RE: suggestions for a visit to the Languedoc region in France

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Hi Sean and everyone,

 

One of my customers recommended a visit to the Pepinière du Grand Plantier (www.bruno.tisserand.free.fr), It is somewhere near Uzés. I have never been there but its web site looks very interesting.

 

Penny, my ex-wife has just finished her first year of running a gite up in the Corbières. It is still very much a working farm so it is inexpensive and with no frills attached. I can’t really comment objectively on the standards of accommodation, beyond the fact that the plumbing and electrics have been recently renewed to bring it in line with the local requirements and when I was  there last year everything was shiny-clean. But then, presumably like most people reading this, so long as I slept well and was adequately fed, I wasn’t bothered about whether she was offering three or five star accommodation, what interested me was the vast range of plant life scattered across her five hundred acres. Unlike the Montpelier area, this is pretty mountainous and has a completely different flora, certainly far too cold for the olives and Rosemary which fill the surrounding valleys. Instead, lots of wild thyme, lavandula latifolia, Cistus, Junipers, box and even Lysimachia ephemera in the swampy parts. It is also three miles from the nearest road and the silence is of a kind unknown in England, so much so that English employees have (in one case literally) been driven out of their minds by it.

And for those bored by plants, plants and yet more plants, there are plenty of ruined Cathar chateaux in the area. Peyrpertuse is in fact on the farm boundary. I went looking for medicinal and culinary plants that would have been used when the chateau was operational but no luck, her goats which shelter in the ruins during bad weather had eaten the lot. Just a bit of sad mallow and lots of Calamint had survived.

 

See you there ?

 

Anthony

 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf Of Sean A. O'Hara
Sent: 11 January 2006 20:13
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: suggestions for a visit to the Languedoc region in France

 

Hi Folks -

 

I am researching a possible trip to the Languedoc Region of Southern France

this fall.  One of the destinations is the MGS Annual General Meeting,

which will be held in the medieval city of Uzès in the eastern edge of the

Languedoc-Rousillon region of southern France, about 20 miles north of

Nîmes, 40 miles from Marseilles, 50 miles from the Mediterranean

Sea.  During the trip, other destinations throughout the Languedoc are

being considered, even a foray into the Catalonian region of Spain and

Barcelona.

 

With such a wealth of regional treats to research, it is somewhat daunting

to figure out what the priorities should be.  What we like about the region

is its rustic character, charming villages, historic structures, coastal

beauty, and other low-key pleasures.  We are not your typical fancy hotel

and expensive restaurant tourists - simple, delicious regional fare and

unpretentious accommodations are what we look for.

 

Does anyone on this forum have some options we might consider?  Are there

some places fitting the criterion above that are 'must see'?  Any tips on

reasonable accommodations?  Gardens or local flora that are important to note?

 

A return trip to Montpellier is a given (we loved it in 2000), not only for

the city, its people, and its sights, but also for another visit to

the  herbarium at Le Jardins de Plants for a little more personal botanical

research.

 

Thanks in advance for any/all suggestions and tips.

Best regards,

Seán O.

 

h o r t u l u s _ a p t u s - - - - - 'a garden suited to its purpose'

Seán A. O'Hara --- sean(at)gimcw.org --- www.hortulusaptus.com

1034A Virginia Street, Berkeley, California 94710-1853, U.S.A.