Over the last few days the weather has been becoming more Mediterranean-like with beautiful blue/high-cloud skies and lots of sunshine illuminating this area in which sits my brother’s house in the village of Courry. It’s just as beautiful as when I last visited some 4 or 5 years ago. There are lots of spring flowers everywhere still, greenery and lovely smells of honeysuckle and jasmine. I have enjoyed staying once again in the house, its quirkiness still the same and my brother & sister-in-law have made really nice improvements as they have made it their own, not least good internet connection, keeping me in touch with the race for the Premier League title, and him with the Giro d’Italia.
My brother, being a keen cyclist, has explored the whole area by bike, and knows all the well-surfaced back roads up and down, with hardly a car in evidence. It’s been great to go out with him locally to the villages round about on 2 wheels rather than 4, but absolutely necessary here to have the electric motor assistance! Yesterday saw the longest ride, a 30 mile tour including a significant part on the ‘Via Ardeche’ converted railway line and quiet lanes. All roads from and back to Courry have significant climbs, which my brother is able to do on his trusty old ‘hybrid’ bike, rather than his 7kg! road bike back in the UK.
The rivers and their gorges round here include the Ceze, Ardeche and Chassezac, all with fantastic swimming and kayaking spots. Many, many beautiful villages, including Banne, Gagnieres, St Paul-le-Jeune and Montclus which we drove to today for a coffee and picnic. I recognized that I wanted to drive back as I used to to Mum waiting at the house, to tell her where we’d been. This was all her patch, which she then more thoroughly explored with her partner Jack, and she would be delighted to know the extent to which this part of her ‘inheritance’ has been embraced by her son and daughter-in-law and their numerous guests.
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- In the Cevennes over the hill from Courry
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- The Ceze valley
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- Looking towards the Ardeche gorges
This stay comes to an end tomorrow when I drive back to Carcassonne to meet up with my sisters and spend a few days exploring from that base. The weather forecast is for summer heat, increasing from 21deg today to the late 20s by the end of the week. We’ll hopefully be able to cycle along the FLAT Canal du Midi to the famous medieval cite, with other options to visit Narbonne or Perpignan, or back to Toulouse.