In November we have had two back-to-back long weekends, All Saints Day a week ago and the Armistice this past weekend. We spent the former in Lyon, and this time escaped to the Vercors mountains, maybe the first time since we moved to the opposite direction from Grenoble. The plan […]
As much as I love the landscape of the Massif Central, I think the Matheysine Plateau in the French Prealps in Southern Isère is one of the most scenic areas I’ve visited in France, with the silhouette of the magestic Grande Tête de l’Obiou as a backprop. Soon after returning […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
We have not done much hiking this Spring since we were training for last weekend’s half-marathon race, which only Tomi ran. So, the good weather streak still continuing, we were looking forward to some easy Easter weekend hikes, the first to a waterfall on Plateau-des-Petites-Roches in Sain-Hilaire-du-Touvet on Sunday (6.30K […]
We have had (again) a long anticyclonic period that has caused inversion: a low hanging thick layer of clouds blocks cold and humid air near the ground, whereas the air above the clouds is warm and dry. This is very common in this valley at this time of the year. […]