My Compostelle 2 : the Via Tolosana: Day 12

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...