First we casually saw a few, then we looked harder and finally it was like a scavenger hunt. Tim found six more one day when he walked on his own through the village, with an old camera that lacked connectivity. Here’s our complete set.

First, we noticed a blue beetle on the wall.

Then a ghost on the wall of the cemetery.

Next a frog and submarine by the aquaducts.

A flying pink pig above the charcuterie.

A fly on the wall of Rue Font Picotiere, with a panda for good measure.

A glass of wine with grapes across from the Caviste.

A slice of cake at the boulangerie

And 2 little hedgehogs possibly near the day care

All adorable and subtle. Perhaps more will appear during our stay in Aniane. They give a modern, whimsical nature to this village, which grew around its ancient abbey built in 782.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniane

Then Tim hit the jackpot.

It starts with an idea and then a lightbulb goes on.

Here’s me on the old road. I spent a lot of time knitting a Shetland baby blanket during our travels. That’s what I was doing when he found this image.

There wasn’t a hospital in the village so babies arrive by stork. True fact.

Be prepared.

Over one of the village watering troughs.

This next one isn’t part of the series but it’s still a mosaic in town.

We couldn’t find anyone who fessed up to being involved in this project but it made us smile.

Slow and steady

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We had quite the outing planned today. We boarded an early bus to St. Guilhem le Desert to hike. I saw this snail at the bus stop and took it as a sign to go slow and steady.

St. Guilhem may be one of the prettiest cities in France. It has an Abbey from the 7th century with, reportedly, a relic from Christ’s cross.

The Abbey is surrounded by stunning cliffs. On the way to our walk I heard a swarm of bees in a tree. They were gone by the time we finished.

The path joined one of the pilgrim paths to Compostello. We even saw a couple of pilgrims busking in the square with a donkey! We walked up the river valley and around the back of a gigantic rock formation.

I recalled from our last trip a bridge, which I thought harked back centuries. Tim poo pooed me until we came upon the bridge.

The path was well maintained and made it easy to rise above the valley.

We were surprised to come upon burnt forest and learned there was a fire in April.

My phone kept track of our progress. Slow and steady. We missed our bus home so we finished the hike with lunch in the swuare by the Abbey under the 150 year old Plane tree.

Then we hitchhiked home and were picked up by a lovely couple who only spoke french and I was delighted I was able to make small talk, even if I had to repeat myself a couple of times.

Aniane is its own pleasant valley

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We live in what is considered Pleasant Valley. The High Peaks of the Adirondacks trap the storms headed east and they miss our little town. Seems the same is true in Aniane.

When we arrived, the weather report looked dismal, rain, rain, rain, which never materialized.

We took a trip to the cities of Carcassone and Narbonne. Tim bought reduced fare train tickets but we managed to ride the TGV, which Tim insisted wasn’t the REAL TGV,

and express commuter trains. Conductors scoffed at our stupidity but didn’t kick us off.

The walled city of Carcassone is quite remarkable although filled with restaurants and gift shops. It isn’t under the “Pleasant Valley” spell and it poured while we were there. An exhibit celebrating some anniversary allowed an artist to apply concentric aluminum circles for a temporary exhibit. Apparently it wasn’t really temporary.

When a bartender and I reached an impasse discussing, in French, the Occitanie cross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occitan_cross, he said Google help, and it did. It is an emblem dating back to the 12th century with lots of symbolism.

View from the Palace in Narbonne
Best gargoyles

There is a canal, the Midi Canal, which connects the Atlantic Ocean yo the Mediterranean Sea. It was Europe’s first long distance canal and Leonardo DaVinci was given a shot at it in 1516 but it took another 150 years to get built. It includes more than 100 locks!

Our journey continues, mostly on foot. We shopped at the weekly market this morning and bought fresh mussels, ravioli, veggies and cheese. Tomorrow I will eat in my first Michelin restaurant, right in town. We have tickets to a concert in a medieval abbey on Sunday and our host had arranged rides with friends. Life is good!

