Skip to main content

CROIX DE JUILLET WALK AROUND QUARANTE REDUX: NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN

There's a new sheriff in town!

His name is Bill. And he's from Texas! Walk Meister Roger has motored off into the sunset. But fear not. The walkers of Quarante have a new Meister. Bill has made certain that we don't skip a beat.

How about doing the Croix de Juillet again?

So off we went. The route was slightly different, a bit easier and a bit shorter, but still clocking in at close to five miles. I only took pictures that show the difference. You can see our full previous Croix de Juillet walk HERE.

New Sub Meister?

Start at the co-op as usual.
But this time take the paved road all the way to the top. Walking trails are marked in blue.
Autocross grounds.
More red dirt.
Co-op falls behind quickly when the way is paved.
But along the vines as ever.
Fancy that! A road sign to point the way.
And there it is.
And there we are.
Still color in the vines.
A bit hazy.
A bit of rain, not too heavy, and the color might get more intense. It's been SO dry.
Back to the co-op.
Many townspeople have small garden plots among the vines just outside of the village. This old gent's plot showed recent end-of-season work - planting late lettuce and hanging on to that one, last tomato...





Comments

  1. Does Bill live year round in Quarante now? Regards to all, Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've sent you a message. Short answer - no, but he's here often.

      Delete
  2. What a relief to know the Sheriff is in town. Now I don't have to translate my book on the Crosses of Quarante!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Walk with us the next time that you are in town!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RESTAURANT TEN, UZES: RESTAURANT REVIEW

Ten sits just off the market square in Uzes, one of the prettiest villages in southern France. The newly renovated space is airy and comfortable with tables of sufficient size and sufficiently spaced to provide for a pleasant dining experience. Service was cheerful, fully bilingual, and attentive without being overbearing. The food presented well to both eye and tongue. And the rate of approximately 30 € per person for a party of five included starters, mains, a dessert or two, two bottles of local wine, and coffees at the finish. Reasonable if not cheap eats.  So why am I hesitant to give an unqualified thumbs up?  It took me a while to figure it out. Uzes is a quintessentially French village in a quintessentially French region of southern France. There are those who will say that the Languedoc is just as beautiful but less crowded and less expensive than its eastern neighbors. I know. I'm one of those people. But the fact remains that for many people, villages like Uzes are t

Kreuz Market vs. Smitty’s Market: Texas Barbecue in Lockhart

I was born and raised in New Jersey. I didn’t taste Texas barbecue until I was twenty-two years old. What the hell do I know about barbecue? And what could I add to the millions of words that have been written on the subject? Well, I know a bit about food. I’ve managed to check out a few of the finer joints in Texas – Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Dallas, Joe Cotton’s in Robstown before the fire, the dear departed Williams Smokehouse in Houston, and the incomparable New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville . So I can speak from a reasonably wide experience. This will not be a comprehensive discussion of the relative merits of Texas barbecue as opposed to the fare available in places like Memphis or the Carolinas. It’s simply a take on our recent visits to Lockhart and the relative merits of Smitty’s versus Kreuz from our point of view. I’ll get all over academic in a later post. On our way out to the ranch in Crystal City, we stopped at Smitty’s. You have to look

CHÉ OLIVE / LE ZINC, CREISSAN: RESTAURANT REVIEW

No, it's not Chez Olive. It is indeed Ché complete with red star and black beret. I have no idea why and I wasn't about to ask. The French are the French and not to be analyzed too closely when it comes to politics, especially these days. Creissan is the next town over from our village of Quarante. We pass through it often and Ché Olive is right there on the main road at the entrance to town. (One of the signs still says Le Zinc. Olive says he prefers Ché Olive though.) Olive opened it a couple of years ago after leaving the Bar 40, Quarante's basic local watering hole that's undergone a bit of a renaissance lately. We hadn't heard much about Ché Olive from our usual sources for dining recommendations. So we just kept passing by. For reasons not central to this review, we decided to stop in for lunch on a mid-week in late December. The bar is cozy, the restaurant open and bright and modern. Newly renovated and perhaps a bit sterile. We were the f