Protectors of the Cheese

On the following day, Sunday Oct. 18th, Randi and I headed out early from our hotel in Millau. We set out to follow in the footsteps of the Knights Templar. We were still near Roquefort, in an area they call the Larzac plateau. In this area there are five fortified villages, which are associated with the real history of the mythical Order of the Knights Templars.

I like to think we were part of a New Order, calling ourselves the 'The Knights of Roquefort'...Protectors of the Cheese. In my mind we were completely cloaked in chainmail. Randi would be wearing a haubergeon...with her sexy boots. I'd wear full armour. And over it, I'd wear a surcoat. It would be embroidered with a crest, that looked like a Peuqeot Lion, biting into a hunk of cheese, while holding a bottle of wine...maybe a corkscrew weapon in it's mouth. We look awesome! (JohnE, I need a little photoshop help to make a pic of that crest) This isn't the first time I've imagined ourselves as knights with a noble cause, like bread, wine and cheese!

The Templars settled on the Larzac plain in 1140 and remained there for about 200 years. They were half soldier, half monks...soldier monks if you will. These fighting monks of the Larzac flourished, as they cultivated wheat and barley, and bred sheep and horses destined for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Their main objective was to contribute to the survival of their brother knights in the East and the upkeep of the great fortresses built to protect the tomb of Christ in the Holy Land. The Larzac, conveniently close to Mediterranean ports for the shipment of money and provisions, served as one of the major bases for the Knights Templar in Europe. The soldier-monks generated huge wealth. I imagined that, even back then, the soldier monk liked to stop on the side of the road from time to time, to drink wine, eat bread and roquefort cheese. A tradition that can still be seen on the side of a deserted road there today!

We drove the Circuit du Larzac Templier et Hospitalier and ended up going to 3 of 5 of the Templar towns, La Cavalerie, Sainte-Eulalie de Cernon and La Couvertoirade.

In La Cavalerie we were very impressed and slightly spooked? by the 18th century church there, where you can find the remains of the first templar church. On my first attempt at entering the church, I opened the door to find that I was about to interrupt what seemed like some sort of very solemn, very private service going on. I thought maybe they were sacrificing somebody or somethin...none of my business. But I accidentally hit the shutter button on my camera and got a really nice shot for the feel of this ancient church, with it's unique interior, in use. We walked around the back and found a large outdoor statue of the crucification and around it there was an archaeological dig in progress which showed the foundation of the first templar church on that site. There was an older guy there, who spoke English (that's what made it spooky) and he explained to us the layout of the ancient 12th century church and the work going on there. I'm glad he didn't say "I know exactly where you're from and you won't be going back there anymore". ....what!...Run honey!

In Sainte-Eulalie de Cernon we visited another church. The limestone masoned church of Sainte-Eulalie. There was a beautiful square there with a fountain shaded by plane trees.

We went from there onto La Couvertoirade. I rode my Peuqeot like the wind, with a bright flag of my crest flying out the back window. It is one of the 500 villages that seem to be in the 'Top Ten Most Beautiful Villages of France' list. It is the most famous of the Templar settlements due to its exceptional state of preservation. Randi and I did an audio tour as we walked through the town. This fortified medieval village has an intact surrounding wall (built in the 14th century) of round and square towers connected by a rampart walk, with no guardrails. I was a very sweaty, slow-moving, cautious knight on the rampart..."hey guys, wait for me!" From atop the rampart wall it was cool to imagine the medieval city in action and how hard life must have been back then.

It was a very nice ride with huge vistas and bright green pastures. We saw large herds of sheep everywhere. I hoped to find them at a lavogne or village sheep pond, like we saw in post cards but decided to get out of the car and take a look at a large herd that were grazing. Apparently a herding method could be to get out of the car and point a camera at them. Hundreds of them came towards us. And they became very loud and boisterous. We became concerned and returned back to our car quickly, before some sort of sheep uprising took place.

