Last week, Nick, Sarah and I spent the weekend in a castle! We joined a group of nearly 40 people from our church on a retreat to an area of France known as Les Cevennes. About a 2 hour drive west of Aix, Les Cevennes is in the Languedoc Roussillon region and is also the name of the mountain chain located there. The area has lots of history, most of which I won't bore you with, but there are a few interesting facts worth knowing. Some of the largest Protestant populations in France have lived in this region. This was a place of widespread protestant persecution over a period of several hundred years, particularly during Huguenot times. Chestnut trees were a big crop here here prior to and again in the 15th century and was the main crop in the area. Apparently, it was the staple for the poor and persecuted..they used chestnut flour for making everything. Also, the origin of the later wealth of the Cevennes in the 19th century was due to the silk industry. “Magnagneries”, silk worm breeding houses, can still be found dotting the countryside here although we didn't see any.
Our trip began late Friday afternoon, when we all met in downtown Aix to load into cars and caravan to the castle. The two hour car ride took us past the larger cities of Arles and Nimes over the mighty Rhone several times and finally off onto windier, rural routes until we reached our destination. As we arrived after dusk, we wouldn't fully appreciate our location until the next morning. Arrival time was busy but cheerful as we unpacked cars, food and supplies. Monsieur de Cazenove met us at the front door and warmly welcomed our group. He is a handsome 86 year old with sparkly blue eyes. He lives here alone in a separate part of the castle. He generously opens his home to the church twice a year. Once inside the grand foyer, we all had a tour of the place and found our assigned rooms. Ours was a corner room, with a double bed and mattress for Sarah. There was a lovely fireplace, now boarded up unfortunately, with huge gold mirror above it. A writing desk and chair we under one shuttered window. We looked out the window and there was a gargoyle hanging above our heads. We could imagine Jane Eyre or one of the Bronte sisters living right there. Everyone went around to raiding the armoires in the hallways, grabbing any and all blankets and quilts to make the beds warmer. Here Sarah is making herself a warm, cosy bed.
The living room had a fabulous fireplace in which we were anxious to build a fire ...
Nick helping set up the dining room for dinner...
After we all finished our house opening chores, we sat down together and enjoyed a delicious simple, but hearty, dinner of white bean soup, bread, fruit and cookies.
Later, we moved into the now warmer(notice I did not say warm!) living room for card games, singing and reading. Then for some it was movie time and for other heartier, warm-blooded souls there were night caps and late night partying in one of the towers.
We woke up Saturday to mostly overcast skies and a bit of drizzle.....cold and raw and we weren't sure whether it was worse inside or out. Basically, I never took off my coat the whole weekend....the first night I slept with my gloves on! During breakfast, despite the weather we were all still determined to go on our day's outing. While we waited for everyone to get organized to leave, Nick walked around the property and took these photos....
Happily, the rain let up and by 9:30 we set off in our caravan formation once again. It was only about 15 minutes to our starting point. As you can see the area is pretty rugged...
As we made our ascent, the steep climb led us up to a huge cave in the mountain. We were told that this cave was used by Protestant Huguenots as a place of worship during their time of persecution during the 16th century. Judging from the steepness of the climb, we had a hard time imagining worshippers making this trip on a weekly basis...especially women in long skirts with babes in arms!
When we reached the cave it was difficult to see how deep it went into the mountain but a shout into it let you know it went WAY back.
We had a few flashlights but we really happy to discover some torches, left behind by another group, just inside the opening which helped really illuminate the space. It was ENORMOUS!
All the way in the back was a giant pool of very cold water. We honestly felt like we could have been in a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean!! Was Jack Sparrow going to jump out from behind one of the walls?!? Hidden behind the pool of water, for those who dared to scale the wall to see, there was a Huguenot cross carved in the wall. I will never forget the way our acapella voices sounded singing "Amazing Grace"....it was goose bump material.
The hike back down was comical. It seemed even steeper than the ascent and with the ground still slippery from the morning rain, we had to hang onto tree branches like monkeys in order to lower ourselves down the narrow trail without slipping and falling. Fortunately, we all made it down with nothing more than muddy, wet shoes and dirty clothing.
Sarah resting with hiking buddies, Rebecca and Abbey....
Our friends Dom and Hilary...
Next stop on our day's itinerary was lunch in the nearby town of Anduze.
This town has reportedly the largest, but certainly not the prettiest, Protestant church in France...
This fountain with it's colorful tower looked like something straight out of Candy Land!
We enjoyed wandering through the town....but were all very happy to arrive at the restaurant. We were hungry!!
The proprietor of La Rocaille took all 39 of us down into an appropriately cave-like room where we had a really great and very affordable lunch . The meal, served family style included many courses. We started with an antipasti plate of salami, cornishons and olives and endless amounts of fresh, chewy bread, next came a rustic terrine of homemade pate, then we had a huge bowl of fresh salad greens, sliced onions and radishes with a nice tart dressing, then a fresh herb omelet followed by steak, fabulous pommes frites. If you had any room left after all of that you had a choice of ice cream or tart tatin for desert and the rich coffee came with a savory piece of dark chocolate. All this for 8.80 euro per person, not including drinks. Too bad we don't live closer!Here we all are...taking up 4 tables!
After lunch we went to another little nearby town to an old chapel built in the 12th century. We all welcomed the chance to walk around a bit more..some even did the 1 1/2 hour hike back to the castle to work off a bit of the lunch!
Sarah and Rebecca picking flowers....
for a beautiful bouquet...
Back at Monsieur de Cazenove's chateau, the late afternoon gave way to thoughts about dinner! Tonight we were making Tartiflette for 40! Maybe you saw my blog entry on Val d'Isere where I gave a detailed description of this delicious potato, ham and cheese dish from the Savoie mountain region of France. Dinner prep was a lot of fun. Several of the university students took part and learned how to make the tartiflette, homemade salad dressing, s'mores in the microwave...
and how to drink scotch...
and how to make vin chaud(hot mulled wine)!
It was a really great dinner and after dinner fun of movies, scavenger hunts and another rooftop party for the brave and warm blooded. Pirates of the Carribean 2 was showing in the diningroom....fortunatley no duels were re-enacted with any of these swords hanging on the wall!
Sunday morning we had breakfast, some sharing and singing time in the livingroom by the warm fireplace and then it was time for an all hands on deck clean up. It's amazing to see what an energetic group of our size could accomplish in under an hour!! Before we knew it, the place was clean, we were eating a stand-up "American"(defined as "quick") lunch and we were saying goodbye to Monsieur de Cazenove. Here is our merry group with our smiling host at the center.
As we drove down the road from the castle, we took these last few shots of the area.... truly a lovely, quiet part of France which we are glad to have visited.
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