This trip will take you in a part of France, its deep South, that remains mysterious to even a lot of French people. In this part of Languedoc, you will be chasing medieval ghosts, in places mostly known by pilgrims on their way to Compostelle, there may be something mystical about this tour.
You will also encounter wine characters who are already legend material. Wine has been the main occupation there since Roman times, and has emerged in the past 50 years as the new French Wine Frontier. These days, It attracts the most adventurous wine makers, who without constraining appellations, allow themselves to push boundaries outside the map.
This is also a rather endearing part of France with very genuine people, according sceneries, as well as sometimes grandiose ones. The hotels in this tour are of a rare charm and character, illustrating the creativity found in this Deep South of France, where hospitality is linked to the sense of honor, and where you will be treated with unparalleled receptions by the wine makers.
Being a professional photographer with a career spanning over more than 50 years, photography and art have a strong place in my tours, and we will be talking art in this one. If photography has interest for you, you are on the right page, and we are on the same one.
Cammie Lassiter is accompanying us in this trip. She is the owner of Savi's Wine, an out of the ordinary bottle shop in New Bern. Cammie is a dear friend, who exemplifies southern grace, never loses her compass, and excels at keeping everybody on their best foot. She will be a valuable travel companion to all of you.
Please take a look at the itinerary, and I hope you will feel inspired to join this tour of wonders.
* Friday September 25: Departure from RDU (or wherever you depart from) to Paris, or another European city that connects to Nîmes or Montpellier, but Paris is probably ideal if departing from NC.
* Saturday September 26: In Paris you may take a train, either directly at the Airport, or after a taxi cab ride and subsequent breakfast, in Paris Gare de Lyon. Or more simply gat a connection flight to Montpellier. If you fly Delta or Air France that is the easiest way. A high speed train can take you directly to Nîmes, and otherwise from Montpellier Airport you will get a cab to the Hotel in Nîmes, or I can organise transportation for you, especially if you are several arriving at the same time. Transportation cars from the airport is not included in the tour.
Your final destination is Nîmes, an important Roman town that will provide an oasis before we all leave for the unknown rocky frontier. In Nîmes you will stay in the best hotel in town, a gorgeous 5 star one, on the edge of the old center, and that will finish endearing you to the town.
Nîmes is a very pleasant town to spend a few days before the tour, and you may arrive early. Given what you will read just below, you probably will enjoy being there Thursday or Friday, see option's page for "Pre Tour additional nights in Nîmes," where I will be arriving on Tuesday September 22.
Optional lunches and dinners will be offered from Thursday September 25. These couple of days prior to September 26, will be a good opportunity for those in town to casually get in gear, enjoy local foods and shops, visit the Roman and other historic monuments of the town, and most importantly, start practicing their pétanque in order to be at their best for the upcoming Intra Tour, World Championship.
In front of the hotel are the Jardins de la Fontaine, beautiful gardens with lots of Renaissance sculptures.
Nîmes is also an interesting town to do some out of the ordinary shopping, including fashion shopping. While this is not necessarily what you will be tempted by there, Nîmes is where "De Nîmes a.k.a. denim" originated.
Dinner in Nîmes in an atmospheric very relaxed restaurant.
* Sunday September 27: If you get up early enough, you might want to take one last walk in the Jardins de la Fontaine before we leave town. Our destination will be the Domaine Cours Saint Vincent, an unassuming winery north of Montpellier and definitely in sight of the Pic Saint Loup.
Stéphan produces organic wines in Coteaux du Languedoc and Grès de Montpellier appellations. These are rather substantial reds, round and well balanced with dark fruits that remain expressive. It will be a good introduction for the wines we will encounter around this trip. And Stéphan will receive us with the bonhommie and joviality that characterizes him and the people in this region.
We will have lunch there, enjoying a somewhat simple, although not ordinary, and well hearted hospitality.
All this will take some time, and we'll eventually take a walk in the lovely village before heading to our first site of residence, the Mysterious Village #1, 40 minutes away, to discover the lovely hotel where we will spend the next 4 nights.
This village is tucked by a river on one side and a mount on the other, on top of which are the ruins of a castle. Like most villages in the region, it has a medieval structure. is more or less walled, and seems to have just re-emerged from oblivion where it sat, frozen in the past for 3-4 centuries. This is a place where the likes of Cyrano de Bergerac are a plausible encounter in the rather unique design of criss-crossing streets and two small squares that seem to be open invitations for all sorts of troubadours.