Aniane redux

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The travel bug bit us – again. Tim had a busy Spring, because he prepared the Crane Chorus for their Spring concert, and I am always keen for an adventure. Plus I have been studying French with the Alliance Francaise since just before the Pandemic and have been eager to put it to use. We returned to Aniane, a village in southern France, we have visited before (Tim twice) and are enjoying it just as much as before.

Bedroom view over the village rooftops

It’s a small enough village where we are often forced to communicate in French, sometimes with mixed results. Sorting the garbage has stymied us. I think mostly because recycling at home has strict limitations: only very specific plastic bottles; glass; paper; and tin. Everything else is trash.

We’ve composted all our veggie scraps, coffee, and egg shells for years at home and use it in the garden. As best as we can tell, compost in France also includes meat bones, while “residual” is recycling and everything else. We’ll see; pickup day is almost here. We can bring our collection of empty wine bottles separately to the town center.

Even our maison’s caretaker was a bit vague.

We revisited the town, Saint Guilhem-le Désert, where Tim was disappointed we are no longer allowed to climb to the ruins. It was okay by me. Signs said it has been closed since 2011, but, ahem, we were definitely there in 2016 as seen in this post. https://one2travelfar.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/walk-the-walk/

We had a lovely hike nonetheless, I drank beer under the same 150 year old plain tree, and bought some lovely sari and block print fabric.

Weather reports were initially discouraging but we’ve only had a few brief rain squalls. More rain is needed though.

Pont diable bridge from the 800’s over l’Herault River

There are two birds we hear constantly: the Common Nightingale and Eurasian Collared Dove. The first reminds us of a Mockingbird with all its chatter and the second sounds like a Mourning Dove on overdrive.

Eurasian Collared Dove song https://www.bird-sounds.net/eurasian-collared-dove/

Common Nightingale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_nightingale

More posts to follow on the tasteful graffiti and clever mosaics seen around town.

Slip (ups)?

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The rain abated and we headed out for another walk on a mountain that overlooks a manmade lake. Our first mistake was not bringing lunch and the town, Liausson, had no restaurant or market. Off we went to Octon to a creperie for a bowl of cider (lap it up) and crepes. Then back we came and headed into the hills. 

   
   
All was well for so much of the hike.  When we teached the top, we could see another lilliputian town on the other side of the mountain, the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. Why, we could even see Spain from our backyard. 

   
 
Look at that smile. So happy. 

  
Until…we reached a shaded, canted, steep, slippery section on our descent. Let’s just say I didn’t like it one bit. In fact I had a “little” panic attack and Tim had to talk me off the cliff, so to speak, with me gripping his arm as I slipslided away. 

But descend we did with only a little butt sliding on my part. 

I shouldn’t have complained about toilets lacking seats since we encountered this one. 

  
In full disclosure we also found one with a padded seat. Not too bad when there’s no central heat. 

Then we were invited to a friend of our proprietors’ to settle up our bill, after 7. So we ate a hearty soup I made with fresh veggies from the market and headed out. Only to find  appetizers, local wine and a seafood stew bubbling in the pressure cooker. Oops. Who knew?

The weather turned

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Lots of clouds, drizzle or rain. Yesterday we headed to Montpelier and swam in their beautiful, somewhat crowded, 50 m pool. 

They have these nifty little hanger baskets for shoes, which must come off before entering the locker room, and outerwear.

  
Then we walked around the city. As did lots of others with colorful umbrellas. Our drive home on freeways was a little unnerving because we (I the navigator) headed off in the wrong direction more than once.

  
The cathedral is gianormous. 

 

  
Today was still drizzly and we took another city excursion to Sommiers, with a bridge from Roman times still in use. And black swans just like Tasmania. 

   
   
We found a nice walk up into the hills which allowed us to work off our crepes. 

We heard of a poppy field just outside Aniane and Tim found it on our way home. 

   
 
It reminded me of the beautiful tulips we saw in Amsterdam during our six hour layover and visit with old friends. I was too jetlagged to remember my camera though. 

