Tour de French Cuisine-Stage 5; Le Cap d'Agde-Perpignan

As the tour begins to leave France and head to Spain, a stop in the Languedoc-Roussillon region and the continued ride down the edge of the Mediterranean  brings high winds and more amazing scenery.

 

Once home to small vacation homes, Le Cap d’Agde was developed in the 1970’s when Georges Pompidou drew up plans to develop the Languedoc-Roussillon coastline. It is now the area’s most popular seaside resort, but be careful on some of the beaches. You may see a little bit more then you want. The Naturist beach, is Europe’s largest nude beach is 2km long and about 20 m wide and can accommodate up to 20,000 people. Boy that is a whole lot of stuff to see… There are other beaches for those who don’t want to strip down, Plage Richelieu is the largest beach in the area, Plage Môle is the most popular. The Grande Conque has beautiful black sand and the Plage de la Roquille is covered with sea shells. Other beaches are the Le Grau-d’Agde and Plage de la Tamarissiere located on the other side of the canal. Other great things to see in Cap d’Agde is the Musee del l’Ephebe, the underwater Archaeology Museum that contains 25 years of treasures found on the bottom of the Mediterranean sea and coastal lagoons of the Herault delta. Here you can see the magnificent “l'Ephèbe d'Agde” a bronze statue of a young Greek man was found in the Herault in 1964. (maybe he she be on the Naturist beach)  Off the coast of Le Cap d’Agde is the le Fort Brescou and was built on the submerged part of an ancient underwater volcano. It was built by Vicomte de Joyeuse in 1586 during the wars of religion; it was destroyed by the Montmorency’s revolt in 1632 but was raised in 1680 as you see it today. In the 18^th century it was a state prison until it was closed in 1851. In my grandfathers collection of postcards I found one for Le for Brescou.

 

Just outside of Le Cap d’Agde is the city of Agde where you will see many of the buildings made from the lava from the Mont St-Loup a now extinct volcano. The Ancienne cathédrale St-Étienne was built in the 9^th century and rebuilt in the 12^th century. The 6-10 foot thick walls are topped with crenellations and machicolations. My grandparents were here in 1979 as the first stop before they started to travel down the Canal du Midi. This picture is from a old postcard of La Cathédrale St Etienne. I have a shoe box filled with old postcards from all France and Switzerland, they would send us all postcards and then would write “save” on the back and then we would give them back. Now it is a great record of where they were on their French adventures. So glad that I have them now.

 

Beziers lies 10km from the Mediterranean above the river Orb, where the Canal du Midi spans the river at the Pont-canal d’Orb that claims to be one of the first aqueducts. Beziers is also the capital of the Langueduc winemaking region and hosts the Feria d’Ete summer wine festival. The Feria de Béziers is a bullfighting festival held every August. The French bullfighting is a more humane version, it is a bloodless sport and the object is to take a rosette from the head of the bulls. The bulls are not harmed as in the more savage versions of the sport. A visit to the Eglise de la Madeleine which is now a peaceful Romanesque churched rebuilt during the gothic period and again in the 18^th century, the church was one of the sites of the Albigensian Crusade Massacre.

 

(that is my grandmother on top fo the boat and my grandfather behing the wheel September 28, 1979 in the middle of the aqueduct over the River Orb at Beziers)

 

Just as the tour heads into the Pyrenees-Orientales department the first stop is the town of Port-Barcares. You may come across a large white ship, the Lydia, that was deliberately run aground in 1967 and now a major attraction with a casino and disco located aboard the ship. Sardines have been fished for centuries in Port-Barcares and during the summer you can find them being sold in stalls and restaurants.

 

Argelès-sur-Mer is home to the Case de les Albères at 4 Pl des Castellans is a Catalan museum of folk art, and traditions such as winemaking and espadrilles and barrel making. Argelès also has more campsites than anywhere else in France.  Flowing through Argelès-sur-Mer is the Tech river and the Tech valley. The Tech valley gets sunshine 300 days a year with very little rainfall. Because of the climate, subtropical flora can be found lower in the valley and dense forests on the higher slopes. Since the Tech is so close to the Spanish border it made for a escape route from occupied France during World War II.

 Elne stands on a hill on the north bank of the Tech and just 6km from the beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean and between Perpignan and Argles. The ancient fortified Catalan city of Elne was at one time the capital of Rousillon. It was later overshadowed by the Perpignan when it became the seat of the kings of Mallorca. In 1285 the town was besieged by the French crown and the entire populate was killed in the church where they were hiding

 

The stage 6 of the Tour ends in the city of Perpignan. With its Spanish flair it is second only to Barcelona in Catalan cities. There is a true sense of Franco-Spanish ambience in everything in Perpignan. From its Sardana to the food and even the landscape, it has a very distinct identity. Sardana is a traditional Catalin dance that dates back to the 16^th century. Dancers dress in red and white and move in concentric circles with arms raised high and they perform the intricate steps. The old medieval walls of Perpignan were destroyed in the 1900’s to allow expansion and were replaced with wide boulevards which maintain the separation of the cities older districts where many of the museums and monuments are. The tour rides into the finish on the Place de Catalogne

 

This week it has been in the 60’s and low 70’s which has been fantastic and great for cooking. But I was really craving some soup so I went to my “Soups of France” by Lois Anne Rothert. There are many great soups in here and are split up but regions of France. Since the Tour was in the Languedoc area I decided on the Gratinée Au Roquefort or Roquefort-glazed onion soup.  The recipe was rather odd, in that it wanted you to actual strain out the onions and only serve it as a broth, I didn’t do that. And it wasn’t the BEST onion soup either. Stick with Julia Child for that one. But the addition of the blue cheese to the toast hiding under the Gruyere gave it a nice little surprise.  

Some more of my grandfather's pictures of the Canal du Midi....

 

with their friends the Kendalls near the Lock Baquas, as usual my grandpa was taking the picture (my grandmother is the one with the dark hair)

 

Outside the Etang de Montady on the Canal du Midi, my grandfather....miss him so much