On the edge of the surrounding wall, perched on the beginning of the mount and right under the remnants of the castle is our hotel. this is a very sizable Master house, from the 17th century. Our hosts have kept it somewhat natural, respecting its spirit rather than transforming it into a modern four star facility. Think of it as your aristocratic grandmother's family house with very spacious rooms offering all necessary comfort, elegant country style without affectation, pure class.
There is an interior garden and terrasse gardens overlooking the town, as well as a rooftop swimming pool.
I absolutely adore this place and would be thrilled to live there.
First qualifying Pétanque game.
Dinner at the hotel, in the garden, weather permitting. Weather is rather permitting in the region in this season.
* Monday September 28: This entire region is dominated by the Pic Saint Loup, a beautiful mountain that towers Montpellier and is visible 360˚ around. We will have seen it already several times on the horizon. The mountain gives its name to the main wine appellation in these quarters, and today we visit Contrast Wines Pic Saint Loup (PSL) organic producer: La Chouette du Chai.
This is a very secluded estate, in a dream like location, just under the Pic. You may confuse this winery for an open air art museum, as it is full of substantial sculptures, including "The Tower of Life's Ups and Downs," a tower that one could climb (it is unfortunately not open to the public) through a staircase as uneven and circumvolved as life can be, especially for those not traveling with Contrast Tours.
Wine wise, this estate offer the best PSL I know, as well as other very creative and interesting wines, creations as artistic as the surrounding art.
We'll eat moderately lightly in the form of a picnic, as after lunch those willing will be climbing the Pic Saint Loup. This is not Mount Everest, but it is not a cake walk either. You will have the option to pass on the hike, and instead go back to our lovely improbable village with René, for more exploration of the village, practicing pétanque or the pool.
I will be with you if you choose to go meet the Gods at the top. The trail is very rocky, so it will require proper shoes, and sticks are not a luxury, but the view on top is vertiginous, and Pic Saint Loup wines will have a different meaning for you afterward.
Back to the Hotel.
Another round of World Pétanque Cup.
Dinner at the village's restaurant by the river.
* Tuesday September 29: today we are going to feel the greatness of the Larzac, experience the desolation, the "2001 Space Odissey-like" stone immensity, the place that would chill Don Quixote's bones. Today we are driving through the No-Man-of-Conscience-Land."
Not that far mind you. About an hour after leaving the hotel, and after a short glance of what the Larzac may be like, we arrive to an oasis already. We'll visit the village and enjoy a real country like lunch by the creek, with local products, and hearty type of dishes. On the menu will be local trout, that much I can reveal!
After lunch we will drive through the core of the stone temple, on a road really made for donkey pulled carts, see photograph on the right as evidence. This landscape is for monks, its inner beauty fosters spirituality.
After 1 hour of this Cervantes type of quest, we will rejoin civilization, leaving the Larzac for its terraces. From there you can see the sea in the far distance, and while we are still in relative altitude, water is not as scarce, the landscape, while definitely Mediterranean, seems to be able to feed its people. This is where some of the best wines of the tour are produced, and we will come back here in two days on our way to Saint Chinian.
On the way back to the hotel, we will visit one of the top Vin Nature producer in France: Mas Foulaquier, organic and biodynamic. I can't say that I am an unconditional fan of Vins Nature, but some of them are indeed very pertinent, and I find some made by Blandine and Pierre, extremely interesting. In fact Mas Foulaquier is one of the producers of my portfolio that is most present in my dinners, due to the inherent unique character and excellence of their wines.
These two top notch vintners, will show us their property, cellar, and we'll taste their best wines.
Back to the village and dinner at a nearby Neapolitan pizzeria owned and operated by neapolitans I am friend with. Massimo is always curious about French wines, and we are going to show him how some local wines are fantastic with pizza.
* Wednesday September 30th: We start our exploration of the area going north toward the part called the "Cévennes," which is the very southeastern tip of the central mountains. This is where we will find Domaine Sollier, a quintessentially "Cévenol" producer, with delicious and surprising whites.
We'll have a visit of the vineyard and cellar with Thomas, one of the two brothers now at the helm of the winery. And then we'll also taste the wines.
Lunch with Thomas at a very good restaurant in the valley.
After lunch we will venture north to a small town, perched near the Cévennes and full of creative and visually compelling architecture. The third round of the Pétanque World Cup will take place on this foreign ground as good pétanque players need to adapt quickly to new conditions. There is little doubt that those not playing, should there be any, will enjoy a drink at one of the local cafés or more wandering in the streets.
Dinner back at the unbelievable Hotel in Mysterious Village #1, for a heart pinching aristocratic country affair.
