Where the White Things Are: Eus

Friday, July 14th: La ville d'Eus (population 377, pronunciation conflicted) was not on our radar until we were on our way to another site and happened to see it from the road, snuggled charmingly into a hillside. "Let's go there!" we said, and turned off the main road. It was a very worthwhile detour, easily my favorite village we visited on this entire trip.

Journal excerpt from Friday, July 14th: Jeff and I had such a wonderful day today! We decided that this vacation has been the most vacation-ish we’ve felt in YEARS, probably since the last time we came to France on a date trip in February of 2019, 4.5 years ago. We are doing everything we love best and even though traveling thousands of miles to get here was exhausting (not to mention the jet lag), we are loving life right now.

The first day we were here, when Google Maps was telling us directions, it pronounced Perpignan “pur-pinion” (rhyming with opinion) instead of “pare-pin-yawn” like it’s supposed to be. Jeff and I cracked up at that. Yesterday in the car, I asked Jeff to tell me a “per-pinion,” and now it’s one of our favorite conversation starters. A couple times today, I asked Jeff for a “perpinion” and it was funny to hear what random opinion he thought up.

First of all, WE SLEPT ALL NIGHT LAST NIGHT! Last night we stayed up as long as possible before finally heading to bed a little after 11pm, and POOF, next thing I knew, it was 6:30am. Well, I did wake up a few times during the night due to loud frogs outside our window (in the lily pond) but I fell right back to sleep every time. It felt absolutely amazing to sleep all night, even on a hard lumpy mattress. Jeff and I were raring to go adventure!

We went running today for the first time since we arrived in France, and it might be our last run on this trip. Our run was beautiful! We found a quiet pathway about a quarter mile from our lodgings. The pathway wound through peach and apricot orchards, and was surrounded by tall grass or other foliage in between orchards. We passed more than one elderly French lady walking a dog. It was peaceful, idyllic, and beautiful.

Once we had eaten breakfast (Extra & Yop), we started laundry. We couldn't find the washer at first, even though the listing said it had one, so this morning Jeff texted Antonin the host to ask, and Antonin told us the washer was accessed through an exterior door on the other side of our cute little cottage building. So we bundled our laundry up in my big dress, went outside, and found the door. It was a typical tiny European washer (no dryer). It took forever to wash too! By the time we were ready to leave on our daily adventure at 10am it still wasn’t done washing our clothes, so we left anyways and hung the clothes out to dry when we got home tonight.

Our destinations today were Fort Liberia at Villefranche-sur-Conflent and L’Abbaye de St. Martin du Canigo near Vernet-les-Bains. About 20 minutes into our drive, we spotted an idyllic village built on a hillside with a rustic stone church perched at the top of the village-hill. “Let’s go explore that!” we said, and off we went, turning from our original route.

The village was only a few minutes off the main road, and it was well worth the detour. It turned out to be the village of Eus (population 377), and the sign labeled it another “ville plus beau de France”—always a good omen. We parked at the base of the hill and walked up, up, up, zigzagging through tiny stone-cobbled streets and admiring the views all around. The town was so quiet, I kept whispering to Jeff instead of talking out loud. We did arrive close to lunchtime which is generally a quieter time of day, but it was SO quiet. Our footsteps sounded loud at times. We finally saw people sitting outside at a café, but other than that we had almost perfect solitude. At the top of the village/hill, we came across a trail. A brief exploration of the trail revealed a sign, directing hikers to a choice of two “boucles” (loops) that circled the hill behind the village and ended on its far side. Since it was hot and we left our water in the car (not anticipating a long stay in Eus), we chose the shorter 2km loop and set out.

The rocky trail led through scrubby forest, down into a small ravine, then up the hillside behind the village, up and across that hill, and then down into the ravine again before climbing back up and re-entering the opposite side of the village. It was a hot sweat-river of a hike, but it was such a beautiful, unexpected treasure that we were in heaven in spite of our gushing sweat. (A graphic image, yes, but also an accurate image.)

Back in the village, we hiked up to the top to check out the old stone church briefly (it was locked, but there was a sweet massive cave-like tunnel underneath the church that we walked through) before descending back down through the village to our car.

The patio of our Airbnb cottage in the morning. Every morning, a cat tried to get into our sliding door, so we'd have to sacrifice the cooler fresher morning air to keep my sneezing at bay.

Run date! I love how everything we do on a date trip is a date--dozens of dates-within-a-date!

Jeff kindly ran with me. He is still working on his fitness, so he wasn't as hampered by my pace, but he is still Jeff White, used to much quicker pace even when his fitness is at an ebb. It always feels special whenever he runs with me.

This was the laundry room/closet. I never expect much from European laundry facilities, but this was a new one.

EUS:

This is an actual real place!

The different colored doors of all sizes charmed my socks off. Most of the doors were less than 6 feet tall. It made the whole village feel extra surreal, cute, and quaint, even though I know actually living with miniature doors would be a literal pain. Still, I took so many pictures.

It was a shock every time we saw a car parked in Eus (even the tiny cars that we did see), because how did they drive it there? The roads were minuscule!

Every time we turned back and looked behind us, mountain views backed the swoonworthy stone structures.

Eus wouldn't stop pouring on the charm.

Every bend in the road led to an even cuter street than the last.

The higher we climbed, the more of Mt. Canigou we could see on the horizon.

Many of the doors had bundles of dried flowers hanging on them. When I looked it up later, I read that they are meant to be good luck and ward off evil spirits. They also just look pretty, so who knows if the villagers actually believe in that or if one of the requirements for living in a "plus beau ville de France" is to comply with local ancient customs.

How was this village built into the hillside so seamlessly? The village dates back to the 9th century, so maybe that's part of it. French people seemed to have an affinity for bonding with the land back then.