We started by taking a walk along by the river and through
Mazeres-sur-Salat where we found a bakery selling ‘Pain Rustique’, a
wonderfully crusty sourdough bread – definitely the best bread that we have had
in France on this trip. We also bought a lovely rustic cake, similar to a lemon
slice but much thinner and much nicer.
We wanted to visit another cave with prehistoric cave art,
the Grottes de Gargas, but knew that we probably have to book a visit as number
are severely limited. We arrived at midday to be told that the next available
tour was 16:00 so we decided to book for the first visit tomorrow at 11:00.
They warned us that the tour was only in French but they gave us some notes in
English that meant that we could read them beforehand.
On the journey to the caves we had passed St. Bertrand de
Comminges with its abbey and it looked very pretty so we decided to go back and
spend some time there. The abbey is set on a hill with the upper village around
it and a lower village at the bottom of the slopes. We parked at the bottom of
the hill next to some ruins that we assumed were Mediaeval and we saw some
archaeologists performing geophysics in the field beyond.
We walked through the fascinating lower village with its
massive barns, up the hill and through the gate in the walls. The village is associated
with the knights of the crusades and a small museum told us a little about the
knights and a lot about their coats of arms. On then to the abbey and its huge
church with a magnificent organ that was a high as a house (sorry no picture,
photography was forbidden). Walking back, we took a further look at the lower
village before examining the boards by the ruins. It turned out that they were
Roman and the forum, market and baths were laid out in front of us.
On then to Montrejeau and the Camping Midi-Pyrenees. We
chose this site because it was close to a reasonably sized town that we hoped
would have somewhere to watch tonight’s critical rugby World Cup match –
England v Australia. We decided to set off in the early evening to give us time
to find a café / bar / restaurant and it was a good job that we did. There were
plenty of shops, cafes and restaurants but everything was closed. By the time
that we reached the far end of the main street, we were beginning to despair.
However, the last building was an open café with an open restaurant round the
corner and the café had a television on showing the Scotland v South Africa
match. We watched the second half over a drink but talking to one of the locals
it became clear that the bar would be closed by the time that the England match
started (21:00). However, the man suggested that the restaurant next door may
show it. We had already decided to eat at the restaurant as it was literally the
only place to eat that was open. We had a good meal and were joined by a number
of French people to watch the match and they all joined us to support England –
the only round of applause was for England’s try. However it wasn’t enough and
it was a depressing walk back through the ghost town to the campsite. England
out of the Rugby World Cup at the group stage – disaster!
Photos: The fish ladder at Mazeres-sur-Salat; The Salat
looking towards the aire which is behind the trees on the left; St. Bertrand de
Comminges; One of the many barns in lower town; Sheep being herded across the
Roman remains.
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