A Long Way to Go for a Walk

After several nerve-wracking days waiting for the Bac results to come out, we were finally put out of our misery. My son passed. It was a skin of the teeth job, as expected, but the fac doesn't care and neither does he. All he has to do now is prove himself doing the course he's chosen!

His first job is to find a flat to share with two buddies though.

Meanwhile, after all the 'excitement' of the previous weeks (Bac, broken wrists, being confined to barracks), my DB and I decided we needed a weekend away, but not too far. I suggested Villefort in Lozère where we rented a chalet a few years ago because it has a nice lake you can walk around and is in one of my favourite regions - the Cevennes.

Lac Villefort (with dam). We walked along the top right hand lake path.

We set off on Saturday arguing with the satnav which we vaguely needed but only after a certain point. It wanted to send us in the wrong direction out of town for the route we wanted to take, and it got confusing unravelling the mess. Frankly, maps are so much easier except that you can't read them and drive at the same time.

Eventually, the satnav woman caught up with our choice of route and stopped telling us to do a demi-tour dès que possible. The weather was very pleasant, and the roads far from busy. We drove through Anduze which is another little town on my top local places list.

I camped there with the boys several years ago (probably the last time I slept in a tent! My back took a long time to recover!) and had a terrific time. There's a steam train that leaves from Anduze to chug its way through some beautiful scenery, stop at the Bambouseraie, and continue on to its terminus at St Jean du Gard. You can take a picnic lunch and either eat it at tables on the station platform or walk to the river, or buy a snack at the snack bar. I used to have a favourite day out which involved catching the train to St Jean where we ate our picnic lunch, then getting back on the train, stopping to visit the Bambouseraie, and catching the last train back to Anduze (or the other way round). This was when my youngest was small and I could carry everything in the pushchair (nostalgia).

My DB hasn't been on the steam train yet, and although we didn't stop this time, we have decided to make Anduze our destination next weekend.

Beyond Alès (which is a dump), we came off the main road to find a spot for our picnic lunch. We found a nice quiet country road which had been recently rained upon and smelled delicious. I had packed a ploughman's lunch complete with cheddar and Branston Pickle which tasted marvellous with the Tradition (levain) bread from the boulangerie. We ate shooting party style with the Yaris boot up and platform down to make a lunch bar. It was peaceful, pretty and perfumed.

Picnic spot... note incongruous shoes with walking outfit

Back in the car, the roads twisted and turned up and down the mountains to Villefort. We stopped by the lake and decided to walk for an hour. The path was often in the shade of the huge pine trees that grow on the banks of the lake. I had cycled this path with the boys when we stayed opposite in the camping/chalet park. It is not actually a path suitable for mountain bikes, but we didn't know that... We made it all the way round though, even my youngest who was about 8!

It takes two and a half hours to walk round, but this time we stopped after half an hour, and turned back. My DB was feeling a little fragile after the previous evening's merriment... (plus tendinitis, bad back, etc...).

Lake walk (lake on left)... note sensible walking shoes

Then came the challenge of finding somewhere to stay. We hadn't booked because we always regret it, but there and again, it was the first weekend of the summer holidays and... everywhere was full. There aren't that many hotels in Villefort, so we had to try further afield. I got my satnav to help out by finding hotels in the area, and it sent us on a wild goose chase to a small village called Vialas where the hotel was in fact chambres d'hote. We don't really like chambres d'hotes as you have to talk to people at dinner. Sometimes you want to and sometimes you don't. We didn't, except to each other, so carried on towards Florac some 25km away.

Just outside Florac, we came across a village that had a hotel and not too many people about, unlike the picturesque Pont de Montvert which was packed with visitors. The Hotel Lozerette had room (hurrah!) so we booked ourselves in and went to relax in our room.

Unfortunately, wifi was not available in the rooms, and there was barely a phone network. This wouldn't have been a problem except that my DB had two MOOC assignments to finish which he'd completely forgotten about, and needed a good internet link to watch the videos. He hummed and haahed about staying or leaving (and going home!), and in the end opted to stay because he could do his MOOC the next day once home.

By this time, we were sitting outside in the delightful garden, in the balmy summer air, sipping rosé and studying the menu. Dinner turned out to be nothing great. I had a trout which was so over-fried some of the bones were welded to the meat. He asked for a vegetarian menu and got a plate of veggies plus mashed potato instead of fish, which was a little weird. We also had to send back a half bottle of local wine because it was 'bouchonné'. The waitress annoyed my DB by going to check with the chef rather than taking him at his word, like he can't tell the difference between bouchonné and normal rosé! I don't think we'll go back!

Next day, we packed up and left, had a coffee and croissant in Florac at the biker bar rather than pay 9 Eur for the hotel breakfast and were home by lunch time.

View from biker bar terrace, Florac

To be honest, it was a long way to go for an hour's walk...

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!