We moved on from Florac, only about 50 km to a lovely lake, the Lac de Naussac near the large town of Langogne. The campsite was on the lake and the RLS trail went through the town which was a short kilometre away. We did two sections of the trail from here, the first was a short easy stroll of about 6.4 km to Pradelles It was a bit cold when we left and I checked the guide book for the altitude, it was 915m at Langogne and we were a bit higher; it was a good ‘Munro’, so not surprising it was a little chilly. It was flat to start with but soon the road began to drop steeply to take us into the town centre. We picked up the GR red and white bands in the town’s square, and were quickly moving along the route. There were lots of waymarks as we made our way through the town streets but when we reached the outskirts and the first ‘dubious’ junction, there was none. The guide book had to be consulted at times like this to keep us on track. As we left the town and on to a dirt road, we came across a couple going the other way, presumably doing the RLS, as they were leading a donkey like the great man himself. I got a couple of good photos.
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| In the footsteps of RLS |
It was a gradual climb all the way to Pradelles on a nice wide track. The early morning chill had left the air and our fleeces were now packed into the day pack. We didn’t seem to be going particularly fast but arrived at Pradelles before we expected. It was just 10:30, so we found a bench in a park before entering the village where we had a refreshing cup of coffee. From this spot we enjoyed a magnificent view of the surrounding countryside, there weren’t any big mountains visible and it all looked fairly flat, but I think this was deceptive due to our present altitude, I had no doubt that a few hidden climbs were on the route leading to here.
The village of Pradelles was reckoned to be one of the prettiest in France and had many historic sites. The Chapelle Notre-Dame as we entered the town was built in 1613 and was the site where the statue of Virgin of Pradelles was discovered in 1512. It had been brought to France by crusader Knights and was attributed many miracles, which resulted, over the years, in pilgrimages to the village. The statue made of wood and in a white dress was somewhere in the church but unfortunately renovations and restoration work were taking place, so was closed to visitors. The other church, the parish church, at the top end of the village was open for visitors and we had a pleasant half hour walking through it. This was a more modern building which had also been recently renovated. The stained glass windows, dated 1913, were very nice and had helpful plaques below telling what each one depicted. In 1999 new paintings of the ‘stations of the cross’ were commissioned, very interesting and not too modern. There was also supposed to be a replica of the ‘Virgin of Pradelles’ statue somewhere but we missed it.
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| Chapelle Notre-Dame, Pradelles |
It the old part of the village we found the tourist office and got a map and guide to all the points of interest. It gave a route around the old fortification walls indicating historic buildings, fountains and the ‘city’ gates. It was a nice stroll but no other places were open for an excursion inside and soon the route took us to the park on the edge of the village again, this time for lunch before heading back to the campsite.
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The walk back was much quicker than the ‘out’ part; it was now a gentle downhill, except for the climb out of Langogne which was a struggle, but once on top it was easy going back to the site. Even though it was a short easy walk, we had managed to cover about 15 km, so it turned out to be a good day out.
The other section we did was managed just in one direction as we found that a bus ran from Langogne down the main N88 highway and stopped at Chaudeyrac. We left early with just a cup of tea for breakfast and made our way into Langogne for the bus, and the 15 minute ride to Chaudeyrac. From there it was a 3 km easy walk through the forest to Cheylard-l’Eveque where the RLS route markers were picked up that would guide us back to Langogne. Now we were on the ‘official’ trail we managed a good pace on a comfortable wide path. The weather was cloudy but if there were any hills the climb soon warmed us up and off came our fleeces but we soon cooled down again when the sun hid behind clouds forcing us to wrap up again. Later there were a few spots of rain and on went our waterproofs, fortunately it didn’t come to anything. The route went through a series of villages at regular intervals, Fouzillic, Fouzillac, Sagne-Rousse and Saint-Flour-de-Mercoire before reaching Langogne. We stopped at Fouzillic for the remainder of our breakfast, a cup of coffee and a cheese sandwich, and at Saint-Flour-de-Mercoire sat on a bridge over the River Langouyrou for lunch. The countryside wasn’t particularly interesting and as the guide book informs, it had been overpopulated with sheep in Stevenson’s time. This had resulted in the landscape being denuded with the resulting erosion. The area is also remote and depopulated from two wars and people moving to the towns for more lucrative employment. The farmhouses in the villages have been obviously taken over by city commuters, there wasn’t the usual piles of rubbish and obsolete machinery but the yards were tidy, and the houses freshly painted with new windows and doors fitted.
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| RLS and his donkey? |
Coming into Langogne I looked for a shortcut on to the road up to the lake rather than drop down into the town to climb all the way up again at the other side. I couldn’t find a route and we ended up searching for waymarkers to lead us through the town centre. We must be getting fit as we zoomed up the hill and were soon on the last flat stretch to the campsite. It had been a good fairly easy walk which took 6 hours including stops; I reckoned it was about 25 km. This gives us 230 km walking for our period on and around the RLS trail.
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| Another follower of RLS |
With that section of the RLS completed it was also the end of our attempts at ‘Following the Sun’. Winter was over and it was now time to head back to the UK, we also had a wedding to get to. There was 1000km to Calais; we had four days to cover it in time to catch the ferry. It was comfortable and I drove an easy 300 km each day. We stopped at Beaune on the first night at the ‘aire’ which was basically a carpark in the middle of town. It was busy but there was no noise and we slept well. The next day we reached Epernay which was a little village south of Reims in the Champagne country with the fields stretching for miles with vines and famous wine chateaus. There was a change in the weather today with a lot of cloud about early on resulting in a few showers as we drove along, fortunately nothing very heavy. The ‘aire’ was alright but among trees next to the canal; we parked there first but couldn’t get reception for the TV because of the trees. I moved to a carpark next to the ‘aire’ and managed to set the dish up in time for the FA Cup Final. I watched the match while Moira went for a walk. It was Man. City against Stoke City; it wasn’t a very good game, Man City winning 1-0.
On the third day of our journey north we stopped at a beautiful ‘aire’ next to a lake in the village of Arques on the outskirts of St Omer. It was only 50 km from Calais and the next morning we had a pleasant stroll round the lake before lunch as there was no hurry. We left early in the afternoon and when we reached Calais parked at the carpark on the docks together with many other motorhomes spending the night there. Our departure was at 7:30 the next morning and this gave us a quick start by getting straight on to the ferry.
The drive from Dover to Cardiff was motorway all the way. It was fairly fast except for the inevitable holdup on the M25 due to an accident. It wasn’t too bad delaying us for only about 15 minutes as was the second blockage near Reading shortly after getting on to the M4. We arrived at Margaret’s mid-afternoon and it was now into the hustle and bustle of the wedding preparations.
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