Our second stop was Pezenas, an ancient town just north of Beziers. Their market was winding down by the time we arrived at around 1400, but we wandered about town and were intrigued with the very narrow cobble stone streets and ancient houses lining them.
Back on the autoroute we finally arrived at the turnoff for our destination – Fraisse les Corbieres. We bought some basic food stuffs at the Intermarche right off the highway. When I asked about wi-fi hotspots in the area, what I thought was confirmed – it was going to be tough to find a spot to post my blog.
The road to Fraisse wound its way through scrubby hills. We understood that our accommodations were about 20 minutes from the highway and turned out to be accurate, but the road was extremely interesting – an acronym for “Was that a road or a goat path?”
As per instructions, we visited the home of Mme. Thibault, right beside the cathedral for the keys. Thank God for her, because I’m not sure we would have ever found our way to the top of town where our ancient stone house was located. We found the house well equipped with communal area on the main floor and bath and bedrooms on the second. Every room had a commanding view of the town and the surrounding hills and after installing our wine cache in the cellar and getting our bags to our rooms, we chilled a Louis Sipp cremant and enjoyed it on the terrace. Dinner was courtesy of Intermarche, simple yet thoroughly enjoyed. Following dinner and just at dusk we walked down through the town, deciding that the inhabitants here were mainly farmers of the famous Corbieres wines. They were also in the heart of their vendage. There actually were pockets of very arable land nestling in the hills that contained the vineyards. This is a very unique and impressive location - no cell phone coverage here by the way - and so far we are pleased with the choice and glad that Dawn escaped any further escapades. Tomorrow’s another day.