* Thursday October 1st: with a certain feeling of loss, we have to leave now the mysterious Village#1 who revealed its charm to us, and that addicting hotel that we would all like to call home. We now head west to the Terrasse du Larzac, on our way to Saint Chinian. We drove through Montpeyroux Tuesday, and I said we would be backs here we are, to visit the white wolf, the wine maker that some people have heard of, and that few have seen: Gil Morrot.
Gil who? No blasphemy please, for a few of us lucky to have crossed his path, Gil is the holy Grail of wine. Of course nobody knows him, he and his chai are in an undisclosed and very discrete location, and his photograph, see on the right, is not ordinarily available.
BUT, when your lips encounter his wine (organic), then everything makes sense, and all problems are solved, as promised about another fellow on countless billboards on route 70, except that here it is real, the wine is on your palate and Gil is in front of you. I told you these landscapes make one mystical, didn't I?
I don't know if Gil's wine is the best one under the sun, but it sure stands apart, tall and high, and I am happy that you will get to meet him, hear how he produces it, what animates him, the whole monty. And then we'll have lunch with him on the town's square in one of the Terrasses du Larzac's very best restaurant.
After lunch we may go back up on the Larzac, just on its edge, to have the best unparalleled view on the region, from the Pic Saint Loup still there and obvious on the left, to the Pyrenees in the distance on the right. No hiking necessary, just a good driver and people trusting him.
And then we'll drive to the heavenly Village #2, where we will spend the next 6 nights.This village a little out of the main tracks, is a village hotel. It has its own regular population that lives its normal life, and then maybe 20% of the village has been bought by the same fellow who created the rather major winery set on the village's outskirts, that I import and that we'll visit Sunday.
There are rooms in several locations here and there in the village, the center square is the restaurant, there is another restaurant next to it, and then there is a gastronomic third restaurant. Plus an art gallery, a brewery. In short a miniature and adorable resort with impeccable style and colors, a sort of Barbieland if Barbie was a wine producer.
After setting up in our rooms and exploring the Wineland Village, the Pétanque World Cup will resume.
Dinner on the Village Square.
* Friday October 2: We are almost as much west as we are going to go, and so today we go back east a tad, to visit Domaine Cathala, a rather little known producer, but whose Cuvée A has gained little notoriety since I import it, for it is of astounding quality, both in white and red.
Bruno will show us his wines, and we'll have a picnic in the vines, and I am plotting to have some wild boar hamburgers. We'll see if that is in the cards, but one thing is sure is that this will be no ordinary picnic.
After that, we'll visit the rather close Domaine de Ravanès, owned by Marc Benin, a walking encyclopedia on wine making, with 2 PhDs in sciences pertinent to wine making. This may be what allowed Marc to beat Chateau Petrus in a blind tasting 20 years ago, and it certainly is how he is able to produce starred restaurant wines, in an estate little adapted to superior wine making presumably, but where by thinking outside the box, Marc is able to innovate and produce improbable blends of wonder.
Pétanque in our Heavenly village
Thai Dinner
* Saturday October 3: our heavenly village is in the Saint Chinian Appellation, the appellation in the world where I have the most producers, all different and all really amazing.
Today we are going to spend the best part of the day with one of Saint Chinian's very best producers: the Mas de Cynanque, a winery revered all over this deep south. Violaine and Xavier are both oenologists, and produce organic wines with a lot of personal character that exude their terroir, including some mono varietal wines (Carignan, Mourvèdre, Syrah) which are all remarkable. A good part of the production is made from very rare very old vines, and they make rather unusual blends, like a late harvest Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris wine.
We'll visit the vineyard, see the very old vines, hear what soil is here and which one is there, which varietal is planted where, then go to the chai before a tasting morphing into a nice lunch at the farm.
And after lunch we will do a gentle hike through the hills and to further away vineyards.
Back to the heavenly village.
Pétanque World Cup.
Dinner at the Village.
* Sunday October 4: We spend today with the vintner and director of the whole operation hosting us, Clément the "Village Chief." Clément is above all a prodigious wine maker as we'll see. The production here is organic.
We'll start by a visit of the chai which is itself a work of art in terms of architecture. This will be followed by a tasting lending itself to a picnic type of lunch in the vineyard. By now our stomach would appreciate some downtime, so we are not going to tax them too much, especially given what follows.
Because today we climb on the Caroux. The Caroux is that beautiful mountain looking like a sarcophage, that towers the whole region, see photograph on the left. I find important, as well as a worthy exercise, to conquer it. As always those not interested by this type of exercise will be able to skip it.
The whole drive and hike will take about 5 hours, and from the top you will have a beautiful view. I should clarify that the climb is really a walk. Yes there is a little bit of going up and therefore down, but most of the ascent will have been done by car.
