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.

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

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