Musee Du Desert

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Today the weather was fabulous. We woke up early because we wanted to head off to the Musee Du Desert, which is in another small town near Anduze called Gorde. The Musee Du Desert is up in the mountains, and is an original house where the Huguenots first congregated. The Huguenots make up the majority of the French people in this region. Back in the early 1500's, I think, Louis XIV declared that the only religion to be practiced in France was Catholicism. Actually, i'm not sure of the time frame, so dont quote me on that! Well, a great majority of people wanted to follow the lead of Martin Luther, who famously declared that the Catholic Church could not dictate the way people lived their lives outside of their time of worship. These people in France, who went against Louis XIV's edict, became what are now known as Protestants. In France they are known as Huguenots. Lots of blood was shed over this split, and the Huguenots had to hide in their houses and worship in private. This museum told their story. Unfortunately, they didnt allow pictures inside, it's considered Holy ground.
After the Museum we went on a hike down to the River Gardon, which feeds this area of the valley with all of it's water supply. Currently they are in a state of drought, so the river was low, but I still was able to jump in and cool off. The first few days here in Anduze have been a great way to kind of get acclimated, as Weds I'm off to paris for a few days and then on the train down to the Cote De Azur and the French Riviera, before heading to Spain and Barcelona.

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Photos

Musee Du Desert
Museum of the Deserted...

the River Gardon
'testing it out.

Roof of the Musee du Desert
This is the roof of the actual house where the first Hugeunots congregated.

Comments

[BigA]

no jokes
I had a bunch of wiseacre comments to make, but then I remembered you shouldn't joke about religion. Anyway thanks for the update, hope you can manage to have fun on the riviera. - AC