Mon Pellier: Green shades

Would this blog draw a little more attention if I wrote in english?

Would I be blamed for treason by my french friends and readers?

Would I be damned for my poor grammar and spelling by english readers?

Let's have a try.

Hmmm... Feel free to comment or suggest a collaboration with some native english-speaker!

Montpellier is a pretty city, but seriously, it's far from perfect. A crazy growth, dirt and pollution, delinquency, high unemployment rates, many people coming from all parts of France, knowing nothing (historically, culturally, etc.) on the city and the region, getting disappointed... Within 40 years, many villages have been integrated into the agglomeration, the natural landscapes between them and the town have disappeared, the medieval remains have been drown amongst "dormitory buildings" and commercial centers. This is sad enough and it hasn't improved the reputation of Montpellier in the region. The inhabitants are considered as superficial, artificial, slightly non-human. Two days ago I followed an aunt on her last drive, to the church and the graveyard of her birth in the Cévennes. People came from Montpellier, Rodez, Valletta... but the majority were villagers. It seems like the whole village was there. Her cousins, her friends from school-years, their familly, their neighbours. Very impressive. I suppose very few people have seen such a thing. I felt lucky. I don't find comfort in any promise of eternal life - unlike all these women who sang well enough in the little church. What comforted me was the fact she was buried 100 meters away from the house were she was born, in the edge of a small graveyard, amongst many flowers, on the top of a mountain... She's back where she came, her life somehow didn't end, but is enclosed in a circle; the circle was closed on a gentle spring day, among loving and caring people and a loving nature. Nature up there is hard in Winter, but in late Spring it's a gift.

I will bring you somewhere else today. North of Lodève, in the direction of the Causse.

Lodève managed to keep a charm and an authenticity many other places have lost. It is located in a spectacular valley, it is colored and picturesque, with its river, medieval cathedral and tower, parks and gardens, lovely houses on the hills...

It seems like a dead town, without hipsters and ambitious, arrogant youth, without luxury shops... Just this beauty, these monuments, this museum, and summer festivals. North-african immigrants. A centuries-old partly secrete tapestry manufacture. Nice large villas, "folies", little manors on the hillsides. Vineyards. A thick soil, red here, orange there... Hidden lakes in the surroundings, like the Salagou and Avène. A medieval chapel with a rich story, Saint-Michel-de-Grandmont...

I wanted to show a famous enough budhist temple to a friend. The road I wanted to take, to go from Lodève to this temple, was unfortunately closed. There is a natural spring on this road where I wished to drink and take some water. Well, the other road was fine enough. Flowers on both sides, and what a view... We observed the changes in the vegetation: prairies, asphodelus fields, cultivated fields, forests (Monts-d'Orb then Escandorgue), and Causse de l'Escandorgue...

Funnily, we were purified at Lerab Ling by a strong enough rain, quite a shower. The weather was changing, and the roofs of the temple always shining. The incense smells, the ancient roses'fragrance were strong. The song of the bells of invisible sheep of cows was as present as the tibetan bells'song. No wonder people tend to stay...

But if you return, with a todler, after a meal or chocolate bib, don't forget tissues and plastic bags.