Hello there!
A couple of weeks ago, my mother, boyfriend and myself, all went on a day trip to a beautiful little village called Minerve. The sun was shining, I had on my best shorts along with my best sunglasses, and my bag was packed with my trusty iPhone ready to take lots of photos.
There isn’t exactly any parking in Minerve, considering that it’s such a dainty village and the roads are extremely narrow, but fret not, there are a couple of public parkings on either end of the village. So, we parked the car, got our parking ticket, and began our short 5 minute walk to the main village. When I saw the steep road downhill, I was a bit worried that my clumsy self might slip and fall, but I was soon distracted by the absolutely breathtaking views of the nature surrounding me. Being a sucker for the “focus” option on my iPhone, I was mainly focusing on the beautiful flowers, aiming to get gorgeous photos, but luckily my boyfriend had his photo taking device at the ready and took quite some shots of the more interesting views! He and my mother soon shook me to my senses and got my head out of the clouds (in this case, flowers) and I was able to take some great photos of the surroundings. I’ll let my photos speak for themselves, because there really isn’t any other way!
Throughout the day we explored a lot, I felt like d stepped through a big brown wardrobe and landed myself in Narnia. Around every corner is something unexpected, from old bookshops and galleries, to museums and clothes shops.
Everything has such a rustic feeling and it is honestly hard to restrain yourself from taking a thousand photos! If I’d have been there alone, without my mum and boyfriend saying “Come on Gina!” I think I’d have ended up taking photos of absolutely everything.
I even found myself taking photos of a wall, yes, a wall… In my defense, it was a very pretty wall and I wanted to test my photography skills (which is..none) to see if I could get what I like to call “a tumblr worthy photo” – I’m afraid only people with tumblr accounts will understand what I mean.
After a tiring walk in the hot sun, we decided to search for a restaurant and have a bite to eat. We went to this absolutely gorgeous little place called La Table des Troubadours, it was outside (obviously, who would want to sit inside in this weather?!) and was right on the edge of a cliff/hill in the middle of the village, it was surrounded by a brick wall (safety first!) decorated with vines, flowers and plants. Not only was this place beautiful, but the food was also delicious. Very quick service + a honey, nut, goats cheese pizza + a bit of my mums feta salad = a very happy person! I would definitely recommend this restaurant!
Now some of you may find this a bit silly, but being a person who often needs to *ahem* use the restroom *ahem* I often base my opinion of restaurants on how clean and pretty the bathroom is, and I can honestly say that this bathroom, was without a doubt the cleanest and prettiest restaurant bathroom that I have ever laid eyes on. It ticked ALL of the boxes – soap, toilet paper, clean floors, nice smells and of course, running water! It was beautifully decorated and I honestly wanted to stay in there as long as possible in order to get full usage out of the place!
I reluctantly left the bathroom and discovered the inside of the restaurant, as you can imagine by now, this room was also very lovely, it had stone walls, pretty wall decorations such as paintings and old instruments, and best of all, a red guitar in the corner that my boyfriend proceeded to play (without permission, tut tut!).
After lunch, we were so tired and full that we decided we should take another little walk around the village, all while heading back to the car. By this time, we were so hot due the sun, that we thought we couldn’t go on any longer, we were just about to give up all hope, when my mother said the words I was longing to hear “guys, look over there!”, so we turn our heads and what do we see? A hose, yes, a hose! It had been put there for visitors to make the most of, the setting was on “steam” so we ended up just standing in front of it, greatfully receiving the tiny droplets of cold water on our sizzling bodies, so lovely of the Minervois population!
Following our outdoor shower, we stopped off at a small shop and bought ourselves some delicious watermelon ice creams, we then made our way back to the car and head home.
Here are some more of the various snaps I took that day.
All in all it was a great day, Minerve has always been one of my favourite places, since moving to France all those years ago. It has lots of breathtaking views, pretty flowers, lovely little cottages to see and of course, every girls best friend – shops! If you’re looking for a nice day out then I can honestly say that you should take a trip down there, you won’t regret it!
