I think that every year around this time I write that we’ve had the worst ever winter since we moved to France ten years ago. Again this year it has been mostly cloudy and we’ve received a lot of rain. Of course, this is good to ground water levels and […]
This year we returned again to the Briançonnais region in Hautes-Alpes for our winter/spring vacation. However, we did not stay in the Serre Chevalier valley as we usually have done, but booked the accommodation in the village of Villar-Saint-Pancrace in a different river valley, namely that of Durance, which by […]
When planning where and how to spend our 20th wedding anniversary, we considered several options: various destinations in France and Europe but also something as extreme as the place where we got married, namely Bloomington, Indiana. Since we had just returned from the two-week year-end vacation of train traveling in […]
The year 2023 was nothing special for us, or out of ordinary: we continued to do activities we like: cooking, running, hiking, walking, and just a little bit of skiing because of the bad snow situations last winter. What was exceptional, though, was that we didn’t do any bicycle tours […]
For our last hike of this vacation we climbed from the village of Ville to the limestone plateau of Gras and walked down to the village of Vogüé. Again, this wasn’t difficult or technical hike, just long, and mostly traveled on a smooth trail. Only the ascent from and the […]
Finally it was time to move to our last overnight destination, Aubenas (Ardèche), the gateway to the Ardèche mountains. To be clear, we did not plan any of the vacation before traveling, but booked only few days ahead as we went. Only the first night in Orange was booked beforehand. […]
Our first day in Mende (Lozère) was cloudy and drizzly, and it was the only such day on our vacation; the rest were blessed with plenty of sunshine. We climbed to Le Croix de Saint-Privat located on the top of the mountain Mont-Mimat (1068m). On our way to the cross […]
After five nights in Aurillac it was time to move on, to Mende. We had planned to visit a couple of villages on our way: Bozouls and Aubrac (both in the department of Aveyron), but also made quick stops in Estaing and Espalion (also in Aveyron) — in the first […]
During our four days in Aurillac we made only one longer hike on the plateau of Campuac, two shorter hikes in the nearby villages Vic- and Arpajon-sur-Cère, and then made a day trip to two old, idyllic villages Carlat and Mur-de-Barrez farther away. The first hike from Campuac was very […]