Wednesday, October 2, 2002

    A wonderful day! We drove first to Rennes le Chateau, then to Peyrepertuse and then to Collioure for supper at La Marinade (not that simple—more to follow!) In the restaurant, who sat down next to us but the redheaded lady and her husband who had been in La Palangrotte in Sete!
    On the way to Rennes le Chateau, we passed through Limoux. B remembered from his research that Limoux was famous for a kind of wine that's like champagne but less expensive: Blanquette de Limoux. But the memorable thing wasn't the wine, it was the cookies. They are a local specialty, called pebradous, and are flavored with black pepper! He knows I like peppery things. So on our way through, we must have a rest stop at a Supermarche to shop for wine and cookies. B found the wine, but could not find pebradous. The one attendant we asked looked at him as if he had two heads. Nothing daunted, we stopped at a little bakery, and immediately upon asking the shop keeper handed him a bag of pebradous, which were actually fairly prominently displayed on the counter. They turn out to be little circles, kind of like a cross between doughnuts and pretzels. We're not sure that they are the genuine artisanal article; the packaging looks a bit touristy, but I'm sure they'll be wonderful.
    Rennes le Chateau is a weird place; run down, seemed deserted, creepy. As B points out, it doesn't help to have wax figures of Bernard de Saunieres and his housekeeper on display in the kitchen. We had to go there, because it's all tied in with the Holy Blood, Holy Grail books, and the Templars and Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland and the last part of the trip we never got to take Yo on. The church and grounds and Magdalen Tower are shabby and tawdry. But of course we saw the pillar in which the scrolls were found, and the devil font.
     A couple from San Francisco chatted with us—she has read much on this story and had read that one of the figures in the Stations of the Cross was supposed to be wearing a kilt. We all tried to find it—B and I were looking for a link with Rosslyn Chapel!—but no luck, despite careful examination. Another red herring. The site is lonely and high, and the day was cloudy. The high point of that visit was Rennes le Chat, the friendly cat in the garden. Then of course when we saw other cats, they were quickly designated Rennes le Chat Two and Three.
    From R. le C. on to the ruined fortress of Peyrepertuse, a popular tourist destination, the only site in the southwest designated "worth a journey" in the green guide. To reach Peyr., we passed another famous ruin, the Chateau Queribus. We stopped only for a look from the road. It is, as the white guide says, picture postcard perfect. As we wound up the mountain side to Peyrepertuse, we passed a tour bus unloading people at a lay-by. B wondered if this was the parking lot. It seemed a long way still to go, so we drove on through the knots of bus riders straggling up the road. Indeed the real lot was much higher up, around several more hairpin turns. Those poor folks had a long walk, and that was just to reach the ticket window at the beginning of the walk to the chateau. Yow! It was fairly rugged and precipitous—there are warnings in the white guide that on windy days it can be dangerous.
    But it's quite a remarkable place, spread out along the spine of a high mountain. Once in the ruin, it's possible to see in all directions. On a clear day you could probably see for a hundred miles. I took a lot of photos! Many people brought their dogs with them, as they do everywhere. The scent of herbs is everywhere, too. We had a cloudy day, and when we were up on the topmost part of the ruin, we could see clouds sweeping against and then up over the mountain. The view of the ruin spread out below us was obscured, then revealed by the billowing cloud fog. Very dramatic.
    Not to make too short a day of it, we drove down to the coast on the way home. We stopped just short of the Spanish border, stopping in Banyul sur Mer, where I had the obligatory finger dabble in the water. And I think, although we've been here what seems a long time, that this is the first we've been to the sea! We sat down in the Elms Hotel restaurant, La Littorine, but it was a bit pricey for us that evening and we left, deciding to head for some other guide recommendations for supper. We passed by several pretty little villages on the sea, and tried to find a place in Port Vendres. No luck, the directions were a bit vague. We pressed on to Collioure, and were glad we did.
    The coast became even more dramatic as we drew near the Pyrenees. Now we were driving along the Cote Vermillion, which was reminding us of the Big Sur. As we approached C., it was getting dark and the lights of the town were beautiful against the dark water beyond. Banyuls had been a bit cheesy, a beach town like Ocean City. Port Vendres was a working town, with heaps of fish nets along the quay. Collioure was a beautiful old town, with a fort right on the water in the center of town, and boats tied to the quay around it.
    There was just one problem: we could not figure out how to drive to La Marinade, our white guide recommendation. No matter how we drove, we could not get to Place 18 Juin. We had no town map, and were at a loss. There were no signs, and an elderly lady we asked seemed to have no idea. We drove by the same church three or four times, looking and asking. We found a town map posted at a parking lot, and thought we had a good idea of where to go, but we still could not get there. It finally dawned on us that we were being blocked from driving into an old town section reserved for pedestrians. So we parked and managed to find our way on foot, and it turned out to be only a few blocks from where we had been round and round all along. We think this is an example of why so many folks choose to vacation on tours!
    La Marinade was a popular place, with lots of people eating out on the square. It was a pub food type of menu, r70 for both of us. That was for two aperitifs, two salads, bottle of wine, two plates, a digestif and a cafe melange. We were midway through our supper when who sat down next to us but a couple who had been in the restaurant Palangrotte in Sete the same evening Elizabeth and we were there! The woman was unmistakable on account of her bright fuschia colored hair, quite wild. So of course we struck up a conversation, partly in B's high school French, partly their high school English. They are from Alsace, and on their motorcycles on holiday, staying in Collioure. They go back to work Monday.
    And we were home by one a.m.!

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