The Caves of Roquefort

On Saturday Oct. 17th, Randi and I took a 3 hour ride NE of Toulouse, through some incredibly scenic rolling hills.

We went to find the cheese of lore. A cheese that has been sought out, in these caves, since the time of the Romans! We went to Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. We went deep into the Société des Caves de Roquefort and saw rows and rows of cheese balls in racks. They explained to us how in traditional French cheese making, the cheesemaker leaves a local loaf of sourdough bread, teeming with starter cultures, in underground caves rich with penicillium roqueforti. He lets the bread get moldy, then grinds up the moldy loaf, and mixes the breadcrumbs with the curd of the milk. The cheeses are then aged in the caves where the bread went moldy, further encouraging the development of blue veins. Most cheesemakers today use a penicillium roqueforti that is made in labs, because it makes for more consistent veining, if you will. I'd just like to know who was the first guy to say to his buddies..."hey, check this out. I found some moldy bread I left in a cave and I decided to put it inside some sheep milk cheese...and then eat it! And don't mind that sharp, acid-like taste...you'll get used to it. The whole thing is totally normal. It's totally normal man. Mold is good!" Who was this gutsy, forgotten, culinary genius!!

We also saw our first 'cheese light show' (set to music), a cheese documentary and a cheese musuem. The light show was very dramatic, showing spooky images of cheese makers of the past right onto the cave walls. The documentary was so stoic that it was hilarious to us. There was a guy taking huge nose hits off a hunk a cheese and then appeared to be contemplating the meaning of life. The cheese museum was cool. We found a little sheep purse for Estella there...it looked like a giant version of her little 'piggie' :) They also had hallways full of old posters from Roquefort. Here are two of the Societe Roquefort sales ads. The first one, with the sultry cheese-peddling temptress, is from the 1950s and then the mustache guy is from the 70s. I think he had a very 'Menard's guy'-like gig going...he had many years of of him shown in their ads. He looks like he may have had the same delivery pitch as the Menard's guy but for cheese. "Get all your stinky Roquefort cheese...at Menards!"

That night we were traveling without a hotel reservation (walkin on the wild side) we stopped at a wayside picnic area to contemplate where to go and break into our fresh roquefort cheese. DAM! that's good sh*t. We decided to go to the bigger town of Millau, since there would be a few choices of where to stay. The plan was to see the Millau Viaduct on Sunday but it came into view way before we reached it. Wow. C'est incroyable!! It's the highest bridge ever built, with the tallest pillar being just 125 feet shorter than the Empire State building. It actually looks like an animation of a bridge, in some futuristic movie. We ended up staying at the inexpensive Hotel Club for just 60 euros. It actually looked like a nice place to stay in the summer, with a pool and tennis courts. We asked the pencil mustached young guy at the reception desk where we could get some dinner. He seriously asked us "are interested in good food or bad ?". Huh...we went with 'good'. Bad food doesn't sound good at all. The guy seemed a little light in the loafers and slightly Norman Bates-like but I tried not to think about it. We were tired and happy with our day dedicated to cheese!

Au Revoir Du-Foix

Randi and I surprised ourselves and headed back out exploring Sunday, Oct 11th, the day after Dan and Janet left us. The whole time there we seemed to talk about them and the time we had together. We thought that they were probably glad to be back home and out of our bread crumb and cheese powered Peugeot 308.

We took a short, one hour ride to the town of Foix. There we visited Le Chateau De Foix. It was built around 1000, in a strategic location, on top of a large piece of rock. It sits up high, overlooking the small town of Foix.

We enjoyed learning about the story of the famous Gaston Fébus ...the Lord of the Pyrenees ...the Count of Foix ...the King of the Pyrenees ...Gastronomy Gaston ...Kill em all Gaston ...Febus the Fecal. I made up the last few but he had a lot of good names.

