Beziers, France by Kev and Mel

Hello everyone,
We moved from Saint Aignan near Tours in the centre of France to the south of France, in Magalas near Beziers. This is where one of my brothers, Gerald, lives with his family: his wife, Chris and his 2 kids (Lucas and Charlotte).
It took us around 6-7 hours to get from Saitn Aignan to Magalas with a couple of stops to get some coffee and food.
When we got there, we found the place we booked. I am driving at the moment (as we are in France) and I didn’t like driving in the tiny streets: imagine an old town with only the place to drive a cart and a horse, as obviously this area was built well before car existed and car barely fit!!! We parked a bit below where we booked and walked the last few minutes! The place is pretty big: a bit area downstair (actually there was a parking under with laundry things as well but we didn’t used it), our room, a kitchen and a balcony on the first floor, the kids room on the top floor. One really nice place! I booked it as it is close to my brother’s place. We settled for a bit then head there: a quick 10 minute walk. As always, we spend the afternoon and evening catching up and exchanging news of what has been happening since the last time we saw each other, which in this case was 3 years ago! A very late night as we got back to our place around midnight.
The next day, we slept in a bit! Lunch with Gerald then off to visit Beziers. This city is one of the oldest in France. Research shows that the ancient Greek colony of Béziers dates from 575 BCE, which make it one of the oldest (with Marseille and Agde in the same area). You can imagine there is a lot of historical monuments that can be found there. We started with the cathedral Saint Nazaire, built on a hill which dominate the Orb, the river which passes through Beziers. It was built from the middle of the 13th century on the site of a previous roman church which was destroyed in 1209 during the sack of Beziers by the crusader. This roman church was itself built on the site of a roman temple!!! The cathedral is beautiful, with stained glasses, sculptures, religious paintings, carvings and a beautiful pipe organ. We then walked in the streets of Beziers, mix of a lot of different architectural style: from renaissance building to Hausman style from the 19th century. It was a very nice afternoon, with great weather and great company.
In the evening, we met Raf, Charlotte’s boyfriend, which seems to be a very lovely person. Together, we came back to Beziers to see the evening animations: the first one was a music and light show on a fountain. It was great, lots of colours, the water was moving to the music. The songs were some classics French and English songs, the type that makes you want to move! It was fun. We then went to see a light show on the Church of the Madeleine. The light show which was very well done was about one of the bloodiest time of Beziers history. In the 12th century, the Cathars, a religious sect which called themselves “good Christian”, developed in northern Italy and south of France. The Pape did not like the growing number of followers. The Cathars were soon name heretics and the crusaders were sent to deal with them. The town of Béziers was besieged on 22 July 1209. The Catholic inhabitants of the city were granted the freedom to leave unharmed, but many refused and opted to stay and fight alongside the Cathars. 20 000 people were massacred, killed, mutilated and the town was destroyed by fire. The church onto which the show was projected, was used to trap in children, women and men and then burnt down with everyone still inside. I’m always surprised the horror people are willing to put other human beings because they think or believe something different.
Anyway the show was well done despite telling a horrible story.
After that, it was obviously pretty late, so we went back home to sleep.
The next day, we decided to walk in nature. Gerald took us in the countryside for a walk in nature. It was nice to walk around nature and hear the cicadas, small insects which can be very loud! We saw a couple of windmills and got to a viewpoint where we could see the whole magnificent area. We had a pizza night with more chatting and fun.
The following day we went to have a swim in the river. It was very refreshing! Andrew spent his time trying to catch yabbies and he did get one. Emma swam with me and Kev for a bit. In the evening we had a picnic with the whole family with was great. One last evening, chatting and playing games.
The next day, everyone (except us obviously) had to go back to work, so we spend the day blogging, booking things for the UK, organising pictures… A computer day!
On the 11th of July, we meet up with Gerald one last time and he lead the way to the Gare of Beziers where we are giving the car we rented back and hoping into a train to see more of my family in Nice. We had to say goodbye one more time and he was hard. As always we had a fantastic time and leaving is difficult. Tears appeared as usual (I can’t help it). The kids were very sad to leave as well.
We hoped in the train to head to our next destination: Nice, our last stop in France for now.
See you there.
Mel

6.7.2025. Loaded up the car and said goodbye to Sophia and Clara. Long drive ahead of us so we didn't want to start too late. We stopped around 10:30 for a pee break and coffee. Then again at about 1 at a big rest stop on the motorway. Fuelled up the car and then us, more coffee and off again. Took about 6.5 hours all up to get there. Found our new stay, not really an apartment, more like a really tall house. 4 floors, two showers and dunnies and a big area downstairs. Mel picked the place because it's pretty close to Gerald's, a 10 minute walk and we were there. We met up with everyone, sat down outside and had some drinks and food. Apero first, then Gerald cooked pork chops on the bbq. As you could imagine, Andrew was very displeased with that. We left a little before midnight, got back and all fell asleep.
