Sight-seeing

Despite threats of rain and wind we decided to brave the elements today and set out into the hills and wide landscapes of the Haut-Languedoc.

First stop was Villeneuvette, an ancient dyeing town created to manufacture beautiful fabrics for the military and French royalty.

Then we headed to Clermont l'Herault and the olive oil co-operative where we tasted a few of the delicious single variety olive oils and spent a lovely half hour poring over gel douches, savon liquides and room perfumes all bearing the unmistakeable fragrance of the mighty green olive - is it a fruit, is it a veg?

Then we took to the hills and made our way to St Guilhelm Le Desert one of France's most beautiful villages. Full of stone houses and wiggly cobbled alleyways it boasts a beautiful town square with an enormously-trunked tree and a glorious cloistered abbey. Sadly we didn't make the square as rain drove us into a delightful cafe-in-a-cave where we ate salad and a sandwich and waited for the downpour to lessen. Sadly it didn't, so we made a run for the car park and home.

And after a lovely dinner with friends in Gabian, Mrs B and L have turned in for the night. Now that's what I call cheap dates.

But a lovely day. Despite the rain.