The Abbey in St. Hilaire

St. Hilaire Abbey

 Things are winding down here in our French home exchange.  We'll be heading for Holland on Sunday so we are taking it pretty easy until then.  But, not far from Magrie, is the tiny village of St. Hilaire.  There is a lovely 11th to 14th century Benedictine abbey that we thought we would toddle over to view. (The first chapel there was even before that - like maybe the 10th century, if you can imagine that long ago).  The trip was scenic and short.  However, we made the grave mistake of arriving there at 11:45 a.m. when the Abbey closes at 12:00 for a 2 hour lunch break and we were told that it takes 30 minutes to take the tour.  Oh well.  We saw the lovely grounds of the abbey but didn't get to go into the church which is really what I wanted to see - the sarcophagus of St. Sernin, the first Bishop of Toulouse.  It is a beautiful piece (which I only know from looking it up on the Internet).  Instead we walked the streets of St. Hilaire and took pictures which is always a great pleasure for me, especially on a picture perfect day like today is.  HERE ARE THE PICTURES.

By the way, supposedly the Benedictine monks of St. Hilaire discovered Blanquette - the sweet bubbly wine which is so much in abundance here, made from the little sweet green grapes.  I really love the mental image of these monks discovering bubbly wine, don't you?

Benedictine Monk with his Blanquette in St. Hilaire

We debated whether to have lunch in St. Hilaire or not and decided instead to stop at LeClerc and buy some salmon to cook at home.  We did and we're glad we did - it was delicious and we enjoyed it with a lovely fresh salad, French bread and a nice bottle of St. Hilaire chardonney.  Who could ask for more?

Mirepoix - Market & Lunch

It's Monday and market day in Mirepoix, a medieval town to the west and slightly north of us.  The town has just over 3000 permanent residents so it is small but it seems larger with all the visitors.  We heard a lot of British English spoken in the market and some of the vendors seemed to speak a little English when we were stuck.  Who can blame the Brits for coming here with its lovely weather, lower prices and relatively close by?

Half-timbered house on the square where the market takes place.

 Our drive to Mirepoix was easy with beautiful scenery.  As compared to closer to Magrie, there seemed to be fewer vineyards, more hills and grassy valleys.  As we rolled into town we again had to figure out where the market was and where to park. Actually it was easy to find the market (now we know that they always seem to be in the village square) but not easy to park, as usual.  However, the town was not that large and we just drove a few blocks away from the town square and found a spot on a narrow side street.

St. Maurice - built in 1298

The market was quite extensive compared to yesterday's in Esperaza with some of the same vendors as we saw yesterday but lots of others too.  There were again beautiful fruits and vegetables, cheese, sausages, clothing - mostly new - hats, shoes and much more.  We did not actually need much - we were there just to walk, look and take pictures.  We did buy some potatoes, an onion and two palmiers.  The market wound around two squares next to the hundreds of years old church, St. Maurice.

The square was lined with cafes and restaurants so at noon, we wandered around and picked one sort of at random but with a nice sounding Special of the Day. We didn't even find out the name of the restaurant.

The tables outside were pretty well filled with coffee drinkers (and smokers) so we sat inside and ordered the special.  It was a veal stew in a white sauce with mushrooms and carrots with basmatti rice and a very fresh salad.  The sauce was delicious and the veal was beautifully tender and tasty.  At 9 euros each (includes tax and tip) - we thought it was a great value for a nice lunch - which to us was more like comida.  Our supper later at home would be cheese, bread and wine. 

After our leisurely lunch, we left the restaurant and saw that the market was already mostly finished and packing up.  We took a longer route back to the car, stopped on the street and had a chat with a couple of British ladies who were on holiday and headed back toward Magrie via a different scenic route   Along the way we stopped in Camon, a small fortified  village constructed around a Benedectine abbey that was founded by Charlemagne in 778.  (It is sometimes difficult to get a grasp of the age of things we see in Europe).  The remains of the abbey and chateau seem to be privately owned, include a hotel and restaurant but it was a pleasant stroll through the narrow walled streets, around the chateau and abbey and overlooking an old cemetery.  We then went up and down the short main street, stopping to share a Coca Light, finally heading towards home at a leisurely pace while enjoying the verdant landscapes.

HERE'S A LINK TO THE REST OF THE MIREPOIX & CAMON PICTURES.

Camon

Today (Tuesday) it started out cloudy but the sun is now out.  We still haven't visited the local winery so maybe that will be in store for us this afternoon.  We enjoyed our palmiers for breakfast, by the way, and they were delicious.  I'll probably made my leek and potato soup today if I'm not too lazy.