Travelling through Haut Languedoc and les Grands Causses

For the last long weekend of May, my DB and I decided to take the motorbike and ride west to Castres. It was a lovely day, so I packed a picnic and we set off on the autoroute to Lodève, then took the charming D35 towards Lunas, a village of 400 inhabitants and a castle.

In the late spring, the gorse was out, lighting up the rolling hillsides with brilliant flashes of gold and heavenly sweet perfume.

Monts d'Orb

We took the tiny D135e2, a single track lane that wended its way through fields and forests. No crazy driving possible on this little road, we were able to admire the scenery at a leisurely pace, and it was well worth it.

Forests of Monts d'Orb

We disturbed a raptor along the road. It was by the road on our left and suddenly burst out across the front of the bike just feet away. I managed to get a photo of it as it flew off to our right.

At a few metres from us!

This is a shady spot along the tiny road, going through the forest of the Monts d'Orb.

Barely room to pass another vehicle...

We found a delightful picnic spot at the end of the D138 at Ceilhes-et-Rocozels situated by a lake and a camp site. A few picnic tables were dotted about which meant we could sit comfortably in our biking gear instead of uncomfortably on the ground. I looked towards the lake, my DB looked towards the bike. The toads on the banks serenaded each other at top volume and plopped into the lake as we approached the water's edge.

Camares

Not long after Ceilhes, we crossed into Aveyron, following the D902 which is green along the River Dourdou between Fayet and Camarès.

Belmont-sur-Rance

Another green road took us to Belmont-sur-Rance and it's dramatic church spire at the top of the hill.

From Belmont, we rode south (D32) to Lacaune, greeted at the entrance to the town by a splendid metalwork ham. Not quite Aoste or Parme, but I'm sure it tastes lovely. We didn't stop to find out, however.

Wonder what they produce in Lacaune...

One of the prettiest photos is this one at Lacaze - I love the green of the trees with the grey of the buildings, and the odd spot of dark purple, plus the lovely village and imposing bridge. It's very different in style from villages where I live in Hérault, but isn't that far away.

Pretty Lacaze

We reached Castres via Vabres and Brassac having telephoned ahead to reserve a room at the Hotel de l'Europe there. After a stunning ride, we were delighted to find our hotel was equally stunning in its own way. Here is the lobby, lit from above by a glass roof.

Hotel de l'Europe, Castres

The hotel blurb says that the building is a 17th century mix of baroque - part-Italian, part-Spanish

Keeping the evil spirits at bay? Hotel de l'Europe, Castres

I love the little crypt set into the exposed bricks on the landing. The colours positively hummed in the late afternoon sun. My reaction on walking into the lobby was simply "Wow!".

We were assigned the London room - how appropriate - which was a good 20m² and boasted a large bed, comfy chair, desk and ancient typewriter. For writing all those murder mysteries the Brits are so good at no doubt. On the wall were 12 small photos of famous Brits including Hitchcook, Lady Di, Queen Elizabeth I, etc. The bed could be backlit by a blue light for a smoochy atmosphere.

London room, Hotel de l'Europe, Castres

There was ample room for us and our kit!

London room, Hotel de l'Europe, Castres

The bathroom was a revelation with its large bath/jacuzzi. All this for 77 Eur!

Room for two! Hotel de l'Europe, Castres

A short walk from the hotel was the elegant central square, with its stylish buildings and vast open space.

Castres

We got a plan of the town from the hotel and walked around taking in the main sights. It didn't take long as Castres is a small town, and very compact as it used be walled. Along the river are the old tanners' houses which reminded me a little of Florence.

Tanner's houses, Castres

We finished our walk in the public gardens designed by André le Notre with its swirling low bushes, sculptured trees and very few flowers. Other places of interest in Castres include the Goya Museum located in a splendid former bishop's' palace, which houses the largest collection of Spanish art outside the Louvres.

Gardens designed by André le Notre, theatre in background

The Hotel Renaissance looks fab from the outside. It's a 4* hotel so I expect it's pretty fab on the inside too.

Hotel Renaissance 4*

We tested the bath/jacuzzi before dinner to the full and enjoyed the pummelling and water massage à deux. Sunday evening in France is not a good time to be looking for a restaurant even over a holiday weekend, but our hotel receptionist reserved us a table at Le Cercle a short walk away where we had a very pleasant meal and some good wine. It was about the only place open apart from dodgy kebab shops.

The bed was extremely comfortable and difficult to leave the next day!

Bliss in Bruel

Saint Jean de Bruel, that is, not Patrick the singer. We came across another delightful location this weekend thanks to the book of walks we bought on our last trip. Not only did we open it, but we chose an itinerary to walk! We drove up to Causse Bégon which is a tiny spot in the middle of nowhere that has a 5km walk on the causse. Causses are limestone plateaux which have a particular arid terrain made up of stubby trees, dolomite outcrops and cropped grass. You see one when you take the A75 from Lodève to Millau which crosses the plateau de Larzac.

