We're back on the road
We headed back on the road on the 16th September after our technical break. The plan was to go to Ardèche and see the beautiful gorges and then cross into Vercors to get some mountains and possibly do some overnight hikes.
However, for our first night we left Le Puy En Velay to go to Lozère at the heart of the natural park of the Cévennes. And there, we found cold, a whole lot of cold. The temperature was 11C during the day and 4C during the night. It was a very cold night.
I believe that Lozère is one of the few real wilderness in France, it's strikingly beautiful, the landscapes are incredible and there are very few people living there (probably because of the harshness of the climate). The subalpine grass area on the mont Lozère is truly exceptional and had the weather been better we would have climbed up there to enjoy the scenery. The whole department seems to be above 1,000m which is really cool. If you are interested I recommend reading the book by Stevenson about his travels with a donkey in Cévennes.
After this cold experience we decided that we needed to go further south and see if we could find warmth somewhere. We headed towards Ardèche through one of the most gorgeous roads I have ever driven onto (and windiest). We arrived to the camping site around 17h that day, the camp site we found was incredible, overlooking the mountains on one side and the valley on the other side, a blessing. The locals didn't seem to keen to have people parked around there but after 17h nobody came around. Came the morning we had gained a neighbour.
I had the best kitchen that morning to make my new recipe of breakfast chorizo burrito (shoutout to www.sprintervandiaries.com for the recipe).
The weather was a bit meh, trying to rain but not too sure. At that point we wanted some warmth and maybe a bit of cleaning so we decided to head to the swimming pool of Aubenas. We warmed up and had an overall great time! We then visited the town of Aubenas that was only a few kilometers down. The town center is really pretty.
After a quick bite we decided to head to Vallon-Pont D'Arc for the night. We had identified a spot inside Vallon that was supposed to be nice, in the shade and near the water. When we arrived there it turned out the spot was, slanted as hell, shady as hell and pretty loud. After visiting the tourism office we went to camping option #2, La chapelle de Chalon. A little Chapel in the middle of the forest, ultra quiet and quaint. So quaint that we ended up coming back the following day.
We spent a beautiful night there and the night sky was the clearest I had ever seen it. There was no guessing where the milky way was as it was staring right at you. I tried taking pictures but it turned out a lot harder than I expected without a tripod.
However, for our first night we left Le Puy En Velay to go to Lozère at the heart of the natural park of the Cévennes. And there, we found cold, a whole lot of cold. The temperature was 11C during the day and 4C during the night. It was a very cold night.
I believe that Lozère is one of the few real wilderness in France, it's strikingly beautiful, the landscapes are incredible and there are very few people living there (probably because of the harshness of the climate). The subalpine grass area on the mont Lozère is truly exceptional and had the weather been better we would have climbed up there to enjoy the scenery. The whole department seems to be above 1,000m which is really cool. If you are interested I recommend reading the book by Stevenson about his travels with a donkey in Cévennes.
Michael from afar.
I had the best kitchen that morning to make my new recipe of breakfast chorizo burrito (shoutout to www.sprintervandiaries.com for the recipe).
The weather was a bit meh, trying to rain but not too sure. At that point we wanted some warmth and maybe a bit of cleaning so we decided to head to the swimming pool of Aubenas. We warmed up and had an overall great time! We then visited the town of Aubenas that was only a few kilometers down. The town center is really pretty.
After a quick bite we decided to head to Vallon-Pont D'Arc for the night. We had identified a spot inside Vallon that was supposed to be nice, in the shade and near the water. When we arrived there it turned out the spot was, slanted as hell, shady as hell and pretty loud. After visiting the tourism office we went to camping option #2, La chapelle de Chalon. A little Chapel in the middle of the forest, ultra quiet and quaint. So quaint that we ended up coming back the following day.
We spent a beautiful night there and the night sky was the clearest I had ever seen it. There was no guessing where the milky way was as it was staring right at you. I tried taking pictures but it turned out a lot harder than I expected without a tripod.
Waaaaw .... ?
The next day we started up early to go hike around the gorges de l'Ardèche and the summits around. The hike was a nice 13km with not much elevation, the beginning was great, going through castle ruins, great vantage points and nice forests, the end was a bit tedious, following a noisy road.
We wanted to try a different camp site for that night and had read that there was an incredible one, near a radio antenna that overlooked the whole valley. We drove there CAREFULLY as the road was a 1 lane crazy windy road up a mountain. When we got there the spot was not flat at all and on a road with a big "no vehicles" sign... So much for driving up. We went up, took a picture and went back to our chapelle spot from previous night. After another exceptionally peaceful night (we were absolutely exhausted), we went off again through the touristic route of the gorges de l'Ardèche. After an obligatory stop at the Pont D'Arc.
That place is truly magical.
The touristic road has 11 vantage points all along the road allowing you to fully enjoy the beauty of the gorges. In another season we would have liked to do the 4 day hike taking you from Vallon all the way down the gorges but the intermediate bivouac/campsites were closed during the weekday in the low season.
In the TV show Parks & Recreations, the Ron Swanson says that crying is allowed in 2 places, funerals and the Grand Canyon, I feel like the gorges of Ardèche should be added to that list. It's simply extraordinary.
We arrived at the end of the Gorges in the department of Gard, where we had planned to spend the night in the village of Aigueze, rated "one of the most beautiful villages in France". The village is perched on a cliff with TINY streets so the access is forbidden to any non-resident (thank god). The municipality has made small area available for people to overnight/park, it's great, within walking distance of the village, flat, free and has a fantastic view.
The mistral wind was doing its best to make sure we weren't too warm but as soon as it stopped it was rather fantastic. In the morning we could have breakfast outside in the sun for this first day of Autumn.
(my phone camera needs cleaning)
As I mentioned at the beginning of this LONG post, we were planning to go to Vercors but now that the weather has issued us a stern reminder that summer was over, we are heading south, going down the Gard all the way to the Rhone and then the Mediterranean. We are currently somewhere around Orange on a technical stop (emptying the tanks, refilling others and getting our washing done). Tomorrow we head to the Pont du Gard, then Nimes, then who knows. We'll keep you posted.
Guillaume.
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