Boujan sur Libron to Faugeres

The view from Faugeres, back the way we'd come - towards Beziers
Saturday 15th May
Boujan sur Libron to Faugeres
We are now about to start heading due north into the mountains and the thought is daunting. We can see a great wall of hills in the distance 25 miles away and it has crossed our minds more than once to head south to the Canal du Midi and take the easy option. But I’m pleased to say we overcame this faint- heartedness and have set off for Faugeres which is just south of Bedarieux.


Bassan, a village we passed on the way

There is a cycle route marked on the map which goes all the way from Beziers to Bedarieux which either we never found, or the one we found was a mountain bike route and not suitable for the likes of us. So we took the main highway which under normal circumstances we wouldn’t have done but fortunately it had a good verge so we felt reasonably safe. The entire ride was up hill which in itself wouldn’t have been too bad but with a 40mph head wind (known as the Tramontaine) was quite testing on the stamina. (No chortling from the Dorset cycling duo!) However we eventually made it to Faugeres which is a pretty village but our  and B and B was at least 200ft lower than the road we had cycled up – a distance which we knew we had a) already climbed and b) would have to climb again tomorrow morning!
The B and B which also does table d’hote was run by a couple who owned a vineyard and every night there is a 4 course culinary feast with wines to match and often another vigneron to talk about the wines he has produced and how he does it. Tonight there were 16 French booked in for dinner and we are ashamed to say we funked it and went to a bistro further up the village. To make matters worse they even give the guests a sheet of paper and ask them to comment on the wines before being told what they were – well just how embarrassing would that have been!


Huge wine press at the B and B






Our B and B


We are in the centre of the Faugeres wine region and learned that there are 45 producers in this small area, making between them 80% red wines, 15% rose and 5% white.