Cheddar Youth Hostel

There aren't many youths here.

The Causses of Crime

Travelling east to west across France is no easy matter in places. From the southern edge of the Cevennes several departements ate traversed in order to reach the hills of the Albigious. But it is not the numbers of administrative boundaries that interest but the physical features. Huge limestone plateaus (or Causses) straddle whole regions. There are several from Gaillac to Millau to Lodeve. Vast and featureless they are forbidding places. Exposed rock, scree and low thorny scrub, there would be little to orientate by on foot or horseback.

The French are not squeamish however and have driven huge roads across.and through the causses. The Foster bridge is of course well-known but.at times it is simply the sheer scale of things that is awesome.

Col de Redares

It is a winding road that picks it's way through the slopes to deliver you at a small col amongst woodland. From here you can gain the ridge to the south and follow this with views to either side. Chestnut forest managed for la chasse.
At some point you must leave the ridge and we chose a sweeping descent through tiny villages. Perhaps the prettiest of these was Monoblet. Several locals sat drinking pastis outside a small, brightly-coloured bar opposite a church. We dropped on down back to St Hippo.
There are at least a couple of markets here a week.  There was none this evening and we passed across the square and back up to the campsite. A shower and swim to cool off.

Nimes

We went to Nimes recently. It was during our transition from Vercors to Les Cevennes. Provence was en route and Nimes too good to miss.
The campsite was a large municipal just beyond the edge of town. As such it was impersonal but with the bus stopping just outside it was at least convenient.
As a city, Nimes is pleasant enough. Wide, busy boulevards and an old quarter where it is somewhat cooler. The main attractions are the Roman buildings. There is the Maison Caree, a water tower and a coliseum all virtually intact and described as being the best preserved examples in the world.
The Maison Caree is like a model and there is so much light bouncing around that it was almost surreal. We didn't get to the water tower. It sounded impressive enough. It was apparently to there that water was transported via the Canal du Sud and Pont du Gard to supply this important city.
The coliseum is very impressive. We did the audio tour and Stanley was particularly impressed with the descriptions of different types of gladiator.
The Romans may have achieved a lot but were barbaric beyond belief. Political prisoners were fed to lions and bears as a firm of entertainment. This was apparently not popular with the local audience though.
We liked Nimes a lot but were glad to leave that campsite. Our current location, where we'll be till we travel to Albi is at least as good as the second in Pont en Royans where we spent five nights.
Photos of Nimes to follow when I can get them off Stanley's iPod.

St Jean du Gard

The roads of the Cevennes were constructed in the 17th century to permit the transportation of coal and ithe materials through these hills. They were perfectly engineered at an almost constant gradient of around 6%. They are ideal for cycling.
This afternoon we rode over several with the longest being the 8 km out of St Jean where we took our coffee under the plane trees.
The road climbs through the holly oaks and up into pine and then chataigners. It is very dry and the crumbly roadside cliffs have worn away to reveal the roots of the trees. At the top Mont Ventoux was clearly visible rising from the plains of Provence some 70km to the East.
Cloud has been building all afternoon and down in Hippo the air was heavy as we sat with our drinks and cakes bought with our bread. As we sit now under the awning it is raining. The bloke sat outside the tent next to us with his bottle of the local Cigalois has declared this to be formidable.

Les Cevennes

St. Hippolyte, or Hippo as it is known locally, is a quiet place with little influence of tourism unlike Anduze and other nearby towns. Huge cliffs on the northern side mark the entrance to the Cevennes and to the south the plains stretch towards the Languedoc. It is in a valley to the north that we are now installed. The campsite is friendly and busy. The smell of the pizza oven hangs in the air. Someone strums a guitar. It is once again very hot.

We are camped amongst poplars with our awning creating a pleasant space and our basil plant adding to the aromas. There is a warm breeze.

Families are lunching and the pastis are being drunk. Laughter drifts across.

