Felines at last
Trip Start
Mar 29, 2006
1
59
232
Trip End
Feb 28, 2007
Felines Minervois,
France
Friday, June 16, 2006
Breakfast was nothing to write home about. We sat on a grubby veranda area with a lot of ancient people who all looked as if they had come 'to take the waters'.
Determined to find the source of my bewilderment the night before we checked out of the hotel but went for a walk back into town. This time we headed up the hill behind the casino and there it was... L'Hopital Des Invalid. It was a huge contemporary establishment with many rooms containing therapeutic equipment and spa baths fed by the springs from the hills behind. It was very busy inside and out but not a whole person any where. Apparently the waters also help the brain damaged which explained a few other strange sightings on the street the night before. It was a private institution and as I understand it a lot of accident victims were sent here funded by their insurance companies
Coffee time in Olarques
. We continued west and stopped at Olargues. My eye had caught sight of a long, high, stone bridge over another flowing river. We are up in the Black Hills and I believe they do get some rain. I parked on the pavement on the main road and we walked over that bridge which was only suitable for one vehicle at a time. It led to the old part of town. A series of narrow streets and stone houses overlooked by a church and overlooking the river. It was very pretty but we did not venture far. We returned over the bridge and sat ourselves down in a restaurant on the river bank which was not really open but they were kind enough to provide us with hot drinks. The place was owned by Danes so they all spoke English. They also owned the hotel opposite and even tried to persuade us to stay the night. They were actually in the middle of setting up a luncheon for about 20 people...Scandinavians on a seminar or some such.
The road to St Pons now followed this valley...of the Jaur river...and we wound leisurely around the hills and valleys. It was very pretty. When we arrived in that town we did some grocery shopping in preparation for our entry into Felines and had lunch of omelettes and soft drinks in the square where I learnt that the soccer was to be shown on large screens
Olarques
. It was weird because between the tables in the square and the kitchen which serviced them was the main road. It was not a N road yet there was an endless stream of trucks along the narrow stretch where we were seated. As a result the poor waitress had to dodge the traffic with tray on high. To make matters worse the French car driver in his usual fashion paid no heed to the chaos he might create and would park on that very stretch of road thus making it impossible for two trucks to pass. We now turned southeast onto the last leg of our journey to Felines. We took the D907 which at first was very good but depreciated into a track. Not true. French roads were very good. We never had to go off road onto dirt. All roads were sealed. It was a great run down through the hills eventually opening up on to the vast plain of the Minervois territory. We turned off that road and set off cross country to find Cessaras where Paul, the house manager, lived. We had to follow our instincts now and the village names on the signs and just hoped no-one had turned them around.
I parked the car in Cessaras square and wandered up and down Rue Margue until I eventually found the Bragan-Turner household. Paul volunteered to lead the way in his Volvo and off we went to Felines Minervois. When we arrived we had to park the car in the main street and walk along a narrow lane for about 100 metres to the residence in Rue Marechal. Paul explained the layout and when he had left I collected the car and drove it very carefully down that lane so that we could unload our baggage. I left my case on the bathroom level. I could see no reason to drag it all the way to the top bedroom.
Anyway that first night we went out for a stroll, found the co-op shop which closed at 5pm. The super market we had been told was further afield. We found the bar which to my delight had a TV and I stayed and watched the first half of the Ivory Coast v Holland match.
We made ourselves a sandwich each if you can call that half brick, bread and settled down with books in the quiet of our new home.