The reign of Gaston III was one of the rare success stories of the destructive fourteenth century. By playing a skillful game of shifting allegiances, he avoided being drawn into the conflicts between his more powerful neighbors, thus sparing his domains the devastations of warfare. Best known as a patron of the arts, and the author of a celebrated 'Book of the Hunt' (a good simple book title). Here he is supposedly teaching his minions how to hunt. He has a long stick in his hand and they have scrolls of writing paper. He's most likely teaching them that it's not the size of the weapon that counts, it's the technique used.

Ran and I then went on a 10 minute ride outside of Foix to find Le Pont du Diable bridge or the Devil's bridge. It was a unique looking bridge built across a small river that reminded me of one of the rivers on the North Shore, that feeds into Lake Superior. We sat on a large rock on the bank of the river, looking up at the bridge and the scenery around us.
It was a beautiful day. We sat there and had a bottle of wine and counted our blessings. In the pic I'm showing off my new handy pocket knife with corkscrew. Gaston 'The Great' would be proud of me.

Road to Antibes

After the four of us had just two short days of downtime in Toulouse, we got our happy feet back and headed out on Friday, October 2nd. This time we were headed to the French Riviera (Côte d'Azur). That day, on the road to Antibes, we first stopped at Arles, to see the Roman Coliseum and have lunch at a small sandwich shop named Huile d'Olive, which was just around the corner from where Van Gogh painted 'Cafe Terrace at Night'
The nice folks there suggested we go to Des Baux de Provence, which they said was very close. I had heard about this town from the guys at work and they confirmed that it was one of the top 10 most beautiful french towns. We hear this a lot and suspect that there are over 100 in the this top ten list but we weren't disappointed at all with the slight change in our route and plan for the day. As soon as we walked into the picturesque village, Dan went off on his own and got lost. I figured he was holed up somewhere like a sniper, with his camera and his mono pod, trying to scope out a long range shot. Luckily he bought a cell phone that works in France. However, he couldn't hear it ringing in my car. :) We toured the ruins of the hilltop castle fortress there and saw the huge catapults they demonstrate there in the summer. There was a beautiful view of the area from up there...but the mistral winds were really really strong. On the way out of town we stopped to admire the beauty of an olive tree grove and Janet did little fresh olive tastings...right from the tree!! It seemed like a good idea but she convinced us it was actually a very bad idea.

From there we went to our first stop, at the Hotel Emeraude in Antibes. Even though we all agreed that the carpeting needed replacement, the place turned out to be comfortable. We got a typical warm Iranian Scottish welcome from the owners. Their illegitimate Slavic daughter Maria (just kidding) and her English friend Vanessa worked there and had interesting travel stories to tell us (that may get more interesting with Dan's credit card). We visited the market in town and walked along the waterfront one day. We went on a quick tour of the Maritime Museum there and saw Napoleon's hat!...needless to say, Randi was mesmerized by it :) Our second night there we went to dinner right on the beach, with our table being just 20 feet from the tide coming in.

After two nights there, we drove down the French Riviera coast, enjoying big views of the sparkling Mediterranean along the way.
I'd said before that I expected the Mediterranean Sea to be kind of a run down, medieval version of the Caribbean but I was wrong. It really appears to be coral blue, clear and clean. We stopped at Villefranche-sur-Mer and walked through an outdoor antiquités brocante. I made the only purchase of what I thought was a heavy stone planter with a small sculpture of a French medieval castle on it but when I looked at it at home later, I found some Chinese inscription on it and realized that the castle is actually the Great Wall. I'm a shrewd bargain hunter I guess. Ironically, I was thinking of using it for a bonsai tree, when I get back to the States.
We also stopped in Monte Carlo and toured around the city. We walked up to the casino but it was closed for lunch at the time...probably good news. Finally we stopped for lunch in Menton, before doing the Mambo Italiano, "like a mixed up Siciliano", and crossed the border into Italy.
We were four Americanos staying in San Remo for one night at the Villa La Brise hotel, operated by the reserved but friendly Marco. It was a great deal at 70 euros, right across the street from the sea, with air, free wireless and free bike rental. We took a bike ride that night, before dinner, on the biking trail along the coastline there. Unfortunately we seemed to be haunted by Sophia Loren's song "Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo" in our heads the whole time.