There is a bloke here from Margate. Brings his bike every year. He's suggested rides and may accompany us on one sometime. This afternoon though it will be just Stanley and I who will take the road over to Jean du Gard.

The Thing about Camping

The thing about camping is the simplicity. It's about stripping everything back to the bare bones of existence.

Noyer

In the valley of the Isere, south of Grenoble is an area some 35km long of walnut orchards. There are few things more lovely.

These are not a relic of some past practice either. There are still orchards being  (re)planted.

As you'd expect, the oil and nuts turn up in everything.

Vassieux-en-Vercors

We parked at the Museum to the Resistance which was not easy. The village was preparing itself for the Fete du Bleu, a fayre for the blue cheese from that region, and the streets were closed.

The col above the village is fairly steep but it was once again the heat that held us back. At the top is the Memorial to the Resistance. We didn't go in as there was a charge!

We followed the ridge to Col de la Machine, had another jus stop before dropping back down to the museum to look at more black and white photos of chaps in vests and berets with fusilles slung across their shoulders.

Last evening we ate at an auberge at Choranche. The food was good and the views across the gorge tremendous.

A walk up into the village again this morning was very pleasant. There was no-one around and I wandered about the place like a tourist.

Troi cols en Vercors

Today was a hot day. We rode across the plateau of the Vercors and up to Col de Rousset. Here the chair lift was taking families to the mountain top from where they would descend on mountain scooters. It looked like fun. We watched with a jus d'apricot apiece.

The descent took us via Vassieux, a village raised to the ground in 1944 due to the activities of the Macqui. The roadside is littered with memorials to those shot on the spot. The stories are typically shocking. Injured hospital patients forced to dig their own graves. Men and woman from 15 years to 99 killed for assisting.

4000 martyrs were gathered before 15000 German troops arrived and brought the Vercors to its knees within 3 days.

The village was rebuilt. Only the church and a handful of other buildings are older than 60 years.

In addition to a national museum there is also a large cemetery and a memorial atop the Col de Chaol. It is a sombre, barren place with little growing in the parched landscape.

We descended to La Chappell for another jus then home.

Civilised

Was up early this morning and having showered and washed up walked into the village alongside the river. By 9 I had bought the bread and croissants which Stanley was eating with hot chocolate before 10.

Last evening we rode up into the gorges to look again at the huge cliffs and the house martens. We had pizza from the local at about 10pm.

Today we will taking the bikes into the middle of the Vercors to ride the hills over there.

Col de Gaudissart

It can be quite difficult to tell the terrain from a small scale road map. So it was that an intended small milestone on the way to the main goal in fact became the story of the day.

The western edge of the Vercors is pierced with gorges.  Combe Laval is one  where the road skirts the upper perimeter rather than following the river. To reach this height the route zig tags up through the trees where oak and hornbeam  eventually give way to pine and box. 

We made several stops along the way being tired from the previous day but we reached the col and followed the road along the gorge with spectacular views. The road itself was quite breath-taking as it clung to the side if the cliffs at times overhanging with little tunnels cut into the rock.

There were house martens nesting on the cliffs and what may have been a pallid swift(?). 

The climb was 7km and the descent back down to the heat of the plains required a jacket as we dropped through the shade.

Local ravioles filled with ricotta and spinach washed down with a Cotes du Rhone rounded off a great day. As they say "when in Rhone ...".

Les Gorges

We sit at the western edge of the Vercors. Two enormous lines of  rocky aretes topped with vast escarpments running north- south from Grenoble.  The night before last we were on the eastern edge of the eastern ridge. In places the western ridge has been breached by rivers forming deep gorges. But not the eastern ridge so to get here necessitated a journey north via Grenoble.

