Minervois

The first thing we did in the morning was to go back to Lagrasse to visit the monastry-museum.

Then we moved to north to visit the Minervois region as planned. Minervois is also famous for its wine and has its own AOC. It is smaller than Corbieres and less hilly. We passed Canal du Midi in Homps and continued to Olonzac. There we stopped for a lunch surprisingly in a very good restaurant called Restaurant du Minervois, I chose ostrich meat but the menu in general was more traditional. Our next destination was goint to be Minerve, one of 'the most beautiful villages of France' (Lagrasse is also in the same category).

Minerve is a small village surrounded by a gorge. It is well preserved and full of visitors.

After Minerve we drove back to Homps to see the Canal du Midi closer. In fact, this is our first time on the Canal because we could't visit it neither in Toulouse nor in Carcasonne. We walked a bit along the canal and also visited the village.

From Homps we took the road D11 which cuts thru west Minervois. First we stopped in Rieux-Minervois because it has very important heptagonal church with some Master of Cabestany sculptures as a bonus.

Since it was already late afternoon, we tried to reach to Caunes-Minervois as soon as possible. Caunes-Minervois although not labelled as one of the most beautiful villages in France, still is a beautiful village with a very important monastry. We were lucky as it was open until 18.00. The church of the monastry has also some Master of Cabestany pieces.

Since it was still not very late, Burcu decided to go to Chateau Lastours which is not far away. Although it was closed we were very happy to have seen it even if only from far away.

We reached back to Carcassonne from Orbiel valley. We ate in a pizzeria in the newer part of Carcassonne next to place Carnot. This was another day full with history and nature.