For our 2nd weekend trip I chose St. Guilhem le Desert, and no, not just for the very cool name. The route formed a perfect circle, and finally allowed me to cycle around Pic St. Loup, the mountain that can be seen from almost anywhere around Montpellier, and is just out of reach of a day trip. So, without further ado, here it is:

And then a little ways up the road, here it is again (look carefully!):

This isn’t it, but it’s damn close:

And finally, here it is looking back from the other side:

But enough of the mountain. Fall has come to Languedoc, as witnessed by this great shot Shoko took…

…and this not-too-great one that I took (hay bails = fall, if it isn’t clear).

After passing Pic St. Loup and the hay bails, we climbed over a tiny mountain and down into the Herault River Gorge, on a tortuous road that proved that everything in life is relative – I found it very good fun indeed, while Shoko kept saying ‘scary, scary, scary’ over and over again at the bottom.

And I just realized that I don’t have a picture of that road!  Well, the river will have to do. After climbing out of the gorge it was a good plateau ride for an hour or so before descending again to the river, which we followed a few kilometers to our tavern in St. Guilhem.

Sorry about this last picture. We are actually riding along the river though! Stay tuned for St. Guilhem le Desert coming soon…