Saturday, March 12, 2011

Pézenas discoveries: Door museum and La Dordîne

Daughter descending into the Pézenas door museum
March 4 2011

After spending just one night in Pézenas, I can hardly position myself to make a lot of recommendations about the place. But I can make a few, based on the few but wonderful things we did there.

Don't miss the funky Musée de la Porte. It's really more of a depot for old doors collected by a local association than a "museum" in the true sense. Information about the doors is relatively sparse, but the place has a mysteriously chaotic feel to it and is perfect for poking around.

Entry is free, but of course donations are gladly accepted to help the association keep up its work.

Anyway, I could show you plenty of other "Portes de Pézenas," both inside and outside the museum, but if you're curious you can take a look at my Pézenas set on Flickr.

Chambres d'hôte "La Dordîne"

When I think about it, our decision to stay in Pézenas was partly based on finding the website for La Dordîne. It's a guest house, or Chambres d'hôte, right in the old town on a quiet, pedestrian street.


We stayed in the Syrah room

The rooms are adorable and amazingly reasonable in price; and the breakfast, nearly 100% homemade by the charming hosts Véronique and Aurélien, is a real treat.

My photos are downloaded and uploaded, and I have devoted two blog posts to a single one-night trip.

It's now time to leave Pézenas behind, but getting this little impromptu getaway together definitely gave me impetus to plan some similar outings during the spring.

6 comments:

  1. It is amazing how much even a little change of scenery can inspire! Love the door museum - what an unusual topic. It's fun to imagine what might have been behind each of those doors at one time...

    ReplyDelete
  2. A door museum... I love finding these little quirky things. I ran across a shop once that only sold springs - everything from watch springs to huge springs but only springs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. lovely! this is the kind of place I'd be staying in

    ReplyDelete
  4. adore the idea of a door museum....my kind of place!

    what an adorable guest house, am jotting down the info should a wander ever bring me near pézenas - was there a bottle of syrah waiting for you in the syrah room!

    ReplyDelete
  5. @mouse LOL, no, no wine was waiting. It was possible to buy bottles to drink in the room though, but I didn't indulge in that...

    ReplyDelete
  6. End of the week, woo, woo; raise your glasses.

    PS I second croquecamille's thought that a short break can make a big difference.

    Sally
    ;P

    ReplyDelete