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 we passed an old hermitage and the Chapel of Privat. We’d noticed that this area is very popular among pilgrims; we saw many sites related to the Camino de Santiago.

The second day in Mende took us again to the Aubrac plateau. We parked at the village of Marchastel (Lozère), but our hike headed to the plateau and pastures of the Aubrac cows.

This was relatively long hike, and even though it wasn’t physically demanding (technical or containing a lot of climbing), it was quite hard because of the very uneven rocky terrain. Reason for this was that the person who had  created the GPX coordinates we followed, did not use the existing trails at some places. Also the hike traveled a lot on paved roads, which was tiring to the feet and legs. The two destinations of this hike were the lake Saint-Andéol and the cascade of Déroc.

The next post (Part VI) is about a scenic hike around Lac de Charpal and our visit to downtown Aubenas (Ardèche).