Our Blog - Valentines Day 2022

We decided on a long weekend trip for Valentines day this year, including a stay and dinner at Maison Pic, a 3-Michelin-starred restaurant that we have been to before. This time, we also stayed at the hotel (last time, we stayed at a cheaper place in town). Tom started out driving, which was a bit of an oddity, so Lucy got to snooze in the back with Susan ... at one point snoozing with her head snuggled in Susan's elbow!

Our first stop was the town of Béziers. There are many really old cities in France, but Béziers could be the oldest in France, with archeological evidence dating the foundations of the town to the 7th century BC by the Greeks. The first known writing about the town is by the Greek geographer Strabo in the 1st century geographical encylopedia "Geographica" when it was written as Bλίτερα. The Romans then had their Roman city, established by Octave in 36 BC, on the Via Domitia which connected Italy to Spain. There were a few sights to see, which I detail in my former Greek city of Béziers blog.

Our first morning walk was in the Camargue, which is a huge marshy area (360 sq miles) that is actually western Europe's largest river delta. It is famous for a variety of things, specifically a breed of white horses, rice, and salt. There are quite a few nature trails through it, and we did a walk through one that was nearby.

We visited a set of Roman towns, including Arles, Orange, and Nimes. We had been to all of these towns before (in 2010), so it had been quite a few years.

The main point of the trip was a special Valentines Day dinner at Maison Pic. This is the second time that we have been to this restaurant for a special dinner, and this time we stayed overnight there as well.

A few pictures of a church and sundial in the village of Uchaud, where we stayed overnight on the way home. The next morning, we took Lucy for a walk and found out the history of the name. There was a Roman road that went from Nimes towards Spain. At the Port d'Auguste in Nimes is a "first" pillar and then they had another column every 1,000 steps (or about 1482 meters). This is the 8th pillar along the route. And then the war-dead monument.

One last stop, the village of Pézenas on the way back to Toulouse.