Elsien's Traveblogue
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Maguelone - April 2013
Back to Maguelone
We were here some time last year, but I
don't seem to have posted anything about it. It was a beautiful day
today, after a whole day of rain yesterday and I needed light and
space and sunlight, so … beach! We go to Palavas regularly,
had just been to La Grande Motte, so this time walk to Maguelone. You
start at the end of Palavas, there is no beach promenade, you can
only walk on the sandy beach, unless you go on the road behind.
The
beach was pretty empty when we started out around mid-day, apart from
some diehard nudists who were still tanning themselves when we walked
back. At the beginning there's the world's ugliest caravan camp, so
you determinedly keep looking at the Mediterranean, almost blue
today.
At the Maguelone end, the beach
continues to Frontignan – a hell of a long walk with nothing there
as we experienced a few months ago when we walked it in the pouring
rain. We got soaked to the skin and never even made it to the end,
had to turn back halfway!
We turned off through the étangs –
between a pond, lake and marsh – towards the Cathédrale de
Maguelone. I love the étangs, real wetland nature reserves with pink
flamingoes, seagulls of course, little black terns.
Near the
cathedral there were lots of spring flowers : what looked liked
little orangey wild marigolds, white and purple irises and a field of
white flowers as well as a few purple thistles. The vineyards are
still totally bare, kind of interesting. We had lunch at the
cathedral where they have now opened a beautiful restaurant with
simple but nice food.
There's nothing left in the cathedral, a vast
empty space, but there are early music concerts there in the summer.
Strange to think it was such a powerful place once which had given a
home to various Popes. The power went to Montpellier in the 16th
century, partly because of the constant threat of pirates.
See links – one in French, sorry!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishopric_of_Montpellier
http://jean-francois.mangin.pagesperso-orange.fr/capetiens/capetiens_maguelone.htm
Back to Palavas the way we came, now
meeting a lot more people. The nudists were still there.
Monday, April 01, 2013
La Boissière
Easter Sunday, 2013
So, how did a very well-planned 12km
walk turn into a bit of a 22km marathon – well, half marathon?
It all started so well: the first of
the tulips I'd bought in Holland appeared on Easter Sunday, very
appropriately, I thought. We had a bit of a cloud hanging over
Montpellier, just a little one, said the satellite picture and
indeed, it moved over to Nimes or Nice and we set out in the car. We
have discovered this very nice wooded and hilly area just about ten
minutes north of Montpellier, second exit off the A750, at a nothing
place called St.Paul-et-Valmalle. There is an actual Valmalle as
well, but there are only three houses there, not even a church …
Under the motorway, D27 towards La
Boissière and you are there: the Bois Nègre to the right, some
other bois to the left and paths, wood, hills everywhere, walkers'
paradise. Some of the paths were old railway tracks, they are pretty
straight as you can imagine, but there are overgrown ones, paths that
turn into rivers in winter, with very stony dry riverbeds during the
dry seasons. We'd decided to start off just after La Boissière this
time, because I'd found a walk description and a little map of just
the walk I'd worked out from the Ordnance Survey map. The trouble
with the French Ordnance Survey maps is that they aren't really OS
maps at all, not very detailed and missing landmarks, so this little
description was very welcome. 12km, which could be cut short to 6km,
beautiful weather and lovely landscape.
We came across a couple of
groups of French families who were having a picnic in the middle of
nowhere, with tables and tablecloths, lots of food and even more
wine, as you do in France on an Easter Sunday, a handful of cyclists
and that was it. All was wonderful. There was a little lake in an old
bauxite quarry, a gorgeous pine wood, a babbling little river, some
abandoned farms, spring flowers, singing birds, great! The walk was
not too taxing, highest point not even 200 metres.
At about 9 kms we were supposed to turn
left to cross the hill, back towards the little lake we had passed on
our way out, but there was no path. There was something very soggy
and swamp-like and blocked after 50 yards, so I thought I'd made a
mistake and we carried on. I though the turn-off might be a little
further up. A long way later, still no turn-off and we got lost, made
another mistake taking the right fork where we should probably have
taken the left one and another long way later I started to recognise
some places we had passed a few weeks ago, on a previous walk, south
of La Boissière. We finally met some horse riders we could ask and
they sent us back the way we'd come, but via the top of the hill,
called a 'Puech' with the radio mast - 367 metres up.
A hot, steep scramble up to the
top later, I found that there was only one way down, in the wrong
direction. The right direction was fenced off. Down again, where we
finally came to where the soggy blocked off path was and then the
only way was back further the way we'd come. Eventually, after
another steepish climb up another Puech after crossing the little
river at the wrong ford - «Funny», we said, «it's got bigger!»,
we heard the noise of the road. We stopped a passing motorist who
kindly pointed us in the right direction and even took us there, in
spite of our very muddy shoes … «We're country people», she said,
with a big smile. «We are used to this. The mountains are beautiful,
but sometimes people get lost». We got to where our car was parked
in less than two minutes,; we'd actually come out where we should
have come out … 22 kms we'd done by then … I thought my legs
would fall off, but they are still on and after a roast chicken from
the corner rotisserie, half a bottle of local red and a good night's
sleep they are still working … It was raining today, hurray, so a
very good excuse not to do anything, except go to the cinema round
the corner: pre-showing of Dustin Hoffman's first film as a director,
Quartet, with Maggie Smith and Billy Connelly, a treat!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441951/?ref_=sr_1
 | |
| The Puech Bartelié with the radio mast ... |
La Grande Motte, Easter 2013
 |
| The amazing shapes of La Grande Motte |
La Grande Motte had to become a democratic beach resort, fit for
mass tourism, to keep the French in France, but not like the resorts in Spain. The architect
Jean Balladur created his pyramids, inspired by the Mexican ones he had studied, at an angle to the coast, to
break the normal hierarchy of expensive apartments with sea views and the cheaper ones on the
second row. It must have been a massive job, because before the area
was part of Mauguio, where the airport is, and was basically just
mosquito-infested marshes. Like I said, lots of people hated the
futuristic result, including me. I remember going there in the 1980's
when it was just finished and thought it was kind of amazing, but
nothing would ever induce me to stay there. | |
| View through the dunes |
La Grande Motte has amazing sandy beaches, separated from the beach path by dunes. You can walk or cycle the path (the road is a little further up) and every few meters you get a through view to the beach and the Mediterranean.
When we went on Saturday before Easter, it was a bright, but windy day. Most tourists had obviously decided to spend this last weekend of March in the Alps, last skiing holiday of the year, or were busy doing their Easter shopping, so the beach was empty. We had lunch outside a restaurant, but towards the end of the meal we got some raindrops and it was too windy to let the sun shades down, so we finished a little hurriedly - no coffee for me! - and walked back along the path, which was a little more sheltered than the beach. The beach was even more deserted! I love beaches out of season! In summer you have to come early, but there are still stretches that do not get too crowded.
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