I didn’t cycle the whole 100 km of the Sete-Rhone canal but did just over half of it, to where we spent the night at Aigues-Mortes. We had stayed here a few years ago and soon recognised it again. I also passed through other familiar places along the canal from previous stays, in particular Palavos les Flots and Caron Plage. The scenery was monotonous as the canal was built up through a series of ‘etangs’ or lakes. The vast stretches of water were only made interesting with the sight of wild Camargue horses on the occasional pieces of dry land.
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| White Camargue horse |
Aigues-Mortes was very busy it being the Easter holidays and we were lucky to find a space in the ‘aire’ there. We only stayed the one night, as the cycling was over and it was up north for two weeks of walking on the Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) trail. Well that was the plan but when we reached St Jean du Gard, only 80 km away and at the bottom end of the trail, we couldn’t get accommodation in all the places along the RLS. The woman in the tourist office was extremely helpful and phoned most of the ‘gite d’etape’, the hostel type places that we had made a list of. Most of the gites were full and the alternative of a hotel would be very expensive. The decision was to change our plans and do some of the stages of the trail as day walks while we stayed with the campervan in ‘aires’ or campsites.
We found a nice ‘aire’ in St Jean du Gare near the railway station where a old steam train ran trips to Anduze a short distance away and back for the many tourists also here for Easter. Our stay here lasted another two days as we trekked two parts of the trail on an out and back basis; doing it this way means that if we do eventually finish it all, we will have covered it twice. The mountains in this area of the south of Frances were the Cevennes and we had magnificent views on our walks and also the drive over high winding twisting roads to our next stopping point at Le Pont du Tarn about a kilometre outside the town of Florac, the capital of the Cevennes.
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| Robert Louis Stevenson Trail |
We have been staying in the campsite here for ten days now. It is in a delightful spot beside the River Tarn and now all the holidays are over the site isn’t very busy and is nice and quiet. We have been out walking every day and completing the section of the RLS before Florac and the one after the town. This was a distance of 45 km from Le Pont-de-Montvert to Gare de Cassagnas, and with our out and back routine we will have covered 90 km. The route has been mainly over the high ground with many magnificent views but the last part was an easy stretch as the track followed the line of an old disused railway. This had been the Mimente Railway and ran along the side of the Mimente River.
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| The Tarn Gorge |
As well as the RLS route we have been doing local day walks; we got details from the Tourist Office for them. The River Tarn that flows through our campsite cuts a deep gorge in the hills for 50 km from Ispagnac to Le Rozier. We had a walk one day along the river path from Sainte-Enimie to St-Chely du Tarn, it was only 10 km for the round trip, but we were to enjoy some wonderful vistas of the towering high cliffs that enclosed us. The river below us was very popular with canoeist and all the villages in the gorge had hire companies with yards full of plastic type canoes. The section we walked didn’t have any serious rapids and would be easy paddling for the canoeists. Another walk we did was to the limestone cliffs and plateau that curve the town of Florac like an amphitheatre. It was a tough climb up the cliff side track but on top the path followed a fairly flat course to the high point of 1100 metres. Coming down at the other end of the plateau gave outstanding views of a number of tall pillars of rock that projected from the side of the cliff.
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| Rocky pillar at Florac |
Florac is an attractive town and lies at the confluence of the Rivers Tarn, Tarnon and Mimente. Many of its medieval streets are shaded by avenues of plane trees, with many old fountains, small bridges and narrow alleyways. The beauty of the area has been considerably enhanced by the glorious weather we have been enjoying. The mornings have been a little cool as we started our daily outings but once the sun was high in the sky it became very warm; this is what we have been searching for since we started ‘following the sun’ last October.
The campsite has a lot of trees, but where we have pitched there was a gap to aim our satellite dish to pick up the UK channels. We were able to see the Royal wedding; I was hoping I might pick up some ideas from the events there for my speech for Margaret’s wedding. I did get a few topics to include and these will be revealed at the end of the month in Cardiff. Now that we are able to tune into the satellite easily there doesn’t seem to be a lot on the TV worth watching.
Tomorrow we are going to move a little further north on the RLS and do another stage or two. We have booked on the ferry from Calais on 17 May and the plan is to leave this area next Friday and that gives us four days to slowly get to the channel port.
