This post is about a private botanic garden in Générargues, Gard, Languedoc-Roussillon specializing in bamboos, but it also has a small Japanese style garden. The garden was started by a dedicated horticulturalist Edward Mazel in 1856. He was interested cultivating plants that are robust against any environmental conditions, and started […]
For this year’s Summer vacation we spent two week in the southern part of the central massif doing some relaxed hiking, visiting picturesque old villages, and doing just a tiny bit of running. On our way there we spent one night in Orange (Vaucluse), and then two nights in Saint-Ambroix […]
There are two things to like about Annecy; one is the annual Martin Fourcade Nordic Festival — an invitational biathlon and cross country skiing competition, always attracting the world’s top athletes in both disciplines — and the lake, especially the running/bicycle trail by the trail. Annecy is a beautiful town, […]
The design capital of France truly disappointed us. Ever since we drove through the central Saint-Étienne a couple of years ago, and got somewhat lost there, I have wanted to visit the city with more time. The city was filthy, filthier than the capital, if it even is possible: there […]
We spent the extended weekend in the spa town of Aix-les-Bains in Savoie department to escape, not the heat this time, but the wardrobe renovation in our second bedroom, currently serving as an office. We had already donated the old wardrobe to a young couple who took it down and […]
This was not at all the hike we had planned from Super Collet (at 1640m altitude), only half of the distance and partly different route. After about two kilometers into our hike, we got apprehensive of the dark clouds that were gathering above us (it was perfectly sunny when we […]
Let’s see how many heat escapes we need to take this summer. We have orange warning (the second highest level) for heatwave on this weekend and the early days of the coming week. Daytime temperatures are expected to climb close to +40°C. Yesterday we escaped the afternoon heat to the […]
We spent a week in Crest in central Drôme at the foot of Southern Vercors range, hiking in surrounding areas, but also going for a couple morning runs. We like this area of Drôme for multiple reasons: its landscape is an interesting mixture of forested mountains and Mediterranean scenery. Also […]
We had a very sunny January, but thereafter the Spring has been dull with cloudy days and a lot of rain. Therefore, we have not done much hiking. We started a marathon training program instead, this time with a more modest goal in mind; we have been following a sub […]