Soubes--The Hike On The Edge Of The World

Today we went to Soubes. It is a bit north of Lodeve where Elena and I once ate a lunch. Since it's a bit far, we needed a ride and fortunately, there is a person willing to give us a ride near by. We met her in front of the Saint Denis church right across the street from Le Dome at the corner of Gambetta and Clemenceau. We didn't know that she would be taking more people, but she actually had 4 of us she was taking, long with her dog. She has a minivan, so it was a comfortable ride. Just the night before, Caroline decided she would be able to come (she's nursing the stray cats she found, and now they are capable of spending more time alone between feedings). It didn't look like she was going to be able to make it. I mailed her where we would meet but it was late the night before.

So we headed to Lodeve and beyond to Soubes. I hadn't realized that Lodeve is actually a sort of medieval town dominated by a large Romanesque church. Makes we want to go there.

/tangent start
If she ever returns to France, Elena wants to visit other places since she's already done Herault in Languedoc-Roussillon. And that makes sense. It's nice to see as much as possible. But I am still of the feeling, that I'd rather come back and visit Languedoc-Roussillon often. There is so much to do and see. And I prefer depth to breadth when traveling.
/tangent end

So we eventually found our group and happily Caroline was able to get a car to come. The town of Soubes is interesting. It has a number of tunnels or, more accurately, covered alleys, between the major streets. We need those in Seattle when it rains. We headed out to the mountain and did a loop. We went over the valley and saw breathtaking vistas of the old villages and buildings below.




At the top we ate in a meadow. I looked at the diversity of bug life around me. I saw 4 types of spider--one with a little web in the ground, 2 types of busy ants, a grasshopper, a tick, tiny snail shells, a beetle, and a caterpiller.








Fredy brought a bottle of red wine. Yay! Some people, had cookies (including us).





After spending some time eating and resting and enjoying the sun and shade (it wasn't too hot), we went up over the mountain and started down the other side. We passed a dolmen--a sort of prehistoric grave, carved into a particularly slatey section of rock and closed off from the public by a stone wall more modern. We went through a section where a representative sample of the plants were labeled. Then we made it back to the village.

Once back, we rested, and had a beer/monaco/perrier/etc.