Our walk was pleasant enough. It was cool up there when the wind blew and had some nice views although nothing spectacular. One bit must have been eroded by water at some point in its past. It had lots of holes in the rock which I couldn't resist poking with my finger. My DB hoped the one I poked wouldn't be inhabited by snakes. As it was less than 5 cm deep, I thought I'd probably see them coming.

Water erosion and no snakes 800m up on walk around Causse Bégon

At some point, we had to climb steeply for what the signpost said was 80metres but felt like more, to see the dolmen called the Giant's Tomb.

Dolmen tomb for a small-sized giant

Just big enough for me lengthwise

Proof that my DB is not a country bumpkin happened when we were walking back towards the car from the dolmen on a different path to the original one, having decided not to slide back down the steep track. We suddenly found ourselves on the wrong side of a fence. On observing this, he asked me how we would get back to the right side. I spied some string bits floating in the breeze some way off and said that it was probably some sort of gate. He was doubtful. Then he wondered if the fence was electric. No, I said, they don't look like that. He was doubtful. It has barbed wire, he said. No, I said, it doesn't. Hmmm... We got to the fence and, as it was low, I could just lift me leg over it. No barbed wire, no electricity, AND the gate was a gate. I'm not that much of a country bumpkin, but it's easy to appear informed and clued up in the countryside compared to my DB!

We got back to the car and drove down to St Jean de Bruel where we hoped to find somewhere to sleep. We had not booked and discovered, of course, that both hotels were full. Our only option was a chambre d'hote. We are not keen on chambre d'hote (as you may remember), but the alternative was an hour's drive to cover 35km to Meyreuis (up and down and up and down), similar to get to Montpellier or stay in a scabby place half an hour away. The woman in the tourist office assured us that the chambre d'hote, Les Cardabelles, was quite like a hotel, so we decided to give it a try.

Good thing we did too as it was LOVELY and pretty much like a hotel only better because it had AIR CONDITIONING which 2-star hotels do not.

Unassuming exterior to Les Cardabelles chambres d'hote

Room

Bathroom, shower on right

View from room

There are three rooms at the top of the building and they have a separate staircase from the rest of the house. You could really believe yourself to be in a hotel. Our room had two extra beds so you could really get value for money from the cost of the room including breakfast (€66). We were the only guests, surprisingly, so had the breakfast table to ourselves the next morning, with delicious coffee (a rarity), and excellent home-made jams and bread as well as croissants, etc. It was a bijoux place! M Vidal, who owns it, also makes potted pâtés. His little factory is next door and I suppose he supplements his income with the chambres d'hote. We found him warm and friendly, and he didn't hang around or try to impose himself. Really, the perfect place.

That evening we were fortunate with dinner too! Recommended by M Vidal, we booked at l'Oustal just down the road and chose the €14.50 menu. We sat outside on the terrace and started with a mixed salad which was followed by one of the most delicious rascasse rouge I've ever had. It seemed to have been just fried, in butter but it was so tasty I could have eaten it all night. It came with quinoa and courgette, and the whole meal was simply delicious. We had cheese for dessert, and pichets of rosé to wash it down.

After breakfast, we mooched into the village to visit the little market. There we saw a local organic veg producer who, coincidentally, sells his produce with a small number of others in their shop in the next village to me! They take it in turns to keep shop, so costs are kept reasonable because they employ no extra staff. I am definitely going to take a look this week because I like the idea of these farmers getting together and doing some sensible, and the veggies looked excellent. What an amazing coincidence finding him there in the middle of nowhere!

We had a leaflet from the tourist office on a nice walk up to the village sentinelle. It was 5km so we decided we could cope with that if it meant admiring 360° views from the top. The walk was delightful. It took us through shady sweet chestnut tree woods up a gentle incline for much of it.

Shady path through the chataigners

Part of the view from the top, with sentinelle. The village is St Jean de Bruel.

The view from the top was definitely worth it, enhanced by the fact that my DB's Free mobile phone found a network whilst there was none in the valley, so he could listen to his messages!

We came back down and it was only just gone midday. Despite our delicious and copious breakfast, we went to the village picnic spot that I had noticed just down the road from where we stayed, and next to Noria, the water museum.

Picnic spot

The canal was built to secure access to running water for the mill even when the river on the other side of the picnic spot was low.

Old mill, now Water Museum, Noria.

After lunch, we went to visit the museum. We walked round the balcony to get to the entrance and admired the old thirteenth century bridge across the river Dourbie. I also admired the vegetable plot and gazed longingly at its lusciously fertile soil. For information, a one-bedroom flat in this village (in the middle of nowhere) is a measly €20,000!

View of XIII century bridge from museum

The mill has been put to different uses in its history. One of the main ones was cleaning woollen cloth. The cloth was wrapped around a type of bobbin and fixed to a box. Water came down via a channel to wash it and protect it from damage, and the bobbin turned every so often to work the whole cloth. It was a very clever system. Although the mill was closed for business 1985, it was restored and open to the public as a functioning piece of history. 