It is the gorges that draw people here. Between the two ridges sits Villard de Lans and so all roads lead there. The roads through cling to the sides. The roads are littered with fallen rock. Perfectly engineered, they make great cycling routes. Beautifully inclined they carry you upwards and till eventually all lies below. Higher up the gorge opens out in a cirque of cliffs. The river in the bottom of the gorge provides trout which Is on the menu of the auberges dotted along the way.  So we took the Gorges de Bourne until we droid on the top of the plateau. Being evening it was warm rather than hot but the humidity was heavy and Stanley couldn't understand why  his bike felt as though it was sticking to the road, holding him back. A final zig-zag of bends lifted us above the gorge and crossed over into an adjacent one and down a long descent at around 70 kph. Through cool tunnels sometimes short and other times long enough to be lit. As you left each each one you were hit by the heat in the gathering dusk. It was awesome and Stanley loved it.

In the village in the evening was Foire au Bois.  We got there in time for Tue disco. Which we eyed from a distance before finding a bar with more traditional music.

Road if the day? Well it had to be the D532. It took us south from Grenoble alongside the Isere, the river from which the department derives its name,  through vast areas of walnut orchards. It gave us our first cicadas and when we drove to the local town of Romans sur Isere in a, by now, oppressive heat it was the D532 which brought us back and delivered us to the campsite when we had begin to wonder exactly where we were going to stay. In Romans we had stocked up on food from the boulangerie including walnut bread, some cakes and favourites and e sausage covered with a fungus which gave it a deep flavour.

This morning came heavy rain. The diecast however is good for this afternoon and we shall venture out again on the bikes. Stan slept late this morning. The ride had clearly worn him out. Whilst he fixed a.I got.some good from the lamentations generale and we have now eaten in preparation for this.

It feels like the mountains

Apparently the Camping Municipale at Monestier is one of the last truly municipal sites in France. That is to say that whereas elsewhere the community now only own the land with the site run as a separate business, here the council do both. The site itself is run by a couple who have been here for 19 years, live on site during la saison, own a house in the village and know the area like the back of their deeply tanned hands. Lovely people.

There's been an accident up the valley. Sirens followed by helicopters ensure that all are aware of it. This is evidently not a rare event round here with much head shaking coming from the the locals. It is late summer. Big storms are common place though they usually pass quite quickly after a slow build-up in gathering gloom. The problem is that the heavy rains bring rocks down onto the roads from the towering cliffs which hang over these valleys. This is  thought likely to be the cause of the crash. We have therefore been advised to travel via Grenoble rather than our intended route. It is this that we will do now.

Sharing a clothes bag with Stanley

Long journey yesterday. Just two hours sleep. Heavy heat. Highlight of the day was a lunch stop in the Jura. A baguette de cereales and some pate de campagne.

Horrible traffic in intense heat saw us avoiding the Ecrins in favour of the Vercors where we spent our first night. Saucisses des spices and a Cote du Rhone.

Huge thunderstorms woke us in the night.

After a coffee and apricots for breakfast we are now off to to another campsite deeper in the parc national.

Weather today overcast and humid.

Home through the Hills

The Begwns, Llandeilo Hill and on to Hundred House. fabulous to be on the tops. Lots of skylarks. heavy legs by the end but good sustained climbing.

Llanfihangel Loop

So Tuesday was a case of "we'll see how we feel when we get to Rhayader" and I opted for another bash round the Llanfihangel loop. Wasn't expecting much from the legs and nothing much was forthcoming.  Just good to be out.

A look ahead to the week's riding

It's funny sometimes. I did the Llanfihangel Loop today. Big-ringed it. Felt great. PB a dead cert. Get back, two hours fifteen. What?


But I felt like I could have gone round again and concentrated on feeling good about myself in preparation for a week of to the office and back. I'm looking forward to it. So many options. There's the valley of course. There's the Begwns, Llandeilo Hill options. And then of course there's the Aberedw climb up onto the Eppynt. All good rides. In a week of alright weather. Well, warm rain. No wind though. And I'm back to a 53 x 38 as well so I'm looking forward to it. 


See you on the other side!