Another weekend getaway took us to the charming town of Le Puy-en-Velay in Haute-Loire department, about 200 kilometers west of  Grenoble. When driving there we had quite a variable weather from sunshine to constant rain with occasionally heavy downpour, but at the time we reached Le Puy the rain had mostly ended.

On Saturday we visited the two main sites:  the Statue of Notre-Dame-de-France and the Chapel of St Michel d’Aighuile.

Both visits involved a lot of stair climbing, which during this mandatory mask era was kind of annoying, since my glasses kept getting fogged. Walking down steep steps without being able to see properly was not much fun.

We had booked a beautiful AirBnB apartment just next to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-du-Puy. Despite the central location by the path that most tourists take to the cathedral the place was really quiet. And we could watch this awesome light show just from our doorstep.

On Sunday we were much less lucky with the weather. It practically rained the whole day when driving back to Grenoble, but fortunately only drizzled when we had a hike at the ravines of Corboeuf. The landscape would have merited from sunshine, since now all the clay looked the same greenish/yellowish grey.

From Corbouef we had a scenic drive down to Valence through Monts d’Ardèche (Parc naturel régional des Monts d’Ardèche), passing through some places we visited last Fall on our bicycle tour on La Dolce Via.