{"id":2474,"date":"2023-09-29T17:08:12","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T17:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2474"},"modified":"2024-06-29T17:34:15","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T17:34:15","slug":"beziers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2474","title":{"rendered":"B\u00e9ziers"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you drive into the town of B\u00e9ziers in Southwest France, you\u2019ll see signs welcoming you and announcing that you\u2019ve arrived at the \u201cworld capital of wine\u201d (capitale mondiale du vin<\/em>).\u00a0 Now, this claim may be contested by the people in Bordeaux, Montecino or Napa.\u00a0 But it is fair to say that there\u2019s a lot of wine made in the area around B\u00e9ziers, in the heart of the Languedoc region, although even there Narbonne<\/a> and Montpellier have a claim.<\/p>\n

The town certainly has a lot of history.\u00a0 Researchers say that it has been occupied since 575 BCE.\u00a0 The Gauls lived there; the Romans conquered it; and it was considered to be a part of Spain until well into the Middle Ages.\u00a0 In the crusade against a heretic branch of Christianity, the Cathars, it was sacked and nearly destroyed in 1209.\u00a0 B\u00e9ziers\u2019 position along the Mediterranean made (and still makes) it a center of trade and so it sprang back to life.<\/p>\n

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The entrance to the Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire.\u00a0 The townspeople have decorated B\u00e9ziers with colorful hanging lampshades.<\/em><\/p>\n

Visitors today can still detect some of the ravages of that war.\u00a0 The Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire was re-erected afterwards and still dominates B\u00e9ziers\u2019 skyline.\u00a0 The entrance faces a pleasant square but most of the building is on top of a cliff and is unreachable.\u00a0 That\u2019s because the conquerors didn\u2019t trust the people of B\u00e9ziers and re-built the cathedral to be a fortress if need be.\u00a0 Fortresses tend to be fairly gloomy inside and this church is no exception, but we recommend a coffee or a glass of that B\u00e9ziers wine on the square by the cathedral, where you can admire the architecture.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the mood to see other churches, we recommend the church of the Madeleine, where the people of B\u00e9ziers were massacred in 1209.\u00a0 You can still see some of the scars of the battle on the exterior but the interior has been renovated since then and is more attractive than that of the cathedral.<\/p>\n

Assuming that you\u2019re interested in other things than churches and grisly history, such as food and wine, we do have some recommendations.\u00a0 For one, visit the grand covered market, Les Halles<\/em> de B\u00e9ziers<\/em>.\u00a0 As a visitor, you may not be able to cook everything, but you can bring home some canned cassoulet or some herbes de Provence<\/em>.\u00a0 We always enjoy a little of the region\u2019s succulent fruit that we munch as we go along.<\/p>\n

There are wonderful bistros everywhere in B\u00e9ziers, but the area to the west of Les Halles<\/em> is packed with them.\u00a0 Our experience is that it doesn\u2019t matter which one you choose.\u00a0 They all serve the same local specialties and they\u2019re all good.\u00a0 And of course you can wash your food down with some Languedoc wine, which is wonderfully inexpensive.<\/p>\n

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The Vieux Pont and the Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of the Telegraph.<\/em><\/p>\n

Be sure to see the Vieux Pont<\/em> (old bridge) when you leave town.\u00a0 Erected in the 12th<\/sup> century, it\u2019s a sight in itself.\u00a0 And from there you can admire the entire town, with the cathedral looming over everything.\u00a0 We guarantee, you\u2019ll want to take pictures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you drive into the town of B\u00e9ziers in Southwest France, you\u2019ll see signs welcoming you and announcing that you\u2019ve arrived at the \u201cworld capital of wine\u201d (capitale mondiale du vin).\u00a0 Now, this claim may be contested by the people in Bordeaux, Montecino or Napa.\u00a0 But it is fair to say that there\u2019s a lot … Continue reading B\u00e9ziers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2477,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2474\/revisions\/2477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}