7.7.2025. Late start, as expected. Breakfast and blog. Walked over to Gerald's around lunch time. More chatting, a lot to catch up on. Had lunch with Gerald then we went to Beziers for a look around. It is one of France's oldest cities. We walked the streets, taking in the city. We visited a big park and saw both white and black swans in a pond. Back to the Silvestri’s for some dinner, pasta with sauces. I really liked Chris’s ratatouille sauce. After dinner we went back to Beziers again, this time to watch a sound and light water show. After that there was a light show projected onto an old church. Both shows were very good, the light show on the church was especially good. It described the events that happened in Beziers many centuries ago. There was an English translation in the bottom corner of the light show, very helpful. I was able to read it to Emma while Andrew read it himself. It recounted the events from 1209, when crusaders of the Catholic church besieged and eventually sacked Beziers. The Catholic church was not happy with the growing Cathar movement, a religious sect that challenged the teachings of the Catholic church. The very church we watched the light show projected onto, was once used to burn heretics trapped inside it. Lovely stuff some of these religious types are into. After the show we went back to our stay, another late night. But as with every other night in France so far, a good night.
8.7.2025. Kids are sleeping in again, not surprised. I can't seem to manage to do it. The house we're in has almost everything, pot and pans, fridge and freezer, lots of tea. No coffee. The essential elixir of life. This will be reflected in the review given on the house. We're off to Gerald's again today, no surprise there. I was able to secure caffeine there and we were once again fed. Leftover pasta with the sauces, yum. This afternoon we are heading into the countryside for a bit of a hike. Along the way we see old fences, made by stacking flat rocks like a big jigsaw puzzle. They have stood for hundreds of years, though some have needed repairs lately. They were created as a means of forming paths, setting boundaries and as Gerald explained, as a way to guide excess water when the rains were heavy. There are also small buildings here and there. These were created for anyone to use as shelter from rain or the sun. We got to the top of a hill, where a windmill still stands. It was used to produce flour, and the whole top part could be turned to face into the wind. People would use donkeys to bring grain up the hill and flour back back down. Afterwards, we went back to the Silvestri's. We ordered some pizza for dinner. We drank and chatted more, before heading back to the house again.
9.7.2025. After breakfast, we wandered over to see Gerald again. After lunch today, we headed to a river. There we found a weir and further up a dam. We walked along the river side when a yabbi was spotted in the shallows. Andrew stripped off and went hunting. Emma changed into her swimsuit and went in as well. Soon Mel was in the water. That left only me, ah what the hell. I stripped to my undies and plunged in. Bloody cold! I had a swim then helped Andrew with his yabbi hunting. He managed to catch a smallish one, which then grabbed him with a nipper. The yabbi was now airborne, landing in some grass. I showed Andrew where to grab it so it couldn't grab you. We got out and walked back, slowly drying out. Later that evening we went to a small park for a picnic dinner. Baguette sandwiches, and nibblies. I played a heap of badminton with the kids and will be a bit sore tomorrow I'm sure. We then played a few rounds of pétanque. We helped pack up, went back to the Silvestri's and then walked back to our house.
10.7.2025. Not much going on today, except blogging. We've been busy and up late a lot lately, so the blog has suffered. Today the kids blogged heaps, Mel and I got some planning done and spent more money. Ya know, necessities sorta stuff. Like where we're gonna sleep and things like that. It was lunchtime now, and we're all getting hungry. I found a boulangerie not far from us, so we went for a walk. There is also a small supermarket across the street, sweet we can get some pasta for tonight. We walked there and found both of them closed, they closed at 13:00. Great, what now? There's an intermarche about 20mins walk, let's head there. Just before either there was a boulangerie that was open, so we grabbed sandwiches and ate there. Then we grabbed some pasta and cheese for tonight, as we're not heading to the Silvestri's tonight and will need to fend for ourselves. A 20min walk back, a big drink for everyone, did I mention it's pretty warm here, and then back to blogging. We ate the pasta I made, played some card games and tried to have a bit of an early night.
11.7.2025. Up early and packed. We went to Gerald's and he led the way to Beziers. We have a train to catch and he is seeing his mother-in-law. Our train is supposed to be here at 10:18, but it's late. A little concerned as we have a changeover in Marseille, with only 20mins between trains. Now our train is 15, so maybe we'll make it to our next train, we'll see. There's been lots of fires here in the south, and some signals have been damaged. Because of this we're told our train will get even later as we travel. Well now we will definitely miss our next train, we'll work it out when we get there I suppose. As we got closer, an announcement came over and said we just need to get on the next train to Nice. We got off at Marseille, found some baguette sandwiches and hopped onto the first train to Nice. It was a bit more cramped as there is no luggage storage anywhere. We piled some on Andrew and myself, Emma had their feet up on a bag. It wasn't necessarily the most comfortable but we got there. Mel's uncle Marco was there to pick us up. We got to their place and settled in. Mel's cousin, Cynthia came for a visit. Pizza was ordered for dinner, and Mel went about catching up.
KevRead more