Some of my personal highlights… (smile)

• swimming in the Gardon River, and floating under the largest, best preserved, and most famous of the Roman aquaducts, Pont du Gard (while thinking to myself, “I’m swimming where the Romans swam”)

(http://www.pontdugard.fr/)

• buying artisanal produce — fig preserves, wildflower honey, fresh croissants, and perfect large white peaches — at the Tuesday market in the small, remote town of Castelnou (“new castle” in this case meaning built in the 12th century!)

(http://www.frenchwayoflife.net/fr/ville.asp?v=Castelnou)

• driving into the French Pyrenees on an astonishing road seemingly made up exclusively of hairpin turns (from sea level to an elevation of nearly 5000 feet in two hours!), enjoying the coolness of the mountain meadow when we stopped for a break at the top, and marvelling at the Gorges de Galamus on our way down the valley of the Aude River

(http://www.sunfrance.com/montagne/index.php3?id_gmenu=8697&langue=en)

• staying overnight in the spectacular walled medieval city of Carcassonne, and walking about it very late at night and very early in the morning, in order to see the town without tourists there

(http://www.carcassonne.org/)

• hiking in and about the scenic Cathar fortress town of Minerve, and having the great good fortune to receive a remarkable tour of the ancient church there

(http://www.sunfrance.net/villages/index.php3?id_gmenu=1481&code_menu=vilcar6minervois&langue=en)

• walking through the medieval town center of Lagrasse, including its unusual roofed 14th century market, and touring the 12th century abbey facing the town across the Orbieu River

(http://www.lagrasse.com/)

• “discovering” the remote and beautiful little town of Saint-Guilhem le Désert, enjoying drinks and snacks in the town square under an enormous plane tree and touring the ancient church (also where, in a single-room bead store, a Frenchwoman with perfect English made friendly chat with me as I picked out “treasures” to bring home!)

(http://www.sunfrance.net/villages/index.php3?id_gmenu=1481&code_menu=vilcar6hl&langue=en)

• enjoying more white peaches, this time quite small but very juicy and perfectly ripe, from a family’s small roadside fruit stand on the way to the coastal towns of Narbonne-Plage and Gruissan-Plage, and making photographs in the field of sunflowers just opposite the fruit stand

(http://www.sunfrance.com/mer/index.php3?langue=en&id_gmenu=575&code_menu=mer-stat-invl3&id_art=742#a_742)

• olive tasting (and buying a variety of terrific Lucques de Bize olive products to bring home) at the L’Oulibo Olive Growers Cooperative, founded in 1942

(http://www.loulibo.com/)

• tasting wine (before choosing six bottles of the wonderfully heady stuff to “import” for ourselves) from the vineyard Château de l’Hospitalet

(http://www.gerard-bertrand.com/gbertrand_hospitalet.php)