Around Beziers: no cycling

November 10, 2011

WEATHER: mostly cloudy, some sun

After breakfast at the hotel beside a window overlooking the Poet's Park, we set off downhill through the park to the train station to buy the tickets we would need in a few days to travel from Arles back to Lyon. We have found that buying train tickets ahead of time when we are not in a hurry, is convenient and saves time waiting in line on the day of travel. It was a good thing we had looked up the schedule online, because the ticket seller at first told us we would have to change trains in Avignon to one that did not accept bicycles. We knew there was a local through train all the way to Lyon with a velo car, and the ticket seller eventually found it. We were pleased that we could carry out this complicated transaction all in French.

It's unusual to find a park filled with the busts of poets.

We walked back uphill through the park past the war memorial, where workers were getting ready for tomorrow's Armistice Day commemoration. Noisy leaf blowers were very much in evidence along with hundreds of pots of chrysanthemums, the flowers of mourning. Beyond the noise of the leaf blowers was a large duckpond and many busts of French poets along with a huge statue of Atlas holding up the world.

A statue of Atlas in the Jardin du Plateau des Poetes, done by a famous sculptor from Beziers, and for some reason showing Atlas perched on a giant clam shell.

Onward to the cathedral, where we hoped to visit the cloister garden with a good view over the valley below. The cloister was open, but the door to the garden was locked, apparently because of the danger of falling rock from a crumbling wall. This cathedral and the nearby Church de la Madeleine were infamously the sites of major massacres during the anti-Cathar crusade in the 1200s, when the majority of the population of Bezier was slaughtered by the followers of the Pope. Both massive brooding stone edifices gave us the willies!

The somber facade of the cathedral. Perhaps it was the gray overcast sky that accentuated its brooding presence.

For lunch we returned to the Bistro Victor for large and excellent seafood salads, while watching the place fill up completely and the efficient waiters running around like yesterday. Afterwards we considered walking down to the Canal du Midi and the river Orb for the impressive view looking up at the cathedral, but opted instead for a quiet afternoon reading in our hotel room.

The countryside to the west of Beziers. We decided not to hike down and look back up at the city.

Dinner was at Le Petit Montmarte, a charming small restaurant in the square near the Church de la Madeleine. The owner's little dog greeted us politely as we entered, and then went back behind the counter for a snooze. The owner himself was a very pleasant fellow who seemed genuinely concerned that everyone there would have a pleasurable dining experience, and we certainly did. Both the food and the service were excellent. We started with a rabbit terrine, then lamb chops cooked with chard, and finished with Al's favourite dessert, an outstanding tarte tatin. As usual, we had been the first people in the restaurant, but it filled up completely during our meal. As we were leaving, Al pointed out to the owner that he would now have a free table to fill up with more diners. He threw up his hands and laughed, exclaiming 'No, no, enough!' He came outside with us and turned off the lights on his menu-board.

The square by the Church de la Madeleine, where we had a very good dinner at Le Petit Montmartre.

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