Light up your heart

The city of Montpellier has a special sparkle in the run-up to Christmas, when night falls early and festive decorations light up the streets in the heart of the city.

I wrote about my visit to the Christmas market in Montpellier about this time last year.  This year I have a different treat in store for you:  for three days at the beginning of December, the city centre’s landmark buildings served as canvases for the most wonderful light shows!  There were nine locations in all, and I managed to see the shows at five of them.  I started with the Arc de Triomphe, which was lit up spectacularly before the show:

I shot videos of all the sites I visited, so here are two of the Arc de Triomphe – if you receive this blog by e-mail, you may have to visit the blog page, in order to watch the videos.  The amazing light show turned the building into a futuristic spaceship, which took off for a flight through space!

Next, I stopped at the Prefecture, a very imposing building by day, and really funky looking that night:

The theme for the show at this building was a magical circus, with strong men pushing pieces of a giant puzzle into place.  Have a look!

At the church of Notre Dame des Tables the students of the Montpellier School of Art and the Montpellier School of Computer Graphic Animation and Visual Effects had been given free hand.  Their work was varied and highly entertaining.

Here are two videos:

Not far away was the Musee Fabre, where the show drew inspiration from some of the great paintings which are on display in the museum.

The show made you believe at times that the building was really moving!

As it was getting later, it became time for something to eat!!  My companions found a Lebanese restaurant in one of the side streets near the railway station.  The place was buzzing and warm, and we had a wonderful meal!  Meze to start with, followed by a large grill platter – very tasty and plentiful!!  The restaurant is called Al Manara, and you can find their website here.

The meze dishes were tabbouleh, hummus, aubergine caviar, cucumber with yoghurt, and beans with tomatoes.

On the grill platter we had grilled chicken breast (marinated beforehand, tender and juicy!), lamb kafta (minced lamb with onion and parsley), chawarma (a kind of kebab, with a wonderful sauce), as well as tasty rice and some salad.  There wasn’t room for dessert!!

But there was time for one last light show, at the Eglise St-Roch!

The facade of this church transformed into a kind of factory before our very eyes!

As this is the last post for this year, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very peaceful and happy festive season!!  See you next year, I hope!

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Discover Uzes

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about my trip to the Witches’ Market in Saint Chaptes. In order to be able to get to the market early in the morning, I stayed the previous night in Uzes. Getting to Uzes in good time gave me the chance to spend a few hours exploring the centre of town. Uzes is a town whose history dates back to Roman times. Most of you will have heard of the Pont du Gard, an aqueduct built by the Romans to bring water to Nimes. The Pont du Gard is not far from Uzes, and Uzes is where the Romans captured the water for Nimes. Here’s a picture of the Pont du Gard at sunset:

The old town centre of Uzes is full of amazing buildings.  Unfortunately most of the streets are very narrow, so it was impossible to capture much more than some architectural details.  The “dressed up” door was for Halloween – the tape says ‘Caution – Enter if you dare’!  🙂

In the centre of the old town lies a large and irregular shaped square, it kind of meanders around several corners.  This is where the market takes place every Saturday – I’ve not yet visited that, but it’s on my list!!

Some of the houses along this open space have arcades on the ground floor – here’s a picture of a stone-vaulted arcade:

Not far from the square lies the ducal castle.  The Duke of Uzes still owns the castle, and apparently the title is the highest ranking among French nobility.  The castle can be visited, I just didn’t have enough time.

Right across the street from the ducal castle stands a splendid building, which houses the town hall.

One wing of the building was home to the post office and telephone exchange at one time.  I imagine that both moved out some time ago!

The cathedral was destroyed several times.  The current building dates from the 17th century.  The arcaded belfry dates from the 11th century.

I found a some lovely door knockers on my walks:

As the day drew to a close, my thoughts turned to dinner – wouldn’t you know?? 🙂  I’d noticed a few restaurants throughout the town and in the end I decided on a restaurant called Midi a l’Ombre, which was tucked away a little, not far from the tourist office and the cinema.  It turned out to have been a great choice!  The dining room was very stylish and warm, and the chairs oh so comfortable.  You’ll be able to see pictures of the dining room on the restaurant’s own website – I didn’t take any since there were a fair number if diners already seated.  But I did take pictures of the food!  Here is the amuse bouche, a delicate jerusalem artichoke soup!

