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Day 1 Toulouse -
Day 2 Toulouse -
Day 3 Toulouse -
Day 4 Argelliers -
Day 5 Argelliers; Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert -
Day 6 Argelliers; Montpellier -
Day 7 Argelliers; Grotte Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc -
Day 8 Argelliers; Nîmes -
Day 9 Argelliers -
Day 10 Argelliers; Béziers -
Day 11 Lansargues -
Day 12 Lansargues; Camargue -
Day 13 Lansargues; Camargue; Aigues-Mortes -
Day 14 Montrozier -
Day 15 Montrozier -
Day 16 Montrozier -
Day 17 Montrozier; Micropolis; Roquefort -
Day 18 Ambeyrac -
Day 19 Ambeyrac -
Day 20 Ambeyrac; Pech Merle; Cahors -
Day 21 Ambeyrac; Foissac -
Day 22 Toulouse -
Day 23 Toulouse -
Day 24 Toulouse; La Grotte de Niaux; Tarascon-sur-Ariège; Foix -
Day 25 Toulouse; Musée des Augustins -
Day 26 Toulouse; Musée Aeroscopia -
Day 27 Toulouse -
Day 28 Freising, Germany
Day 11 — Lansargues Airbnb Rental — Domaine L’Enclos De La Croix, 2 Avenue Marius Alès, Lansargues, Languedoc-Roussillon map
Lansargues, France
We roused ourselves early—for us—to checkout and then meet our breakfast reservation at the remarkable restaurant at which we ate the other night, which is also a tiny hotel: the Auberge de Saugras. Since our French is very much on the “un peu” side, we didn’t realize that when they said they stopped serving breakfast on Saturday morning at eleven, they only meant that’s when they began serving brunch! Oh well, the homemade breads and jams made it worth getting an early start.
While the boys express their opinion of my early morning photography—Nick in mid eye-roll—the marmelade is homemade and delicious!
For dining, The Auberge de Saugras is super charming, but for living, the place where we stayed was much nicer. So eat here, sleep there.
From here, we drove to our next destination, Domaine L’Enclos De La Croix, a little winery in Lansargues, not far east of Argelliers. The same family has owned the winery for seven generations or about two hundred years.
Christopher said that their logo looked like it had been designed for a horror movie poster.
Domaine L’Enclos De La Croix
We got a whole house—five bedrooms, a living room and a sitting room; a kitchen; a garage with bikes, strollers, and games; a beautiful old kitchen; a stack of wood for a seemingly endless number of fireplaces; and a bunch of bathrooms—more than one for each of us.
The owner of the vineyard and her brother greeted us with warm recommendations and tons of wine. We have a tour of their winery scheduled. And, in the afternoon, they arranged for a tour of the region on horse-drawn carriage.
We brought a nice bottle of wine the hosts gave us and were ready for a picnic with views. The man driving the horse, who reminded us all a bit of Captain Jean Luc Picard, spoke no english. But a neighbor joined us on our tour and brought her son; she translated for us.
The Carriage Ride
We set off at a lovely pace through an amazing place.
There are bull farms—bulls bred for games. But the guides explained that these bulls are not killed like they are in Nîmes and Spain. Instead, they participate in a version of “flag football”—the men avoid being gored to death while grabbing a ribbon off the backs of the bulls—a much better spectacle. The bulls live a long and happy life.
And then the mosquitoes came out. There were swarms of them and they were huge! We’d never been through anything quite like it before. Our guides helped us coat ourselves with anti mosquito spray.
We wore mosquito repellant like eau de cologne through dinner. Nick is particularly sensitive to bites; we are still exploring the scary bumps.
We are near the Parc Camargue, a wetland famous for its flocks of flamingos. Diane said that she had been with Richard, Benjy, and Jason years ago and that we must see it. So we were game. But, after the mosquito attack, we all made the executive decision not to visit the Park for fear of being eaten alive.
Tomorrow, we plan to visit a nice farmers’ market, far from the marshland.
That’s it for now.