Arrival in Beziers

In St Etienne, in the morning after a continental breakfast of crusty French bread and homemade marmelade (Marie-Christine again), Jean-Yves took us to a small village near St. Etienne (St Victor-sur-Loire, which now is part of St Etienne) to see an 11th century church, small castle and medieval town perched above the meandering Loire River.

We also checked out the beach and small marina of St Etienne along the Loire. The cherry blossoms were blooming at the beach and the day was warm and sunny. Here's the link to the French Wikipedia article about these two places: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Victor-sur-Loire It includes a couple of photos as well.

We finished by checking out an overlook high above St. Etienne that gives a perpective on the whole city and surrounding valley.

Then we were on our way, driving along the Rhone, enjoying all the flowering fruit trees in the orchards along the Rhone valley, until we turned away from the Rhone River just north of Avignon. We arrived in Beziers, catching glimpses of the Mediterannean as we got close. Our apartment is actually in a small wine-growing village called Thezan-les-Beziers about 8 km northwest of Beziers. We arrived around 6 PM with perfect directions from owners Tony and Marian, confirmed by our GPS system. After a tour of the apartment, we headed through town (getting completely lost in tiny alleys of streets), but finally making our way to the supermarket to pick up dinner and breakfast to tide us over till we can get organized to do a proper shopping.

Back at the apartment, we ate on our terrace at sunset, savoring a local red wine (Fitou), bread and cheese and grapes. A raspberry tart completed the meal.

We've now unpacked, Dave is working to figure out the TV (has satellite subscription to British TV package) and I've connected to the Internet. Tomorrow, I'll take pix of the apartment and post them. It's 11:20 here now and the wine is gone, so it's time for bed. Adieu!