Pays Cathares, Anduze, Bambouserie

On Friday we had a field trip for my Medieval Literature class to the Pays Cathares which are Medieval castles in between Montpellier and the border of Spain about 2.5 hours away. However, typically French the bus driver needed to stop for a half an hour break after we had only been driving for an hour because he gets tired, and then he got lost and took us like an hour out of the way. But we finally got to the first castle Queribus. First off it was the first "cold" day we've had in Montpellier yet it was about 60 degrees and then once we climbed to the top of the castle we had to hold on to ropes because it was so windy and cold up there. We explored the castle and saw some amazing views, it was an amazing castle. It is excursions and field trips like this that make me think this is really a once in a lifetime experience.

View from the top of Queribus

Hannah, Rowena, Paul (our teacher), myself, Jess with hoods up because its so windy

The castle!

Then we drove about 15 min to the other castle, Peyrepertuse. However the bus wasn't able to drive all the way up to the top so we hiked pretty much straight up a mountain through brush for about half an hour to reach the information desk for the castle and then hiked some more up to the top. It was definitely my workout for the week but the view at the top was totally worth it. At the top we were able to see how far we actually hiked and it seemed amazing that we actually made it all the way up. There were amazing views and this castle was much more magnificent and larger than Queribus.

We hiked all the way to that top part of the castle

Amazing view from the top

My friend Kat and I on the hiking trail

We didn't get back from the Medieval Castles till almost 10pm so we stuffed our faces at this Vietnamese restaurant since we were forbidden to eat or drink on the bus and then passed out because we had to wake up early in the morning on Saturday for our excursion part 2! On Saturday our group headed to a Bambousserie, which is this bamboo forest in the city of Anduze about 1.5 hours away from Montpellier. It was beautiful seeing all the bamboo and very different from the foilage that we have in Montpellier. There were beautiful lakes and huge trees similar to those in Northern California.  We learned about this one type of tree that resists fire, and bugs and everything and even after Hiroshima the tree grew again the next spring like nothing had happened.

Tranquil: Garden of the Dragons

Bamboo!

Dan, myself, Alberto, Morgane, Alaynah, Hannah, Katy at the Bambouserie

After the Bambouserie we went to Les grottes du trabuc, which is basically a cave into a mountain where they have all these stalagmites and stalagtites and underground natural lakes, it was pretty amazing. We learned that each of these stalagtites takes almost a century to form it was crazy. We toured into the cave for over an hour because it just goes deeper and deeper into the mountain. Although at this point we were all super tired and were not really paying attention to the tour guide at all so I don't think she liked our group very much.

Here is a little video on top of the second castle because I feel like the pictures do not do it justice. (Do not mock my horribly videography skills haha)