Since I had a friend with me, here are two starters.  The first is a terrine of foie gras with figs, the second is a dish of scallop and prawn ravioli with crispy vegetables.

Here is the main course – delicious and perfectly cooked john dory with polenta and ratatouille.

The cheese selection was amazing!  I overheard the waiter describing the cheese under the plastic cloche as ‘the devil’s suppository’ to the guests at the next table, warning them that it was very smelly! 😀  I decided to give that particular cheese a miss…

The desserts were a fitting end to a wonderful meal!  The first was a Grand Marnier mousse with crispy orange biscuits.  The second was a chocolate mousse cake, which was as light as a feather!

Highly recommended!!

The last of the season

With winter marching in and Christmas on the way, I thought I would share some pictures of the glorious autumn colours we had in Languedoc this year.  I took the photographs on a walk last week, a couple of days before some wet and stormy weather moved across Languedoc.  I’m sure there are still a few leaves clinging on out there, but mostly the leaves are gone now.  Not surprising really, it’s early December after all!

Here’s where I started my walk – this field is just a few steps away from the main street in Saint-Chinian.

Look at how these leaves glow in the sunshine!!

A little farther on, the trees appear to have shed most of their leaves, but the leaves on the vines beyond are still almost green, and of course the evergreens around the vineyards stay ever so green!

At Clos Bagatelle, this vineyard was a myriad of different shades of orange and russet.

Just around the corner I found this bottlebrush plant (callistemon) flowering its heart out.

Daisies seem to thrive everywhere!

At Chateau La Dournie, the predominant colour was yellow!

This wonderful stand of trees is right by the Vernazobre river:

Some plants thrive in the shelter which these trees provide.

At La Rive, the market gardens had some very neat looking rows of cabbages!

Returning towards Saint-Chinian, I caught this view of the windmill with the vineyards below.

This mushroom is not edible, but looks quite attractive.

And here is the last picture from my walk, the flowers and fruits of an arbousier (arbutus unedo).  I’m not sure if there are many plants which bear fruit and flowers at the same time, but this is definitely one of them!!

If you’re planning a visit to Saint-Chinian, and are interested in following in my footsteps, I give you below the map of my walk.  I hope you’ll enjoy it!

On your broomstick!

About 10 years ago, at the wine harvest fete in Cessenon, I met Didier Duserre, who was making brooms.  He was demonstrating how traditional brooms were made from sorghum straw, and he explained that his production was 100% French, since he grew his own sorghum.  I was fascinated by the process, and even more fascinated when he told me about the Marche des Sorcieres, a witches’ market, which was held in his home town of Saint Chaptes on the 1st of November every year.  I mentally filed that bit of information away, in the hope that I might be able to visit the market one day.

That day came this year, and I’m very happy that I finally was able to visit the market.  The drive to Saint Chaptes was beautiful, taking me across the mountains as I gave the motorway a miss.  I visited a couple of places on the way, and stayed overnight in Uzes, which enabled me to be at the market early.

I met Didier Duserre again, who was at the centre of the market with his broom-making demonstration.  He explained that the market was started over 10 years ago by a group of women artists and artisans, who were looking for somewhere to sell their wares.  He suggested that they hold a market, and the ladies came up with the name.  It was a success from day one, and nowadays the market draws thousands of visitors each year!

Didier makes all kinds of brooms, all from the sorghum that he grows himself.  To find out a little more about the process, you can visit his website here.

At the market, the witch theme was to be seen everywhere, from the witches’ cauldron in front of Didier’s stall …

… to the items for sale at some of the stalls…

… and it extended to the dress of some of the visitors!

The market stalls offered a wonderful variety of goodies, from clothes to food to traditional handicrafts.

The storyteller kept young and old entertained:

Some of the artisans were demonstrating their art:

There was another broom-maker at the market – to my mind his brooms looked more like the brooms a witch would use!! 🙂

A lady on stilts was walking through the crowds, holding people spellbound with her graceful movements and her puppet which moved as if by magic.  Her costume was very original – have a close look at her hat, it’s a re-purposed funnel!

We’ve come to the end of this post, and I hope you enjoyed our visit to the Marche des Sorcieres in Saint Chaptes.  Remember, all you aspiring witches, it is always on the 1st of November!