St Guilhem le desert

Founded in 806, St Guilhem le desert is a stunningly pretty little town nestled in the Gellone Valley, about 10 minutes drive from Aniane. The Rough Guide to the Languedoc and Rousillon raves about St Guilhem, while it calls Aniane 'uninteresting', so we thought it must be pretty good.

Aniane is down on the plain, but the drive to St Guilhem is across the Pont de Diable and up the hill, the road snaking up the gorge with a bluff on one side and a steep drop on the other. Almost immediately we drove into a large group of cyclists. We managed to pass the rear group of them but then got stuck among them for a few kilometres. This was harder than it sounds - the ones behind us were tailgating us, but we didn't want to knock the guy in front of us off his bike, although we did occasionally come perilously close on some of the corners, neither did we want to tumble over the cliff.

Finally we managed to pass the rest of them and negotiate the winding road up to the St Guilhem car park - no vehicles in the village, you have to park there.

The Guide mentioned that you could get a great view of the village by walking up a track to a ruined castle. We looked around at the spectacular hills around us. Hmm, that looks like a ruined castle but it's a long way up a hill that is virtually a 90 degree slope ... well, it's a testament for his affection for me (hopefully) but Al agreed to walk up the hill in the midday heat without a backward glance. We toiled up the very well-maintained trail and yes, the view was panoramic and surprisingly, the walk was not too hard either. Emi would probably disagree, but she's not here...



It was very hot though, and after some refreshment in the village we checked out the rest of the sights. The village is very pretty, but rather touristy. There were colourful flowers in every window box and there was no dog poop on the streets, although there were plenty of dogs (on leashes). This is in contrast to Aniane, where dogs of all sizes enjoy the complete freedom of the town, and the smell of dog doings can be almost overwhelming on hot afternoons. In fact, in St Guilhem there were strategically placed pooper scooper bag dispensers throughout the village.



Inside the very old church felt cool and serene. There were plenty of opportunities to light a candle for 1 euro, and legend held that when St. Guilhem himself arrived to found the original abbey, he brought with him 3 pieces of wood from The Cross. Supposedly his sarcophagus was somewhere in the church as well, and Al spent quite a time trying to find it. We weren't sure he did, although there was a tiny casket on one of the walls (with candle-lighting opportunity below) that contained what were supposed to be a couple of remnants of St Guilhem's bones (we're not very good at translating French yet but we think that's what it said).

There were loads of shops and cafes open in St Guilhem, despite it being a Sunday, and it was pleasant to wander through the clean pedestrian only lanes looking at artwork, tiles, pottery, glassware and locally hand-made knives. Oh, and shops selling crystals, fossils and gemstones - the Grotte de Clamouse, a cave famous for its beautiful crystalline structures is close by. Now I know where to go if I am desperate for some shopping therapy on a Sunday.