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. 😊