Ruined Castle Hols in Lozere

We've just come back from a week's camping (in a chalet) at the Lac de Villefort an hour or so north of Alès. The best bit about the chalet was the all-in-one hob-oven-dishwasher. Yes, a dishwasher! Luxury!! The other best bit was the view (or vice versa):

View from chalet over Lac de Villefort

I think you'll agree that that's pretty stupendous. The camping is practically invisible from the other side of the lake (hint, the blue stripe bottom left is the swimming pool).

Spot the campsite

We visited, or rather saw, several castles. We were not able to visit all of them - this one, the Chateau du Cheylard at Aujac because it was closed on Mondays, and we didn't notice this important piece of information on the board at the bottom until we'd climbed a couple of kilometres in 32°C heat to find the closed gate and another notice.

Chateau Cheylard, Aujac

This one, the Chateau Bresis because it's on private land and although we were told that theoretically no one can stop us visiting an historic monument, we decided not to bother trying just in case the owner came rushing out wielding a shotgun...

Chateau Bresis

We got to this one, the Chateau de Castanet a bit late in the day and decided not to hang about mainly because it was not a ruin and my boys greatly prefer clambering over old stones than looking at rooms of furniture and exhibitions, and also because it was windy and pretty nippy out, and the car was a lot more inviting.

Chateau Castanet

I discovered that on the map there are a number of symbols for castles. The most promising ones for us indicate a decent ruin in a triangle of three black circles. A totally ruined ruin has a triangle of white circles and, from experience, is so ruined that it's little more than a pile of stones. Inhabited castles come in the shape of a rectangle with little lines poking out of each corner.

La Garde Guerin offered a good mixture of ruins and restored buildings - this photo was taken from the top of a very windy tower.

La Garde Guerin

We ended our castles visiting with the Chateau d'Allègre where they were having a medieval fair, with the usual armour and weapons displays. My youngest tried on a couple of helmets and wielded a heavy sword for effect.

Chateau d'Allègre

The van in the background rather spoils the effect but you get the idea. They were still setting up in fact, hence the general lack of activity.

We didn't just drive about looking for castles, however. We also did some sporty activities which I'll keep for another post. I think you'll agree that we got a good dose of castles on this holiday!

Nature Raw

How was your blistering weather weekend? I spent Saturday celebrating my youngest's 10th birthday. He said it was the best birthday he'd had for, ooh, at least a year... One of the highlights for my son was being able to sit, legitimately, in the front seat. I now foresee fights between boys as to who gets to sit up front! One there, one back, I suppose.

His birthday treat was the afternoon at Accrobranche, where they swing and climb their way through the treetops and descend via exciting Tyrolean traverses. With 4 pals, they pounded their way around the 5 courses, several times, stopping only for refreshment of pancakes and Fanta, and finally birthday cake and sparklers. I had asked for a financial participation rather than birthday presents (with my son's permission!) which meant that instead of going home with a bunch of stuff he didn't need, which would get broken or lost, and be a waste of money, the boys had a good time and I didn't suffer the consequences.

To complete the day, as if presents, Accrobranche and a friend staying over weren't enough, we went to KFC, bought a bucket, and went to have a picnic on the beach. My dearly beloved joined us for a glass of chilled rosé and a discussion on camping sauvage.

I have pretty strong views on camping sauvage summarised, in one word, as 'discomfort'. Yeah, I'm a wimp... from experience, mind. It's romantic in notion, ghastly in practice especially if you like your showers in shower form and hot, a toilet with flush, and no risk of being woken up (if you've actually managed to fall into an exhausted stupor) in the night by lunatics in Jeeps charging round the countryside where you've pitched your tiny tent, whooping in drunken joy and firing air rifles into the air (yes, that was one of my more terrifying experiences just outside Cassis).

I'm too old for such shenanigans. I'm not keen on the 'refuge' idea either. The last time I was in one of those was in the Pyrenees, reached by walking uphill all day with everything you needed in the way of food and equipment. The place was in the middle of a field next to a mountain stream, had no toilets at all, no shower natch, and limited cooking facilities. It also had a dormitory of bunks made up of wooden planks going all the way round two of the walls on two levels. You had to pitch your sleeping bag in a space on the planks along with everyone else - very cosy! It was packed - we'd even had to reserve our space! All night I listened to a surround-sound rendition of grunts and snores (having forgotten to bring industrial strength ear plugs), couldn't get comfortable on the plank (hipbone + wood = bruise), felt edgy about the bloke on my right, and staggered up next morning desperate to leave. The worst was not having the means to make a decent cuppa to cope with the rest of it.

One tries to be a brave little soldier about not going to the loo, not washing, eating rubbish, being deprived of tea and getting no sleep, but ultimately, why bother?