Oh yes!  Why don’t french public toilets have seats?! 

  

The Walls of Aniane

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Tim has been focusing on the flowers that seem to grow on air from the old walls, bromiliads?

   
   
I’m impressed with the variety of graffiti. 

   
    
 

Then I hit a communication wall. I needed a haircut. I went to the salon with Tim and his friend, Patrick, who is fluent in french. I had to wait until Friday so they made it clear it needed to be long enough for a ponytail. 

 I even had this phrase on my phone, “J’aimerais bien garder les longueurs afin de pouvoir les mettre dans le queue de cheval si vous plait.”  You can translate it but it politely asks to keep it long enough for a pony tail. Day of the haircut I felt like an animal at the vet. Until an english song came on the radio, “I’m too drunk to f••k”. Good thing she and her customers didn’t speak english! Here’s the song.

   
 

Where are we?

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We cannot read the hiking maps. An easy walk turned into a 5.5 hour moderately difficult hike. Thank goodness we met a couple from the Isle of Skye, equally confused, who shed some light on where we might be.I became extremely quiet and stated an absolute turnaround time but we confirmed our location before we needed to turn around. 

The trail numbers are variable, Tim thinks he’s got it now, I remain dubious. But the sights, which cannot be captured by camera, were spectaculor. 

We could see our little village of Aniane way off in the distance.  

 We were even higher than the other day. I was surprised when some mountain bikers rode up the trail. 

  Some parts of the road were built more than a thousand years ago and were better than any Adirondack trail.   

We enjoyed some fresh spring water and a cold beer at the end of the hike and all was well with the world.

   
 

Walk the walk

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  I’ve had an inkling that I would like to make a pilgramage to Compestello along “the way”.  It turns out we are staying in a town along  one of the paths, specifically GR653.  So we walked 4.7 miles to the next town, St. Guilhem le Desert, along the route today. It was spectacular and moving. We walked from one Abbey to the next on a path that has been followed for perhaps a thousand years.

We lacked the accoutrements of a pilgram: no staff or scallop shell.   

Instead I had a camera.  We crossed a beautiful bridge built in the year 800 AD.  Unfortunately, a good part of the walk was along a busy road but a path came and went along the river L’Herault.

  
Once in the village, we spotted a side path and began along it. It looked like it might take us to the top of a mountain where we saw the ruins of a fortress or wall and away we went. It was a well graded cobblestone path for most of the way until it wasn’t.  

  
That’s our destination at the top of the mountain. 

I almost chickened out before the last ascent until I found a path I could handle.

We enjoyed the windy views, then had a beer and coffee in the village square. We decided to take a 10 minute bus back to our apartment. Much easier. 

Parlay vous?

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  We’ve traveled to a country where I don’t speak the language. Keeps things interesting.  Tim’s more fluent in French than I expected. Or at least he looks like he is. 

  We’re staying in a renovated Medieval tannery in Aniane,   France, built in the 14th century.  

  
 Our host is a weaver!  There’s a gigantic 4-shaft counterbalance loom, numerous spinning wheels, swifts and textiles around. Heaven. But sadly, I couldn’t get my thoughts across.  Just some pantomiming of spinning and weaving.  

More later on our amazing apartment. Here are some scenes of the town I saw during my run. 

   
There seems to be a colony of black and white cats.

 We have to drive the car on this “road” next to the stream that runs through town  to get to our ancient apt.
   
 Grafitti abounds. 

  

There’s an abbey from the 8th(?!) century we hope to get to see. And we have to find the local wineries. So far we found the butcher (delicious sausage, we have to wait until next Sunday for our roast chicken), boulangerie for fresh bread and croissants, gourmet shop for local veggies and cheese.  Tomorrow’s quest is the pharmacy since the Dutch TSA confiscated Tim’s contact lens solution. Silly us, it was 118 ml-only 100 ml allowed!!! But my scissors, crochet hooks and other personal items sailed through with nairy a glance. Feeling secure.