Travel

Travel Travels through Southern France

Step Three : The Cevennes and the Ardeche by Russell Adams

We detoured, en route to our gîte in the Gorges du Tarn, to take a look at the Viaduc de Millau - the tallest bridge in the world. We used the minor roads, not the bridge itself, as I’m told you can’t see much from the bridge, you can’t stop, as it’s a motorway and you have to pay the toll.

The bridge was designed by a Brit, Norman Forster and the French engineer Michel Virolgeux. I bet every motorist that goes over it thanks God the Italians weren’t involved.

The Gorge du Tarn

can challenge their skills on the chicanes, hair-pins and rock tunnels along the route. This may also explain why we saw more gendarmes here than anywhere else so far, (2 in total). The 70kms only has minor villages and not a single supermarket in the gorge, as far as we could find out. We had to drive to Florac to get supplies. With our usual planning we got there just as the supermarket closed for their 2½ hour lunch break. This meant we had to find a restaurant by the river and endure a long leisurely lunch ourselves. Life is tough sometimes.

The Viaduc de Millau

We stopped in the town of Millau for Lunch. The rough guide describes Millau as a lively town. On a Sunday in May, it definitely isn’t. Here, we also managed to prove that it is possible to get a bad meal in France. This also illustrates the French obsession with bread. We had ordered a type of club sandwich with 3 layers of dry and unappetising toast, so they brought us bread to go with it. In Bordeaux we bought 2 filled baguettes (90% bread), from a kiosk and they gave us bread to go with it. Every restaurant meal involves a basket of bread, which if you eat it, is immediately replaced with another. Could I have inadvertently stumbled on the reason for the world wheat shortage! I do really like their approach; I just think they take it to excess at times.

The Gorge du Tarn is on the Western edge of the Cevennes and runs from just north of Millau to Florac, a distance of around 70kms. It is wonderful. The cliffs rise up to 600m (1950ft) above the river creating a secluded valley with its own micro-climate. The narrow D907b follows the river’s meandering along this length, creating a mecca for walkers, campers, rock climbers and especially bikers, who

Sainte Enimie

We stayed just outside the village of Sainte Enimie, another village claiming to be one of the most beautiful in France, the list must be enormous. It was very pleasant though, with narrow, cobbled streets winding up the hill, many now converted to craft shops.

The only way to really view the gorge is from the river so we hired a double kayak and paddled the 13 kms from Sainte Enimie to La Malene. The views were fantastic and it worked some muscles that hadn’t been used for 30 years. Sher had gained enough confidence for us to shoot the weir just before we entered La Malene. After 4 hours of canoeing, we deserved a beer, another bonus of the less visited area, we were charged three euros for a large beer instead of the 6, 7 or even 8 euros we had been paying.

The Cevennes has two of France’s relatively few national parks and is a mecca for walkers. This is largely due to Robert Louis Stevenson (he of Treasure Island fame), who walked across the Cevennes in 1878, with a donkey called Modestine. He wrote of his journey, after straining his imagination he called it “Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes”. I’ve read it, it isn’t a page turner, yet all the places Stevenson went proudly display the fact that he had been there. You can follow his trail on your own or with organised tours, you can even hire a donkey to walk with you. I took Sher! And drove! As well as his journey Stevenson described the actions and atrocities of the Camisard rebellion that took place in the early 1700’s, as he passed the sites. The Camisards were Huguenots (French Protestants) who rebelled when they were given the choice of converting to Catholicism or emigrating. They were called Camisards because they were untrained soldiers who fought in their shirts (Camisa being Occitan for shirt). They were heavily outnumbered by the King’s army and were slaughtered or made galley slaves by 1704. I can’t wait till we get to the Cathars.

Neither the Lonely Planet nor the Rough Guide give much of a mention to the Ardeche, this is really surprising given the popularity of the area. We decided to give the cycle tracks a go and I can tell you that the Via Ardeche is a nice, fairly flat, relaxed cycle through vineyards and countryside. The track to from Ruoms to Vallon-Pont D’Arc isn’t flat and Sher would probably add a few expletives to that statement.

Canoeing the Ardeche is different to the Tarn, it’s twice as expensive for a start. It is so popular that instead of feeling alone in the wilderness, it can be more like tackling the Friday rush hour on the M6, only instead of cars, lorries and caravans its canoes, swimmers and snorkelers (I know it’s odd but we almost took one’s head off). It also appears to be a favourite activity for stag and hen dos. We met both on the river and even passed one prospective groom tackling the river in the company of an inflatable woman. We had already canoed the 32km through the Ardeche gorge in the past, so this time we

opted to canoe the section leading down to the famous arc. This was less scenic, but you do get to shoot 5 weirs on special canoe friendly channels and tackle a couple of minor rapids over the 13kms.

Pont d'Arc

Vallon-Pont D’Arc is a lovely small town with loads of restaurants and touristy shops. We had a great meal at a small restaurant called Le Chelsea.