Day 13 - Leaving Lodève and heading back

It was a gray day when I left. Mme. Rouillon couldn't drive me to Montpellier like she had promised earlier as she had car problems.  I took the bus, and then the tram, taking a slightly later bus than planned as it had fewer stops and arrived earlier. This was a good thing as I didn't have change in my purse for two trips. Returning to Montpellier also gave me more time to take additional photos, since I had seen very little of the town earlier.  I had last visited Montpellier more than 30 years ago, and I recognized very little as it had mushroomed and developed so much.  On the other hand, Lodève, like Moissac where I stayed along the Via Podiensis a couple of years ago, was a no-frills town, situated in a parched, somewhat hardscrabble setting. The unusually hot, prolonged, summer hadn't helped. I had described Moissac as "gritty" and something of the same quality was here in Lodève. And what had taken me days to walk here during the past week now took less than an hour returning to Montpellier by bus...

Lodève

waiting for the bus

I had just descended this very hill into Lodève the previous day

One of Montpellier's colorful trams

It was fun being back there again, however, and this time I had the luxury of time to explore.  I took in the Cathédrale St. Pierre which I hadn't visited earlier, the Parc Royale du Peyrou; but Henri IV's Jardin des Plantes was closed Mondays. Par for the course.  Around the nearby School of Medicine, students were returning to school and there were ritual antics associated with their return.  Different rival groups in ridiculous costumes carried on a battle of sorts in a festive atmosphere, each group crying out lighthearted threats to the others.  I strolled around, had a lovely salad at an Italian restaurant, and headed to the train station where I took advantage of the free wifi.

St. Peter's Cathedral

the school of medicine

students

students

and more students

St. Anne's church

Jardin des Plantes

a peak at the Jardin des Plantes, which was closed on Mondays

Place de la Comedie

the train station, the Gare St. Roch

"For this God is our God forever and ever, he will be our guide even to the end." Psalm 48:14

Day 12 - Lodève

The up and down climb into Lodève was quite difficult, and almost relentlessly so.  It wasn't a long walk, just a tiring one that took forever because it was necessarily to walk slowly to avoid slipping, and this added time to my walk. Instead of 4 km/hour, I might be walking 2 km/hour which meant a longer time actually walking to reach the same destination.  The rocks varied from shale to volcanic rock, but always hard-going.  I walked awhile with 5 people from the previous night, but lost them at some point, and continued on by myself.  I suspected Gill and Liliane were behind me since they started later, but I never saw them along the route.

Fortunately the monotony was broken up with the little town of Usclas-du-Bosc with its interesting funerary stèles and a grape press/destemmer now functioning as a huge decorative planter...

grave stelae

note the little Occitan cross

And then mid-way was the cloister and chapel of Saint Michel de Grandmont, founded before 1189.  It was open for the Journées Européenes du Patrimoine with a fair number of visitors. I was joined there by some of my gîte-mates from the previous night.  It was a welcome diversion and I took advantage of a short tour of the facility, and bought something to drink. There were apparently some prehistoric dolmens in the gardens beyond the priory but that tour would have taken to long, lasting over an hour, so I decided against it.

I then resumed my walk...

 

to create this maze, someone must have had a lot of time on their hands...

 And overlooking Soumont, before the long descent into Lodève, there was a fantastic panoramic view.

the final descent into Lodève

Lodève is a town of Celtic origin and gets its name from the Gaulish word "Luteva" which might be translated "muddy place" or "swamp city". Lodève started as the capital of a tribe of the Volcae, the Lutevani, before becoming the Roman city Luteva. 

Parts of the Lodève Cathedral, the Cathédrale Saint-Fulcran de Lodève, date from the sixth century. Nothing is known of the original cathedral built towards the end of the 4th century, although traces of previous buildings remain in a 6th century crypt. The cathedral was originally dedicated to Saint Genesius of Arles, a legal clerk in Arles, who was a martyr of the Diocletian persecution, and was beheaded in 303. The cathedral was then rebuilt (or extended) and rededicated under Bishop Saint-Fulcran in 975 AD. Like so much else, it was subsequently looted and severely damaged during the French Wars of Religion, and restored during the 17th century, only to be desecrated again during the French Revolution.  I had a look around at what remained, and, since this was still the weekend of the Journées Européenes du Patrimoine, noted a free organ concert late that afternoon, so I waited around for it to begin.

the organist, normally hidden from view while playing, had his image projected on a screen below

As I was walking back towards my chambre d'hôte after the concert, I was spotted by Jill and Liliane, both having dinner salads outdoors at a little Arab restaurant.  So they had arrived after all! I had been planning on stopping for dinner at a restaurant close by my gîte if it were open, but instead joined them and we caught up briefly.  The latter was considering returning to Toulouse because she had put a bid on a house in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, further along the Via Tolosana, and it had been accepted. If she returned to buy it, Jill would be alone, and the former did not relish the thought of continuing by herself.  We exchanged emails, and I then ordered a dinner salad myself before returning to my chambre d'hôte.  Yes, the route is full of interesting life-stories...

these dinner salads, once unknown, are now becoming very popular here in France

the entrance to by gîte

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I Thessalonians 5:18