Hotel Doussiere Rozier

Took us a while to find a park last night as we were aiming to stay in Le Rozier which is close to the start of Gorges de Tarn as that was the drive we wanted to do today.

Unfortunately roadworks stood in our way and we took the next best option of the drive through Gorges du la Jonte.

Stunning is the best way to descirbe this drive. I got the ...

... apparently it is still left over from December snow storms. Even Telus repairs lines faster! One thing that absolutely blew me away were thousands of wild daffodils amongst the scrubby alpine trees. Mixed in with the odd patch of snow I took way too many pictures. The gite we chose was in a small village right on the edge of the park. The owner's English was good which gave me an opportunity to ask lots of questions. She is ...

... is definitely one of our favorites because it is immaculate and the setting is amazing. There are a few restaurants, a couple of small inns and shops. The Tarn river has a mix of rapids and pool areas as it winds through this village. It was a bit cool for swimming but we really wanted to go. John waded into the river and it was cold. There are canoe and rafting trips down the river and the hillsides are covered with wild iris, red poppy's, wild ...

We are still staying in Florac tonight, but we took a beautiful drive to this village today. The Cevennes national park countryside is gorgeous with big, green hills and hardly any homes or buildings...just countryside! We went on a 5km hike to the Chateau Roquedhouil, a nice old home built in the 1500's. There was a very tall sequoia tree that was planed in 1887 and was about 25 feet in circumference.

... to see the giant 'bridge amongst the clouds'. It's 2 ½ km long, and over 300 m high. It was absolutely beautiful day - so not a cloud in the sky to get that sort of perspective. But it was well worth a look, just the same. After this extra, extra visit it was already after 12 o'clock ... then we finally began the rest of the more than 6 hour journey through the south of France and into Barcelona. Yay!

... months exploring the hills and valleys in this region. We have just two days. The first we went to Mont Aigoual, which at 1567m (5100ft) is the highest peak around, the site of the French Meteorological research centre and the source of spectacular views including Mont Blanc, most of the French Mediterranean coast and the Pyrennees. That is on a clear day in January. On a ...

... unattractive on the outside but was clean and pleasant inside. We haven't tried the shower yet. As we sat listening to the rain and uploading photos, etc. we had a long discussion about the rest of the holiday. We used the internet to get weather forecasts for Nice, Marseilles, Perpignan, Barcelona, Milan and even Portugal, but it seems as if the whole of Europe is in for a deluge over the next 5 days. It's times like this when a ...

... We just had the best meal! We bought prawns, ham salad, beetroot salad, egg salad and a crunchy baguette and ate it in the garden washed down with some local wine, and finished off with Roquefort cheese (which comes from near here) It doesn't get dark until about 10pm so we went for a walk afterwards towards the bridge across the fields....magic!!!!!

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS, First off we are writing on a keyboard that looks nothing like ours at home. So Aura has stepped aside so that I can look and type rath** than hurrily try and do it the old way. The French are in no way as rude as ev**ybody says, actually they have been some of the friendliest and most helpful people we have met. Oh, th**e was that ONE lady in Italy but all the slimey dudes around pretty much washed h** out. Cinque ...

We're finally here. after 48 hrs of traveling from Santiago to Le Puy, wandering around the city for an hour, then finding the right hostel eating some pizza, and sleeping sort of soundly, Jeff, Tammy and I are assembled, walking, and tomorrow we'll be embarking out onto the ...