Hiking and les Héraultais
We had two major items on tap today (which was lovely - a perfect 3.0).
The first was a longish hike above Lodève. We drove part of the way to the top of the Plateau du Grezac, which lies to the northwest of Lodève. After parking the car, we packed our lunch the rest of the way on PR 1, one of the local hiking trails in the area (France has an extensive system of trails - the GR system - and many local areas have their own smaller versions). It was quite an unusual environment, very broken country with stone walls everywhere. These walls were used in sheep raising in years past.
The second item was the football (soccer) game in Montpellier, who hosted Guingamp in a Ligue 2 matchup. It was hard to believe that both of these teams were in Ligue 1 just 18 months ago, before being relegated. They are now both desperately trying not to get relegated yet again, to the National (third) level of French football. A small crowd (including at least two Canadians!) watched a mostly listless match (there were some rousing moments, but they were few and far betwween) that ended in a scoreless draw. Nonetheless, the quality of play was superior to anything that we had witnessed live before, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Because of the game and travel, for dinner we just picked up some salad and a small pizza at 'our' local boulangerie, which we had on the patio at our wonderful hotel before travelling to Montpellier for the game. But of course, we had a perfectly delicious wine to wash it down - some of the Les Hauts de Milési 2003 from Domaine des Crès Ricards which we bought the other day.
View of Lodève from PR1
Susan on the trail
Parts of the trail look like this!
A trail marker and a knowmarker (inuksuk) with Lodève below
Steve at the match
The match begins (result: Montpellier 0 - 0 Guingamp)
Manfroi gets fouled
The first was a longish hike above Lodève. We drove part of the way to the top of the Plateau du Grezac, which lies to the northwest of Lodève. After parking the car, we packed our lunch the rest of the way on PR 1, one of the local hiking trails in the area (France has an extensive system of trails - the GR system - and many local areas have their own smaller versions). It was quite an unusual environment, very broken country with stone walls everywhere. These walls were used in sheep raising in years past.
The second item was the football (soccer) game in Montpellier, who hosted Guingamp in a Ligue 2 matchup. It was hard to believe that both of these teams were in Ligue 1 just 18 months ago, before being relegated. They are now both desperately trying not to get relegated yet again, to the National (third) level of French football. A small crowd (including at least two Canadians!) watched a mostly listless match (there were some rousing moments, but they were few and far betwween) that ended in a scoreless draw. Nonetheless, the quality of play was superior to anything that we had witnessed live before, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Because of the game and travel, for dinner we just picked up some salad and a small pizza at 'our' local boulangerie, which we had on the patio at our wonderful hotel before travelling to Montpellier for the game. But of course, we had a perfectly delicious wine to wash it down - some of the Les Hauts de Milési 2003 from Domaine des Crès Ricards which we bought the other day.
View of Lodève from PR1
Susan on the trail
Parts of the trail look like this!
A trail marker and a knowmarker (inuksuk) with Lodève below
Steve at the match
The match begins (result: Montpellier 0 - 0 Guingamp)
Manfroi gets fouled
posted by Steve at
10:19 p.m.
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