The next day we were heading back into France and into the Provence area. For Randi and I this may have been our 5th? time there but each time we go we find there is something else new to see and do. We stayed at the gite of Pascal and Sophia Loren's daughter (possibly?), Laura Donna. It was called the Mas Cassaireu d'Auseu in the town of Plan D'Orgon. It was a beautiful, recently renovated, 19th century farmhouse. The rooms were very tastefully done and spotless. We went and explored the area that afternoon. We made our almost daily stop to pick up bread, cheese and a few bottles of wine. We visited one of the more than 100, top 10 most beautiful towns in France called Gordes, before driving on to see the red rock of Roussillon. That night we ate in Cavailon. The following day we started out by visiting Avignon and the Palais des Papes where the Poop[s] lived for most of the 1300s. Randi and I did an audio tour of the Palace, which my favorite story on there was regarding what was cooked for the coronation of Pope Clement in 1307. He had them cook 118 oxen, 60 pigs, 1023 sheep, 101 calves, 3043 fowl, 7148 chickens, 1195 geese, 6900 weight bacon, 39,980 eggs and 95,000 loafs of bread. Basically he had them exterminate the forest and shoot everything that flies or runs by.
After a quick lunch in Avignon, we went on a scenic ride in wine country. We stopped along that way at a few different wineries in Beaumes De-Venise, Lafare, Suzette and Malaucene. One of the most entertaining stops was at the Domaine Saint Amant winery in Suzette. There was a very nice older man tending to the wine tasting duties there. He seemed to be getting a little confused with what we had tasted and what we hadn't. After a while I realized that Randi was trying to talk him into not only giving up additional tasting but also his late model automobile and any lucrative stock and bonds he might have..."do you have a 2001 rouge vin we could taste ?...do you have any stock certificates that are maturing ?". She's ruthless sometimes. She had him confused and dreaming about cruising the countryside with her in the passenger seat, wearin those new boots of hers, smiling and winking at him. I could tell...I've had that same dream. :) After he showed us their cave, we purchased a couple bottles and ended up finding a medieval picnic table to stop and try one. The table looked like somebody took down Stonehenge to make a little rest area out of it. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun.

For the record: The Vikings beat the Packers 30-23 on 'Tuesday Morning Football' to improve their record to 4-0. Farve had a great night going 24 of 31 passing for 271 yards and three touchdowns. Here's a guy who spent almost his whole career playing for the Packers and then here he is, on their arch rival, kickin their a*s. Think about it. It's just better than I ever imagined.

On Wednesday, Oct. 7th, we left our comfortable gite to head back to Toulouse. But first we decided to stop to pet the donkey and goat next door. Everything was fine until the goat barged under the fence. We were in a panic for a short period of time and were considering going back to the farmhouse to try to tell them a goat escaped...this would have required some sort of goat imitation. But just then the goat calmly went back in, under the fence and stared at us. We thought we just better get the he*l out of there. We decided to drive into St. Remy, where I held a small parking clinic for the kids..."don't be afraid to tap the car in front of you or behind you...that's why they call it a bumper...feel the curb...hop the curb if you have to...visualize the space...be the car". The group of around 20 young drivers gave me a standing ovation (they were standing at the time) and kept looking at my car as we walked off...like there were mirrors involved or somethin. It was an odd moment. We went to a flea market there, where Randi found a 35 euro steal on a Dresdin porcelain figurine...she later found something similar on the web selling for a few hundred dollars! Dan and I both bought knifes (package deal for 20 euros each) that had cork screws built into the handle...C'est la magnifique!! It's so important to me here, I don't leave home without it now.

The final couple nights they were here in Toulouse we hung pretty low, reminisced about our travels and played a few aggressive games of CatchPhrase. We really loved having them here and being able to spend the days of vacation together in France.