Water arrives

Huge hammers that bash the woollen cloth

Woollen cloth on the right getting a bashing

The museum also contains a functioning hydro-electric station (mini), a large model of a river modified to produce hydro-electricity where if you press a button, you get a commentary and demonstration of water management. There are several rooms containing interesting information about water - how to manage and treat it, and its place in the cosmos. There is even a "Bistr'eau" of four different waters to show you how water tastes different depending on how mineralised it is. Low mineralised water tastes 'hard' while a high mineral count gives a 'soft' taste. Did you know that?

Finally, there's a spot for kids to let off steam in a playroom shooting water and other games, a little bar and a shop. We greatly enjoyed our visit and learned a lot from the excellent displays. The shop was lacking in books in my opinion. They had loads of useless mini figures of dogs, owls, cows all dressed up. Someone needs to take the shop in hand and get in some more appropriate, interesting products.

A lovely weekend, and just an hour from Montpellier. It felt so different, and so did us so much good. I didn't want to come home!

Plein les Yeux 2 - Aveyron, Tarn, Cantal, Lot

We've just come back from 5 days of motorbiking all over the place. In and out of Aveyron and Tarn we popped, up up into Cantal to the heights of Puy Mary (12.5°C and a howling gale) and back down to the douceurs of the Lot.

The high-light? How can one choose between the different landscapes? Rugged tree-covered crags, undulating hills and vales, narrow valleys, panoramic views over plateaux, river banks, "les plus villages de France" (Aveyron comes top of the list with 10!), "les Grands Sites" (we saw 3 - Conques, Cordes sur Ciel, Rocamadour), hostile mountains still with a touch of snow, sweet little hamlets, and so on.

Click on the photos to get the full impact because the views were absolutely stunning.

The first here is my favourite - Ambialet, in the Tarn which is located on a peninsular. Our hotel was over on the right at the end of the bridge - the Hotel du Pont - which has been in the same family for seven generations. The view from our bedroom window is on the second photo.

We had lunch overlooking this castle at Laguépie on the Viaur river, again in the Tarn region. We drove along the fortified road opposite which took us right along the river.

Our second night was spent just outside Conques (below), in a delightful chambre d'hote run by Maurya Metal, an American artist, and her Dutch husband who is an ecologist. They had friends in town so we didn't get to try the table d'hote, but we ate at a very good value restaurant (Auberge de St Jacques) in Conques instead, and I got to try a real aligot.

This is the view from our room in the tiny hamlet of Montagnac just outside Conques. It was very quiet and peaceful, the rooms set in an old stone house of the hamlet with wooden board floors and decorated with authentic taste. Breakfast was fantastic with different breads and homemade jams.

I was surprised to see lots of scarecrows along the roads and at the entrance to properties in Aveyron, and apparently there's a festival every year. Locals dress up scarecrows in all sorts of costumes, from ski suits to working overalls. Participation was definitely active and enthusiastic!

The roadsides were a picture with spring flowers and smelled divine with what seemed to be trees of white wisteria, gorse, damp ferns, earth, pine and lilac.

On Puy Mary we had lunch in the auberge there, thankful to be out of the wind and cold. If we'd known what was on offer, we would have made arrangements because they had a fantastic planche of Salers steak, truffade and other delights. It looked and smelled delicious, but we had planned on a light lunch that day as we'd been stuffing our faces previously. We intend to go back! We also want to ride the Route des Crètes as this time we were sent on the Vallée de la Jordanne route by my TWDB's motorbike book which gives amazing views over the valley and up to the peaks opposite. One to do in June, probably, when the weather is a little more clement.

On Saturday we made our way to Rocamadour to a bike meet organised by Survive France Network member Jennifer Iddon and her husband James who own the B&B La Noyeraie. We managed to get a room with a lovely sloping floor which gave the wardrobe an interesting angle, while others camped (bravely) in the 9 hectares of land. It was very very windy so we were pretty pleased not to be riding that day. We did get over to see Rocamadour though (below) which was busy and must be hell in the summer.

I felt a bit of a fraud as I'm a mere biker passenger and not a dyed in the wool biker nut, and I was the only one, but people very kindly talked to me about things other than engines and biking gossip so I had a lovely time. My biker nut TWDB enjoyed himself too, talking shop with the 20 or so others and admiring the huge Dunlop MotoGP trailer truck, inside and out, which is run by a friend of the Iddons. A treasure trove for tyre and tool enthusiasts it was. I found a biker from Swansea who now lives in France so we had a cosy chat about Mumbles, the beaches, the boat club and what a small world it is.

James apparently bakes the breakfast bread on normal non-bike meet days and uses local ingredients for the table d'hote. They also have a Café 46 (a Rossi reference...) so if you're in the area, do pop in as you'll get a great welcome, especially if you're a biker.

We drove home across country yesterday and made excellent time as far as Millau. We had the bacon butties that Jen had prepared for us, and the end of a bottle of Cahors on the plateau de Larzac off the road in a quiet spot not far from the military training zone. We then avoided the motorway to come back via Le Vigan along the green roads wiggling their way down off the plateau.

In total, we did over 1000km, stayed in some lovely places and had an eyeful of spectacular sites. A terrific little holiday.