Falling in love with a part of France we have never been to - Autumn road trip 2024

Exploring Southern France and a long overdue catch up with friends before heading North.

The next week of the road trip had us exploring new parts of France and reconnecting with friends. It was a perfect combination. We found ourselves near Pic Saint Loup and just north of Montpellier, a city that we have never been drawn to, but it surprised us, it was quite stunning and its appeal was helped enormously by the light show that was staged just over the weekend we were there.

L'Arche de l'aqueduc

Castries Aqueduct

Our first home for a few days was a vineyard and whilst the place we stayed wasn't perfect the setting was. It was very close to the town of Castries. It enabled us to do a circular walk around the vineyard and through a local forest. All of which tested mum's legs again. Lots of climbs and quite muddy, with evidence of sangliers, wild boar, to keep us alert too. 

Domaine de L'Arbousier

Thankfully the wine tasting that we could walk to, a minute from our Gite, helped to soothe her pains. As usual we bought more than we should, after a couple of tasters. The vineyard was vast and the peace and quiet was just perfect.

Arc de Triomphe, Montpellier

Getting to Montpellier was an easy 30 minutes from where we stayed. We spent over seven hours in the city as we managed to wander around before the light show started. Buildings were lit up all over the old part of the city including the Arc de Triomphe, which we were surprised to see. We decided that it was best after a time, for mum to be moved around in her chair as the distances were great and the crowds massive. 

Montpellier Cathedral

This wasn’t necessarily the best decision as cobbles made it difficult but it allowed us to see much more than we would have if she had had to walk. The French do light shows on buildings brilliantly and these displays with different themes, set to music, were fantastic. A wine stop, a dinner stop and a pancake stop all helped to make it a great experience. I would love to go back to Montpellier to explore more of the city in daylight.

Keen to get to see Chantal and Paul, we drove the most scenic route we could through Pic Saint Loup following roads with amazing mountain views and many hairpin bends. Knowing we had already booked to come back to this area after our visit made it easier to pull ourselves away. We were also very excited to see Chantal and Paul and the five years that had past since we were last there, seemed like no time at all. 

Lunch in Montmoirac

Conversation and wine flowed freely and it felt like we were back 'home'. A quick morning visit to remind mum about Anduze and then a fabulous afternoon trip out to Mont Bouquet. This is a well known spot for paragliders with incredible views in all directions. We could clearly see the Mountains of the Ardeche, The Cevennes Mountains and the Pre-Alpes. The pictures do not do it justice. The years we had been coming here and there's still so much to discover. The weather was still beautiful, sitting out for lunch in t-shirts is a huge bonus in November, especially after some of the weather we had seen.  It was sad to leave, but we will definitely be back sooner than five years. Covid has a lot to answer for!

Towards the Ardeche and Pre-Alpes

We arrived back into the lovely little town we had previuosly visited, only this time we stayed in the town itself. Castries is lovely, lots of artisan shops, a few boulangeries and a quite quirky deli come wine merchants come fruit and veg seller. Never have I looked at onions and been handed a glass of wine. Needless to say we left buying more wine, as my glass was generously topped up again. Pete had to go back for Daisy to collect the wine the next day.

Pic Saint Loup area has lots of great walks. We decided to do a smaller one from the village of Teyran. This gave us amazing views back to our village and to also see, from a distance, the only private aqueduct in France; it supplied the Chateau in Castries. Another tough climb with some tricky terrain for mum, but yet again she did it and only complained a little. This was justified given how tricky it was! A picnic at the top made this a great afternoon out and confirmed it was good decision to have come back to this area. It will not be our last visit, especially as the little grill restaurant, with a super friendly couple has THE best chocolate mousse in France. L'etape Castries

A day of rain forced us to rest again but we were happy to as our house was a lovely huge space. On leaving Castries I had planned a route up to Clermont Fernand through as much mountain scenery as we could see with planned breakfast and lunch picnic spots with views; the planning was worth it. The A75 is probably one of the most beautiful routes through the centre of France. We started with breakfast pastries at the foot of Pic Saint Loup and The Hortus Cliffs, then through to the Devil’s Bridge at Saint Guilhem de la Desert on the Gorges de l’ Hérault. 

It reached heights of 2800 feet plus, which at times really hurt our ears, but it was a magnificent journey. As usual I couldn’t stop extolling its virtues…every 10 minutes.

Pic Saint Loup

Hortus Cliffs in the distance

Camino/ Chemin!