Obviously I'm not a natural nymph of Nature. Still, at least I tried, eh?!

History Camp

Camping le Soleil

Next week there will be millions of people shifting themselves from one place to another over the long Ascension weekend, having taken the pont, natch. How do I know? Because every time I try to book a room in a stunning place or a large mobile home in a swish and comfy campsite, there's nothing available. Everywhere is full.

Which makes me think that the roads are going to be heaving next Thursday. Do I want to be in the midst of such a throng too? Could it be worth it? Seeing as we're having winter temperatures and a howling gale for the next 5 days, I'm none too sure.

These are some of the places I tried which are full:

Hôtel**** Restaurant Château de la Caze  near Ste Enemie (this was actually just wishful thinking) 
Hotel La Remise on the RL Stevenson route at Le Bleymard, near Bagnols-les-Bains, note the motobike tours link...
Les Criques de Porteils, near Racou beach and Collioure, voted one of the most beautiful campsites in France. I wanted to rent a mobile home here. No chance.

Never mind, I think we might have found a cosy spot in a 'pieds dans l'eau' campsite at Argeles-sur-Mer where, in the summer, 50K people crowd into a bonanza of sites crammed with tents, mobile homes and camper-vans. However bad it gets next weekend, it could never reach mid-July levels. There will be room in the heated pool, the walk to the beach won't be a queue, and the discos will be silent. 


I will be contemplating the 350th anniversary of the return of the British monarchy, the Brits having got fed up with a killjoy who cancelled Christmas and closed the theatres, and celebrate the fact that "The people of Britain chose pleasure over godliness; they chose the King whom they understood over the Republic that they didn’t". Frankly, looking at your average republic, one can but marvel at their judgement and foresight.

They got a monarch as head of state but with parliament retaining the legal mandate of the people. It established the constitutional monarchy we have today and did away with the 'divine right of kings'. No wonder they were ringing the church bells, drinking themselves silly, setting up maypoles and lighting bonfires all over the place. Maybe we should be emulating them and recreating the Restoration in street parties up and down the queendom.

The message then as now was 'religious nutters, we don't want you, go away' and of course many did, to the US where they could be as radical as they like, cancel Christmas all they wanted, and no one else had to take any notice. There is a message there, for today's religious nutters I feel - the rest of us are not interested, please do not disturb.

Muddy Fingers

We've had a windy weekend. Trees have been blown down, garden centres have feared for their greenhouses and cypress trees have been left lounging at 45°.

I was out in it, oh yes! Having trundled around Botanic buying ground-covering plants, a birthday card for my sis-in-law (must remember to post it tomorrow!) and a gardening tool, I was keen to get everything into the soil and looking good.

When we came back from Botanic, the old lavender and rosemary plants which had been dumped on the path up to the door had been blown about the road making me think of those tumble weeds that you see rolling their way over the Texan desert. I meant to take them to the dump having decided not to burn them, despite the nice smells they would produce. For the moment though they are lurking in front of the house... sooo smart...

However, ignoring the rubbish, the front garden is now spruce with heather, new lavender plants to replace those sad old things that had been trampled on by my youngest, and a ground-covering spruce-type plant. I could go and look at the label, but can't be bothered - it's dark, cold and I've had enough! I was aided and abetted with removing some of the thousands of stones from our incredibly stony soil upon which formerly the only things that could grow were pines or vines, by said youngest who is in 'helpful' mode. Nearly six is a very appealing age.

The back garden now has planted: tomatoes, red onions, peas, strawberries, herbs, coriander seeds and the ground-covering plants for the steep edge. We are considering terracing the patch of weeds to grow flowers or nothing except gravel. It's with some trepidation though that I look at the work there is to do. The earth is heavy clay and the weeds are rampant having had a free reign since the autumn. The compost bin is filling up fast as we rid ourselves of the worst culprits - nasty prickly thistles.

By way of respite today, we went for a picnic at Restinclières, got the last available picnic table and enjoyed a simple lunch of crunchy bread, camembert au lait cru, cherry tomatoes, crisps and a nice rosé wine. We then meandered down to the source of the river Lez where the ResidentAdo said she would be camping sauvage with a friend this summer. As there are notices all over the place forbidding the lighting of fires, I wasn't too sure how this would be possible. It's a serious offense, too, those who disobey being liable for prosecution, so I just hope she is not heading for trouble even if the friend did go camping there last year.

Quite frankly, the idea of camping sauvage now leaves me completely cold. Give me free hot showers and clean loos any day. I was never very keen on it, but went along to be with the ex-h on the odd occasion (including our honeymoon!). Now though, it has to have four stars with playground for the boys and a place that sells frites.

Now, that's camping civilisé!