Skip to main content

LA CAYLA, PIERRERUE: 4.7 MILE WALK WITH PICS

Pierrerue in Herault (to distinguish it from its slightly more populous namesake in Provence) sits just east of St. Chinian and is a quiet little commune of just over 200 souls that's not on the road to anywhere in particular. Quarante Walk Meister Roger recently proposed a morning walk called La Cayla that begins in Pierrerue. Six of us agreed to go. On second thought...

In truth, the walk was quite scenic with broad vistas opening up at every turn. And the vines sporting their autumn colors provided considerable eye candy. But Roger hadn't taken this particular walk in a while, didn't remember it well, and so the adventures began. First of all, clearly the folks who rate these walks for difficulty have a different idea of the meaning of the word facile (easy) than I do. Continuous, oft times steep and rocky changes of elevation do not make for an easy, two-hour stroll. Considering that wrong turns and bad choices led to an extra mile to the advertised 4.7, facile went out the window. And the trail was poorly marked and poorly maintained with greenery encroaching, washouts, and unstable scree. But we survived.

Normally, I would link to one of the sites that has a map of the walk. Oddly enough, I couldn't find a map of the walk either under the name La Cayla or the name of the village even though a plaque at the start of the trail in town clearly invites walkers. Given that the trail has been so poorly maintained, perhaps it's no longer considered an official walk and has been removed from most sites. That would explain a lot.

Enjoy the pics.

Starting the walk at the edge of town. First GPS check. A sign of things to come.
Uphill from the first.
But the vistas open up right from the start. And then there's the lion to look at.
I told you. A lion...

The path was not always so broad.
Crosses are simply a part of the scenery in this part of the world. It's not always easy to find out their significance..
I haven't yet looked up the history...
Unlike the US Northeast, road work halts in summer. Too hot. Picks up in the fall.
Ominous sign, consulting the GPS. In this case, we'd hardly left town.
Red dirt and the smell of evergreens reminds me of Georgia.
The colors of the changing vines assures me that I am NOT in Georgia.
We encountered an unusual number of isolated country estates.

And the views...
We don't often see this type of hardwood leaf display.
You just have to stop and look.
Stay right there. I want to take a picture.
How's this?
In some cases, the trail practically disappeared.
How did this get up here?
On an overcast day, the sun lights up St. Chinian in the distance.
When we hit a stretch of paved road, we tend to scatter.
Off the road again. And eventually, off the beaten track. Off the track entirely, truth be told.
Wonderful color!


More for the stone wall collection.
Green tops, color at the bottom. Rows and rows like that. Odd...
When you are at the level of the phone towers, you're about as high as it gets. And at this point, a mutiny! The GPS and the map proved useless. We could see the town and that's where we were headed. Roger admitted defeat.
Those greenhouses in the center are a great place to buy plants for the garden. That's town just below.
Back into town. They got ahead of us again.

Three of us detoured through the center of town. Actually, a commune - bigger than a hamlet, smaller than a village.

Comments

  1. I enjoyed that immensely Ira ...thanks for posting .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Barry. It's nice to know that my attempts to make these interesting work.

      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

CONGRATULATIONS, DUNCAN AND FIONA: JUNE 1, 2019

We've known Duncan since he was about 5 and were honored to be invited to all of the festivities surrounding his wedding to Fiona. The wedding was held in a magazine converted to a military museum in Gosport. Duncan's dream...a wedding in a place where they used to blow things up. I've never been around so many uniforms. Live Long and Prosper! A kiss was the price to continue... That's Duncan's sister Clair arriving on the right. Grandparents...headed for 100 and sharp as tacks. Reception in an old magazine/museum. Mom baked the cake and made the ducks to order. Not from the wedding but seemed appropriate.

GRAND CAFE OCCITAN: RESTAURANT REVIEW

  We made our way to a new restaurant the other day, up toward the hills past La Liviniere in the small town of Felines-Minervois. None of our party had been there before, but a friend had visited and said that she'd enjoyed it. She's a vegetarian. First clue. Now don't get me wrong. I have no gripe with those who choose to go meatless. I understand the environmental concerns and I understand the horrors of factory farming. But I also understand that form follows function in the design of tools, in the design of appliances, and in the design of human teeth. Our incisors and canines did not develop over the course of hundreds of thousands of years to rend the flesh of a fresh-caught broccoli. We are omnivores by design, Darwinian design. And I enjoy eating omni. Enough preamble... I never went inside the Grand Cafe Occitan. A young lady who would be our server met us at the front door of the nicely pointed old stone house, leading us to a pebble-covered courtyard on the side