Wednesday, May 24, 2023

St. Guilihem Le Désert: First walks.... Château du Géant & Cirque de Mureze

 

21/05/'23

After our chopping at Intermarche, we popped down to this cute village called Villeneuvette which was used to have royal factory for military uniforms. See here for more info 😊 

It was raining, and we noticed there was a new carpark for visitors outside the commune. Looked like there was a new footpath neatly signposted too, I love French signposts, very clear and easy to follow. Some photos from the village below. 


On the right hands side, there's a carpark. 👆



When I was taking some photos, I felt something behind me, I looked back & up, sew this! I laughed. obviously someone got funny sense of humour. 😆 Are they Barbie and Ken???


Then we drove to Cirque de Moureze, there was a new circular walk with a tourist information, but it was closed. Lovely car parking space. I am sure they didn't have this circular walk before, or we just didn't see it? please see my past blog here for photos, I left my phone in the car, so didn't take any photos. i did take my GoPro, so look out for my video on youtube! 😊
Circular walk was lovely, easy to follow and fun, up and down on rocks, no wheelchair or maybe people with less mobility. This footpath did go up on rocks, down between rocks etc. Took us less than an hour to complete. Whereas, when we are here before, took us good a few hours, we walked up the mountains behind, saw a lake on the other side. 

After our walks, we drove back home, dropped our chopping, had our lunch ( protein shakes 😆 ). Then off to the village for little walk. exploring the village was fun, reminded me last time we were here. 

Marcus asked if i wanted to walk up to Château du Géant , He said I could anytime go down if I felt tired. I was already impressed myself walked circular footpath earlier that day. Since my cancer diagnosis, I get fatigued, and I can only walk so far with some rests. However some how, I feel so much energy and not feeling too tired, I can walk like how I used. 

When I was walking in Moureze, it reminded me how much I enjoyed footpaths and walks like those. Rocks, forests, stone paths.... Anyway, I put down to magic water of St Guilihem le Désert and magical fresh air! 😍 Very healing I thought. Just being here is healing itself. 




At the top of the castle... At the moment, it is prohibited to go up there. It's been in the middle of restoration. To be honest, I saw a few people went up, and we did that ourself. View is amazing, looking down, there was the village. I wondered what is was like to wake up to this view every morning.... How story goes, Giant who used to live here. But who was it really? 🤔  How did they build the castle there and why they build it? 🧐


Village underneath.....👆




After our dinner ( salad 😆 ), we went to the Abbey to listen to mediaeval music. It was fantastic, I had never listened music like that before, very interesting. A guy in the middle had a qanun  which I'd never seen it before, it created amazing sound. I loved it. This mediaeval music had eastern influence, apparently in those days already their music was Eastern. They must've had trades those days. I could hear Arabian sound in the music. Beautiful. 

I wished this band ( three people band) came to Snape Malting in Suffolk, U.K to play music, it would be awesome to be able to watch locally too. Anyway, acoustic in the Abbey was amazing. It seems like they do have music events in the abbey, so I would defo recommend to include to your visiting plans. 😊

St. Guilihem Le Désert 21/05/'23

 


21/05/'23

We woke up early for Sunday.... I was hungry. So, we drove to nearest BIG intermarche for about 40mins or so, we got lost a half way. That was the shop we wanted to go on our way here, but google map satnav took us different way, so we couldn't go yesterday. 


I do love intermarche, as well as small independent shops in France. They look and have very fresh produce and vegetables taste vegetables, and fruits taste fruits. I purchased strawberries as well as lots of veggies for a week. I could not wait to taste, so, I had a few in our Fiat 500. They were delish! Sweet, and i remember now how strawberries taste. Even Waitrose in U.K, don't have these lovely strawberries! Thanks France, your produces are amazing! 

I love cooking, making salads with beautiful produces like these, no need to add anything, just extra virgin olive oil and lemons will do  as dressing!

A few more photos from the village....




Beautifully preserved mediaeval village, I can only imagine how it was like in those days... Tickle my imagination.... Soooo happy I am here now!   



This is a view from our patio, beautifully restored stoned house with private garden. I love it! 😍

weather forecast says we will have thunderstorms everyday whilst we are here, and now, as I am writing this, it's thunder storming outside as it was predicted. So far, we've had it everyday, however we've also had sunny weather during the day. Rain drops are huge, unlike England, not cold either.  Beautiful! 

I recorded a few footage of this thunder storms, I will edit and upload on youtube some point! (norie yoga on youtube 🤩) 



St Guilhem Le Désert 20/05/'23

 



I always don't sleep much when I get excited for my holiday. It's been so long since I visited St Guilhem Le Désert as you can see from my past blogs. I really love it here. 😍 so beautiful.


We got a bit early to Stansted air port. I prefer early than later. Always plenty time to get to an airport for my flights. It was busy as usual. And lot of waiting time. I felt so tired by the time we went into the plain. It was sunny day in U.K, hoping to have even sunnier days in France.



we flew into Nimes Air port. Cute little airport. When we got there, it seemed like having airport event, tents up, people were getting in little plains. Military plains too, I could see silver cases were unloaded. 




When we came out, my partner Marcus went to queue up for a hire car. i went to get something to eat.... a packet of crisps, peanuts & sparkling water! 😆

A car we got was.... fiat 500 hybrid in red! looked so funky, and considering how small it looks, feels spacious inside and seats are high up too. higher than mini, and comfier! 


Took us a bit to get to St Guilhem Le Désert, a good ole sate nav, we just followed......


Can't tell you how much I got excited to see familer scenery as we got closer. 

That evening, we checked in to our home for a week, and rested......

Beautiful misty mountains....