Mountain Climbing, Wine Tasting, and Fairy Tale Villages

This past weekend we went on the second Dickinson excursion. This time, we visited two of the most beautiful towns I have ever seen: Conques and Cordes-sur-Ciel.

They were so gorgeous, seriously, I felt like I was living Beauty and the Beast. See?




I took about a million pictures, although they were all entirely incapable of showing just how beautiful these towns actually are. I have another facebook album (separate from the others that I have been plugging in the past two posts) that you can see if you click here. It's entirely devoted to the many pictures I took over the weekend, although it's not all of them. It's a good thing I took my computer along so that I could upload pictures off of my camera as I went, otherwise I wouldn't have had space.



Conques, the first village we visited, had a beautiful church (pictured above) with sparrows flying all around the towers... in some of my pictures you can see them, there had to have been hundreds. We arrived and had some free time to grab a pastry before taking a long hike up a mountain (which was harder, I think, than either Roquefixade or Montségur). We had a picnic
at the top, with a view of the city and it's surrounding mountains... absolutely phenomenal view, as I'm sure you would imagine.

(Conques)

After we left Conques, we headed to Cordes-sur-Ciel, a city located on the top of a very high mountain, with a steep cobblestone path which we had to climb up carrying all of our bags. Of course, given that we had just climbed a massive mountain, I was not pleased. But, at the top, it was totally worth it. I had my own hotel, beautiful hotel room with my own bathroom (most importantly, a shower). I took the longest and probably the nicest shower I have ever taken in my life... I was sore and tired and sweaty and I really didn't want to do anything but stand under the water for the rest of my life. Getting out was painful, and getting dressed and going to dinner was equally difficult.

But, it was definitely worth it. Dinner was delicious, we started with salade and quiche, followed by guinea fowl (basically small chicken), followed by chocolate hazelnut deliciousness. We also drank a regional specialty: violet liqueur mixed with white wine. It was really good... very sweet. After a long meal and lots of laughs, I collapsed into bed, and fell quickly asleep.

The following day, our resident tour guide, Monsieur Crema, took us around the town and told us all about its history. Just like Cordes, Conques-sur-Ciel was gorgeous... old, stone buildings with large windows, ivy and flowers covering almost every surface... I never wanted to leave.

After a nice lunch, we just barely had enough time for a quick trip to the Museum of Sugar Art... everything was made out of sugar! Incredible, don't you think?? Afterwards, we headed back down the mountain... it was so steep that the way down was equally difficult. When we finally got down, we got back on the bus, and headed off to the winery, where we had a wine tasting of les vins de Gaillac. The winery was located on a beautiful plot of land in a town called L'Isle-sur-Tarn, because it is located just on the bank of the Tarn river. In this case, the Tarn actually ran through the winery's back yard.

The owner showed us around the beautiful winery, as well as a little bit of the surrounding land. The building has always been in his family, although not always under the same name, as sometimes there were no male heirs to take it. He seemed incredibly proud of what he did, while still seeming to really enjoy the opportunity to share his work with us. He said the main thing he wanted to have us learn was that nature played a huge role in what he did... no matter how well his job was done, it all depended on how generous nature wanted to be. We got to taste the white, rosée, and red Gaillac wines he made, and had a good time being taught how to properly taste wine... starting with looking at the color, smelling the wine and naming the smells, and then, finally, tasting it so that it touches many different senses. It was an interesting look into something that comprises such a huge part of French life and culture.

(Château Lastours winery)

That's about everything... it was another extremely successful Dickinson excursion, I had a really fantastic time. I'm sorry if this post is a little more vague... I have a lot of work to do for this upcoming week, but this blog has been nagging me for quite some time. Hope you enjoy these three posts in rapid succession... I'll be sure to write soon about classes, etc., just let me finish off this week. Leave a comment, let me know you're reading, it'll make me more obliged to keep up.

À toute à l'heure!
Bryna