Return to France

Having enjoyed France and visiting with our friends so much earlier in the year we decided to head back and explore a different part.  

Flying to Lyon our first stop was in Provence, we travelled to our accommodation via a small Roman aqueduct, interesting but quite a few mosquitoes!  We also tried to get up to the ruins of the Julius Caesar Roman marching camp but the road was shut and we didn't know how far we'd have to go to reach it.

From there we went on to see one of the finest Roman structures still standing outside of Italy, the aqueduct at Pont du Gard, which is frankly amanzing, being roughly 2,000 years old now:

We also decided to visit Vaison-la-Romaine, the site of a complex of Roman ruins, which as is often the case hereabouts mixes a medieval town in a Roman context together with just a little modernisation.

The former amphitheatre has been rebuilt but entirely along the original lines, you can see unrestored parts of the ruins behind the seating here: 

We left Provence heading to our next destination Cevennes National Park, stopping first at the Grotte de Trabuc, an big open cave system with a constant temperature, varying degrees of moisture and lots and lots of limestone features in the caves including this 'medusa':

The visitor descends through a series of caves, lower and lower with various features, a few spaces where you need to bend down to pass but it's a remarkable hidden landscape:

From there it was on to our next Gite (tourist rental) in Ispagnac, an old style town built alongside a river:

We spent each day in Cevennes exploring a different part of the park, walking, sightseeing and generally soaking it up. 

This is an abandoned Chateau, we were itching to find a way in but no success:

A moderate walk out from Ispagnac, up an unexpectedly sharp hill yielded some excellent views, here across the river:

Another drive around the gorges took us through some outstanding scenery:

It's a remarkable landscape, so far i think the most impressive i've seen in Europe outside of the Alps:

Driving around one corner this small town nestled in the river valleys appears, Le Rozier:

We were sad to leave the Cevennes, there's some Templar history in the South-west still to explore as well as more unique landscape, we took in a last view at the top of the Gorge du Tarn as we headed North:

We stopped in to visit my friend Benjy again who was kind enough to photograph us out for a meander in a local forest:

It's fair to say we really like France, definately plan on heading back soon!