A brief wander around the beautiful village https://www.saintguilhem-valleeherault.fr/ stopping at lots of Chemin de Saint Jacques signs, made us want to be around here so much more and walking the beautiful paths, possibly even doing some of the Way to Santiago from here too. After a hot chocolate in the village square and little bit of shopping we set off again to find a lovely lunch stop; this time this was on a plateau surrounded by vineyards near Montpreyoux. 

Devil's Bridge over the Gorges de l'Herault

Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert

Eiffel's Viaduc de Garabit 

Millau Viaduct

 Making our way north had us crossing over or near two famous bridges. We have previously stopped and photographed the Millau Viaduct, designed by Norman Foster before, but this trip was simply to cross it;  it is still magnificent and so incredibly high, being the tallest bridge in the world at 343 metres! The other  bridge we passed alongside was designed by Gustav Eiffel in the 1880s.  

Gorges of the Tarn near Millau Viaduct

Puy de Dome in the background

Arriving in Clermont Ferrand was kind of what we had expected, there wasn’t going to be to much to see but we had seen the cathedral from a distance having passed on our way to Puy de Dome on other trips and we wanted it to see it close up. It’s made from the black volcanic rock being right in the middle of the Chaines de Puys, a whole range of extinct volcanoes. We love this area and have climbed the volcanoes a couple of times. Seeing Puy de Dome, the highest volcano in this area, is always special. We also saw the house where Blaise Pascal was born but there wasn't much left to see other than a plaque. 

Clermont Ferrand Cathedral from Place de la Victoire

Place de Jaude

Being at a higher altitude meant it was a chilly day, but the sun was still out so we attempted to park in the city centre; this was a disaster, the whole city seemed to be under road works and we couldn’t find a car park high enough for Daisy; we caused utter chaos as we turned down to one and then realised the 2 meter measurement was width rather than height. Six cars behind us had to reverse and there was a lot of horn beeping! We saw the cathedral and wandered a bit but as it was so cold and nothing was open, so we decided to go to the Michelin museum thinking it would just pass some time and would be ok for an hour. How wrong we were, but for good reasons, it was fantastic. 

A Micheline - a train with tyres!

We spent over thee hours there and learnt lots, who knew they were responsible for so much more than tyres, in particular the idea of ‘pit stops’, road signs in France and the method of concertina folding of road maps! It was really informative with a guide on our phones, we really learnt so much and Pi got to drive a race car at the end! It definitely made the trip to Clermont Ferrand worth it.

A view across the volcanoes standing above Clermont Ferrand

From here it was homeward bound, an overnight stop in Bourges and a quick cold walk again around the town where everything felt shut, was all we could manage. We did stay around long enough to get into the cathedral when it re-opened; we found an Indian restaurant and had a set menu which was intriguing and delicious but so much food. Who knew that goats cheese and honey would work in naan bread? 

Stained glass Bourges Cathedral

Palais Jacques Coeur

Bourges is famous for having the most half timbered houses in France, over 480, we need to come back to find them! It also has a marais, which is the marshlands that have all been turned into gardens and allotments so it is definitely worth a return trip in some warmer weather, and at the right time when things are still open for tourists. We used to say France closes on Mondays (which it does for most of its museums), but we think France also closes for winter; worth remembering for future trips.

Eglise catholique Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc, Rouen

Final visit was to see something that I have wanted to get inside of for years, We think of Rouen as not a great place to be, partly from ending up staying in a very dodgy hotel years ago, which we believe was a brothel (that's another long story), and from usually being really busy to drive through, when travelling down the west coast of France. A journey we make quite often, so it's become a dreaded part of the journey. However the Church of Saint Joan of Arc, has been closed every time we has passed through or stopped. 

The church is next to the site where she was burnt at the stake and it has a very unusual roof. A cross shows the site where she was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1493. The stained glass is beautiful and the roof gives the inside an unusual shape. It's a very modern building and not much to see but glad we finally got inside.

The last few nights proved to be as eventful as some of our earlier days, the weather over the northern coast was stormy, with very high winds and weather warnings for flooding. Staying an extra day in safety, despite the knock on effects of delaying our return, was worth it. A day to relax and reminisce in a cosy house was a perfect way to end the trip. Waking to sunshine meant another altered plan had been for the best, it did make us question though, is this late in Autumn really the best time for a road trip, no matter how brilliant it had been? I'll let you know next year!

Rouen Cathedral