March 28, 2023
Dear Adventure Avenue,
We ate our sandwiches I bought yesterday for breakfast and then waited in the lobby for our tour guide.
We passed by some beautiful green fields. We were in wine country.
Châteaux de Lastours
Our first stop were these castles. We were on a lookout point and saw these castles. They were originally lower on the hill but when the French took over, they rebuilt it higher up. Before it was owned by the Romans.
They have also found a woman in the cave (pictured) that dated to 1000 something BC.
Massamier la Mignarde – Grande Vins du Languedoc – Pépieux
Then we went to a winery and got a tour of the vineyard and their water source. We asked them to give us the vineyard tour completely in French.
I understood a good bit of it – despite him talking a bit fast.
Then we did a wine tasting – Mere enjoyed it more than me as I don’t drink. It was cool to try everything though. He had us try a white, rosé that was really dark for rosé, an orange wine (orange colored), and some reds (one was a world winner for the complex flavor).
After the winery, we stopped at a look out point to see Minerve.
After the winery, we went to eat at a town over from Minerve, La Caunette. At the restaurant called La Cave, we all add the asparagus quiche as our starter (entrée en français) and pork for the main.
Minerve
Mere decided to stay in the car because she’d seen it before and it was a lot of walking on uneven surfaces.
I absolutely loved it and loved just talking to our guide who was so nice. I would definitely want her as my guide again.
Here is her information:
During this time I asked her if the region we were in had any specific cheese associated with it and then explained my French Senior Capstone Project which happens to be about cheese. She wanted to then include something cheese related into the tour but couldn’t think of anything off the top of her head.
We finish walking around Minerve and walk back up to the car to drive to a part of the Canal du Midi.
Canal du Midi
The Canal du Midi was funded by one man because the crown didn’t believe it to be a good idea. Now the canal is mostly for tourism and barge trips but it used to be used for shipping goods.
The Special Stop
When we got back in the car, she asked if I’d like to go to a market to see the cheese display and I agreed right away!
We went to what’s called a hyper-marché in France and it’s really similar in size to a Costco or a Walmart, but way nicer. They had a huge cheese selection! We even got to try two types of cheese there which was so nice of the lady at the cheese counter.
Then we stopped at the pharmacy to get something Mere needed before heading back to the hotel.
It was a fantastic tour!
We stopped at the bar, and I had a Virgin mojito that was made differently than the last two. This one tasted like it had some sort of juice in it instead of just Perrier.
For dinner we went to Saint Roger where the food was just okay and the service was terrible. Mere had a (purposefully) cold cooked vegetable salade and chicken while I had the lamb which was tender with a couple fatty chewy pieces. We couldn’t get our server to come over for anything. He literally avoided eye contact with us. Everywhere else we ate had good service and good food. This place was just pretentious.
After the subpar dinner, we went back to the hotel and got ready for bed.
Until tomorrow,
A
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