A mad rush to gather in the grape harvest, during a bust of excellent weather, chokes the side roads, as motorists patiently in most cases, move along slowly behind the wobbling tractors which draw their precious loads. Almost without exception, are these patient motorists, for this is practically a religious rite - the vendange. A castle/restaurant, well advertised along the way is finally reached by hungry travellers. They find on the door of the restaurant a small, handwritten note: "Closed during the vendange".
This is all in the Department of the Pyrenees Orientales, tucked away in the south west corner of France, with a mediterranean coastline, and dominated by the mountains. It produces not only wine but fruit in abundance: cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums, figs, and kiwis as well as excellent vegetables. Mostly early, be cause of the benign climate and the irrigation system introduced by the Moors.
We hear a lot about heritage in Ireland today, and rightly so. In France they say patrimoine or patrimony. And recently the French Minister for Cultural Affairs, the splendidly named Phillipe Douste Blazy, swooped on the Department and declared that he would make of the area a pilot example for the rest of France in the matter of the restoration of the national patrimony. In a few hours of a Sunday morning he visited and spoke in no less than five places in the valley of the river Tet, mentioning the local Roman and Baroque art and the many archaeological sites, going back to neolithic times which he said "were neither classified nor signposted nor even protected". The exceptional heritage or patrimony of this area he said "was recognised throughout France and equally throughout Europe as a whole. Be conscious of this".
Certainly the monasteries, the churches, the castle and the fortified strong points are recognised but the Department is not fixated on the past. "You are respectful of the past, true to your convictions, and are facing into the future". Then at 2 pm he went off to Lourdes, at the other end of the Pyrennes.
The cryptic last words of the reporter were: "To be continued".