Les Corbieres!

This weekend, we took a Dickinson excursion to Les Corbières region of France! Located about 2 hours southeast of Toulouse, Les Corbières is a well-known wine region that produces 80% red wine, and the other 20% rosé and white wines. Our trip was a ton of fun, with sooo much beautiful scenery, it was pretty landscape overload!

We left early Saturday morning, and went straight to the Abbey of Fontfroide, which is no longer an abbey but it used to be, obviously. The abbey was started in 1093! It was an abbey that grew its own wine and was basically a little self-sufficient farm. Then the monks had to stop being peaceful, wine growers and go into battle during the Crusades against the Cathares. Then they got to go back to growing wine and other products and it became one of the richest abbeys in their order! Now you can walk around and see the beautiful cloisters and chapels, and scenery!

Next we headed to Gruissan and the beach! Gruissan was a cute, if somewhat abandoned, Mediterranean fishing village! The only reason it looked abandoned was due to the off season, not actual abandonment. We took off our shoes and played on the beach and ran around and acted like 5 year olds! And we also saw a lot of little beach houses on stilts, which was apparently supposed to be a special thing, but I thought it looked like a trailer park, just a little higher off the ground. Oh well. Then we went to lunch in the village of Gruissan, and the restaurant was cute and had an enormous dog walking around. Unfortunately, the food was not that good. I had chosen “meat” for my main dish, before we had left for the trip. The other choices were “fish” or “vegetarian pizza”. I found it odd that they didn’t specify what kind of meat or fish would be served, but then I found out it was because they decided to put EVERY kind of meat/fish on the plate. I got a plate full of grilled lamb, sausage, steak, and chicken. And I’m not talking small portions. My steak was practically a whole cow. And there wasn’t any sort of decoration, or sauce or anything. Just meat. We all had a good laugh about that. And the fish plate had a big old fish in the middle, with other smaller sea life stationed around it, all with heads, legs, etc. I made fun of Thierry (Dickinson Center assistant Laura’s husband) because his fish was looking at me with a dead fish look.

After lunch, we headed to Narbonne, where we were scheduled to spend the night at this weirdo hostel type hotel for big groups where they didn’t give you towels (luckily, we knew beforehand and brought our own!) Oh well, it was a fine hotel, if a little strange. We went on a tour of Narbonne with the cutest tour guide ever, and we saw a roman market from 1 B.C.! It was all underground, and since I enjoy caves and tunnels, I was into this old roman market. The rest of Narbonne was okay; we had a hard time finding a restaurant for dinner! The whole town was asleep at 8 pm, I guess! But we ended up finding a good French/Italian place called “Le Joker”, which was worth it just for the silly name!

In the morning, we woke up not way too bright and early and went to Talairan to enjoy a day of hiking, wine, and sunshine! Quelle vie! It was excellent. We went to a vineyard called “La Rune”, which is owned by friends of our literature professor from last semester at Dickinson! The man and his wife who owned it could not have been cuter and more outdoorsy and lovable. First, we took a hike with the wife in “la garrigue” which translates to “scrubland”. I guess it’s a typical landscape found in the Mediterranean area, and it’s really good for growing wine! We found wild asparagus, and walked all around in the vines and the sunshine was so bright, it was heaven. We later made omelets over an open fire with the asparagus that we found on our hike! (Okay, clarification: I ate an omelet that had been cooked over the open fire by the winery man with asparagus that other people had found. I was not a good asparagus-finder.) When we got back, we learned about how wine is made, and then we tasted! I liked the rosé and the white, but not really the red. Maybe it was just that bottle, or type, or something. Then we had lunch! I am amazed that this little winery was able and/or willing to host more than 40 people for a tasting and lunch, and a hike! That is definitely not a normal day at a wine tasting, and I was really thankful that they agreed to host us for the day! So we all got some color in our faces and arms while eating delicious food off the grill, drinking delicious wine, and having great conversations with friends.

On the way back to Toulouse, we stopped in Lagrasse, which is an adorable little village with an abbey that dates from the 8^th century! Since it was Sunday, the village was fairly quiet, but Annie and I had a fun time exploring the little streets and taking a little walk in the countryside! We wanted to go to the abbey, but you had to pay to get in, so we just looked at it from outside, and then continued up this road that went to who-knows-where. But it was such beautiful weather and scenery that we walked for a good 30 minutes! We saw vineyards, olive trees, horses, and priests/monks (the abbey is actually still an abbey!)

Overall, what a great weekend! Now I don’t look like a pale monster from winter land (just a freckly/red one!) and I got to see a gorgeous region of France! A bientôt!