Excursion au Château de Montferrand

Dimanche, 13 octobre.

Today I went on a hike with my host family! They've been talking about taking me somewhere for a while, but because I've been so busy, we haven't yet had time. So this weekend, we put on our sneakers and headed the countryside of Montpellier to explore Pic Saint-Loup and the Château de Montferrand.

You can find a little bit more information about the ruins here (in French), but basically they are what remains of a twelfth-century fortress built to overlook and protect the Montferrand Valley.

According to my host mom, a princess once lived here who was loved by three brothers who went off to fight in the Crusades; when they returned, she had died from the plague, so they went off and became hermits on different mountains. Pic Saint-Loup was named after the eldest brother (who naturally got dibs on living alone on the very tallest of mountains).

I had a ton of fun hiking up to the top of the ruins. Although it's almost impossible to tell that there used to be a fortress here (the walls are in total shambles), there are lots of old rooms and cellars to crawl into and explore. It reminded me a lot of the places we used to adventure to in Germany!

And you simply cannot beat the views. On one side, you can see all the way to the ocean!