Vacation Days 6 & 7: Cultural Weekend

After Narbonne, I went up the coast to Montpellier, where I spent a day exploring (later to come in the blog) before going out to spend the weekend with friends of friends in the small village of Montaud, just 20km or so north of Montpellier. We had what we dubbed a "cultural weekend" with a plethora of "cultural activities" for me to experience.

Fortresses of St-Guilhem-le-Désert, in the cliffs above the village

The village of Sant Guilhèm dau Desèrt, in Occitan, is a well-preserved medieval village that nowadays brings in hoardes of tourists to stroll through its quaint streets, to relax in the shade of the central square and to hike in the mountains surrounding the village.

Picturesque streets

Incredible stonework

Eglise Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert

The vineyard and garden behind the church

Cloisters of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert

Part of the cloisters of St-Guilhem have been removed and relocated to the medieval art and architecture museum, The Cloisters, in NYC.

Cloisters of St-Guilhem

The river runs under several buildings

Decorated door

Many doors are decorated with a thistle flower because it acts as a natural barometer, opening when it's going to rain, and closing when the weather is fair.

Water source

St-Guilhem is located along the Chemin St-Jacques to Santiago de Compostello in Spain. This was an important pilgrimage route especially during the Middle Ages, and remains popular today.

Coquille St-Jacques

The scallop shell is the symbol of the pilgrimage, used to mark the way and worn by pilgrims to identify eachother.

Pilgrim shop sign

Le Château de Montlaur

The ruins of the seigneurial château in Montaud date to the 1000s, and is closely tied to the history of the village and its residents. Many can recount stories that were passed down from their grandparents' grandparents. Jean I de Montlaur, the seigneur in the castle, played a key role in the establishement of Montpellier's medical and law universities - the oldest in France.

La Chapelle du Château

Le foyer

The large, vaulted room is the castle's kitchen, and you can see where the chimney was once set into the wall. The side that's now open used to be completely closed off. The access to the kitchen is from the inside of the structure, next to the spiral staircase leading up to the residential quarters.

The "back" side of the castle

Inside the courtyard

Medieval room

The castle dates from the 1000s, but was added to during the Renaissance, giving the regal-looking façade in the first photo. Half the castle is medieval and half renaissance.

Second storey medieval rooms

Tower window

Swarm of bees entering the chapel wall

As we were leaving, we were able to witness a swarm of bees moving into their new home in the meter-thick chapel wall. According to the villagers, there has been a colony of bees in the chapel wall for centuries. The swarm was estimated to be about 30,000 bees, as declared by my bee-keeper friends. It was unreal how many there were, how quickly they entered the wall, the amount of noise they made! You've never heard droning until you witness bees swarming! This was declared one final success for the "cultural weekend"!