And while we had a lighter type of lunch, tonight we eat at the Village's Gastronomic Restaurant, with an emphasis on the wines of the village, Clément's production.
* Monday October 5: Today we go a bit up, above our heavenly village, in some land battered by winds some days, and which must have been the recipient of some stone storms, judging by the soil of the vineyards which are everywhere. They produce muscat here mostly, but we'll visit an out of the ordinary producer, a toppisimo one.
We are on the edge of the Saint Chinian appellation, but also on the wine making edge. These folks are outside of norms and live accordingly, in this rather remote village, surrounded by vines growing on fields of limestone rocks.
He is American, she is local. They have been doing this for the past 30 years almost, and have created a legend. You will find their unique cuvées on starred restaurants tables, that could not resist to their unmistakable character, notably a fabulous orange wine, and a totally unique blend of piquepoul blanc, gris and noir, resulting in a sort of clairet that gives Bordeaux a run for its money.
Nicole and John will share their spirit with us, we'll visit their plots, unusual chai, and of course taste their wines before sharing a meal together, an invaluable treat.
Back at lower altitudes, we'll visit a high quality olive oil mill before going back to our village.
Pétanque.
Thai dinner.
* Tuesday October 6: Today we go as much west as we'll ever go in this tour, direction the Minervois, to its star producer: Domaine La Rouviole. Another organic becoming biodynamic producer, La Rouviole makes the Minervois appellation shine, with wines of utmost character and typicity.
Minervois wines tend to be a bit earthy, with definite intensity, dark fruits, and La Rouviole definitely produces that, as well as some atypical wines, like a 100% Carignan, and a 100% Cinsault, a rarity, and a wine finally allowing to discover what Cinsault is about.
We'll certainly visit the beautifully located estate, discuss wine making with Denis, the Vintner and Director of the operation. Eventually we will have a country lunch mixing elegance, friendliness and utter conviviality.
On our way back to the heavenly village, we will pay a visit to Minerve, the lovely village that gave its name to this part of Languedoc.
Pétanque World Cup final.
Dinner on the Village's square.
* Wednesday October 7: After going west for days and days, today we unfortunately have to go back north. The deep south exploration is running into an end, but the consolation is that up north we will be in Paris, and isn't this always ultra sweet?
The improbable heavenly village will fade in the distance, but probably not in your memories, and we will reach the major roads, heading east in the coastal part of the region. We will stop on the "Autoroute" at a rest area facing Séte, and normally a truck there serves local oysters from the Etang de Thau. We will have some, as well as the picnic put together by our hosts at the Improbable Village.
It is worth mentioning that Mediterranean oysters are saltier and oilier than the ocean ones near Bordeaux or Brittany, and the Southern whites from Domaine Cathala, Ravanès, La Rouviole, work very well with them, and of course we will try these combinations.
But we have a high speed train to catch, and we eventually will, in Montpellier.
In Paris we'll take taxis to the hotel in Saint Germain des Près, before a nice walk to the other side of the river, to the restaurant where we will celebrate our arrival in Paris, with real Parisians surrounding us. We will hope that nobody will leave tomorrow, which will be the official end of the tour, save for those like Giorgios and I who need to get our Paris Fix.
* Thursday October 8: Maybe you had to go, and I am terribly sorry. You will have asked the reception to get you a taxi to the airport, all our thoughts are with you.
For everybody else: folks, we are in Paris, aren't you glad you elected to spend a few days here, it never gets old, and we'll have dinner with Giorgios! You may manage your day as follows:
* Do exactly all you want.The Musee d'Orsay is very close to the hotel, and the Louvre is not much farther. There are also less known but great museums, like the Musée Rodin for instance, all within walking distance from the hotel.
* Do exactly all you want, and meet me/us, for lunch and/or dinner, see Paris options.
* Spend the day in Paris with me, I need a minimum of 4 for that, see Paris options. Today we corner the most beautiful parts of Paris.
* Friday October 9: Same options as yesterday, today we go Musée D'Orsay and Left bank. Giorgios is still in town, and you may have dinner with him tonight! See Paris options.
* Saturday October 10: Same options as yesterday. I have not scheduled a Paris visit with me today, as this would be a good shopping day for everybody, but I am opened if you need me. See Paris options.
* Sunday October 11: One more day in Paris, same options as the days before. Today we go to the Eiffel Tower and have lunch there. See Paris options.
* Monday October 12: This is it folks, I could keep doing this forever, but I do have obligations back home. I'll see you there, and enjoy the rest of your stay.