Sunday 11th September - Montpellier and Home to Céret

We managed to escape from our rest home without trouble. Long may we remain fit and well and able to look after ourselves.

Not your average hotel corridor

Heading out of Le Puy, the landscapes were lovely. The Cévennes is very green, many deciduous trees as yet untouched by autumn, and the hills rolling, or steep at times. We paused at a little cafe/local goods/bread depot for a dreadful coffee, then carried on south.

Our first proper stop was at Lac de Villefort for a view over a 60s dam and lake, then onto Portes where we spied a Sunday market. We got a quiche each for lunch, then wandered around the little stalls. Most of the customers were locals. Only about a kilometre up the road under the shadow of a once-grand but now broken chateau was another market, which we felt also deserved a visit. And good it was too...

 Chateau de Portes

The Fromagerie Notre Dame made the visit well worth while. A woman was there buying a massive amount of cheese and we took the opportunity to taste a dozen of the cheeses on offer. They were fantastic. The buyer ended up with 150 Euros of cheese for which the fromager threw in for free a good-sized half-tomme. We bought some delicious almost-orange aged gouda, a comté fruitee and a sheep's cheese covered with and flavoured by spring flowers. A real find.

Comté fruitee, aged Beaufort, Gouda and a floral brebis tomme

Over four hours after setting off, we arrived at our friends Andrew and Marijke's place in Montpellier where we had coffee, water and a good catch-up. It was a decent break on one of our longer day's driving.

We finally rolled into Ceret just on 6pm, where we bought our month's parking (as centre-ville residents we get a special cheap rate in the Tins carpark, which until last month had been free, but very crowded). Back up into our little apartment! We didn't even bother bringing everything up from the car.

After a few moments' breather we headed out into the town where we knew we would find friends who had all arrived in early September. We were able to catch up with half a dozen couples, which was very pleasant after our absence of nearly three years due to Covid. It had been a long time coming.

It was very nice to be back, not having to move on in the morning, with a comfortable bed, a good shower, and food and drink on tap. Travelling is great, but home is too!

It had been a very good trip, with the highlights being the wedding, meeting up with our children again, and the scenery of the Dolomites. We'd driven around 3500km, more than enough for just under 4 weeks away. We are planning to stay in Ceret for a while before we try any serious tripping...

It had been a wonderful trip to Italy. We've had a great number of experiences and new information along the way - about history, places, people, ourselves and life in general. It's always good to keep learning...