ManWomanDogVan: July 2020

We have continued our way thru the Gorges du Tarn, stopping for the night at the Barrage de Sénéchas. The following day, out of the Tarn valley, we stopped in the old mining town of Banne for what turned out to be the most expensive coffee we had so far (hmmm…). We also visited the local church and the ruins of the fort before moving on.

There was a certain amount of dithering about whether or not we should hire a canoe but it seemed a bit too complicated bearing in mind the 35C sunshine, a dog who does not like water and my non-existent experience in canoeing. Eventually we have decided to give it a miss. We have stayed at a campsite for the night at the start of the Gorges de l’Ardèche, mostly so that I can go for a swim in a nice, clean, blue swimming pool! It was lovely, although of course not the same as canoeing.

The Gorges de l’Ardeche is pretty spectacular and we stopped at various viewing points to try to take it all in. One of the most unusual and highly visited spot is the Pont d’Arc stone arch. It is a popular destination for people, taking a picnic and swimming costumes to enjoy a day out along the river under the magnificent rocks. Of course we also saw many canoes up and down the river, making us question our decision the day before…

We have spent the night in Saint Restitut, a lovely little town. Interestingly, they had a book corner set up in a sheltered spot, for people to bring/take books free as they wish. I thought this was a great idea! We went for a lovely walk before settling down for the night. The knock on the door came at 6am – it turns out that market day was upon us, and we needed to move to allow the market stalls to be set up. They were very friendly and apologetic about asking us to move out of the way. So after a coffee we moved across the road before heading to the local bakery for fresh croissants and then to the market to check out their ware.

After the unexpectedly early breakfast, we went to the nearby Barry Troglodyte village. It is made up of caves and stone houses sitting on a forested hill in the northwestern-most corner of the Vaucluse department of France. Most houses had far reaching views down into the valley below. The village was inhabited continuously from the Neolithic ages until the early 20th century, but the buildings are no longer in use and they have fallen into disrepair. Actually, I am surprised that no effort has been made to turn this really interesting site into a tourist attraction. There are some “no entry” and “danger” signs about, but people come to visit anyway. We spent a few hours discovering the area – it is not always obvious where the houses are when wondering around in the forest. We came across the first one quite suddenly once we got off the beaten path...

We stopped by a little fishing lake near Gringan for lunch, and I was amazed by the number of dragon flies I saw. Some of them were really large and they came in many colours, including red, which I thought was quite unusual. I spent ages trying to get a good picture, lol.

We went for a walk and an ice cream afterwards in Gringan. There is a Renaissance castle in town, that is said to be enchanting, but having seen many castl during the recent month, we have decided to give it a miss. Possible a mistake, but you can get all castled out…

We spent the night in Cruas and visited the medieval town the following morning. The Abby was interesting, but what I really liked was the old part of town, which was under restoration. We walked around it as much as we could, although most of it was closed due to the ongoing works. But even now we could see that once completed, this is going to be a fun place to visit. Many little streets, cafes, restaurants, little arts and crafts places, topped by a castle. I would love to go back there sometime in the future.

We stopped at Saint Antoine l’Abbaye for a quick visit before continuing to Viriville, which was our first stop of visiting friends in and around Grenoble.

We have arrived to Grenoble a few days later, and spent the following week down memory lane. It was great catching up with old friends, we loved it all!

Time passed quickly and a week later we set off again, this time back to the UK.

July 2020 - Part 1 Map