Beziers at Christmas

We visited Beziers after Christmas for the first time. This is one of the main towns in the Herault department, which neighbours our department, Aude. It's a bit bigger than Narbonne where we went last Xmas, and we were lucky with the weather, although this day wasn't eat outside weather!

Don't be tricked by the snow though - it's all fake! As we were wandering around the town we came to this big open square which was near the restaurant that we were heading for. I absolutely loved these decorations - they really went to town here. I bet it looks great lit up at night as well, but with the blue sky, it looks amazing!

I just loved all these domes filled with different snowy winter scenes.

Here's Santa and his reindeer, and they are galloping/flying down a rill (that's shallow water flowing in the middle there).

The fountains were permanent but fun to watch too as they changed every few seconds.

A reflection of all three of us!

Beziers is famous for its Trompe l'Oeil decorations on the walls. That means 'trick of the eye' and some are truly amazing with the 3D effect (particularly the one below this, as I thought the top balcony was real!). We only came across two of them, but I believe you can get a map of their locations from the tourist office.

Isn't it amazing - all those shadows painted on which look real, and to paint the balcony railings too - wow! Even the door at ground level is painted.

Later in the day we came across this cute petting zoo. I can't resist things like this and there were some teeny tiny goats that were so cute, but it was hard to get close as there were lots of people in that enclosure - and fluffy legged chickens in there too!

We then visited the cathedral but I will put those pictures in another post.