Monday 6th of June Saint-Martin d'Ardeche to Chateauneuf du Rhone

Just when I thought it would never stop raining, it did and today the weather has just got better and better. The sun improves everything and although much of the walking was a bit dull it was a good day.

It's been a different GR everyday and today was no exception. Having left Villefort on the GR 44 a few days ago, I switched to the GR 4 at Les Vans, leaving that at Saint-Martin d'Ardeche heading north today on the GR 42 before finishing on the GR 429 heading east. It's been complicated but once on the GR 9, which I should hit late tomorrow, I follow that all way to the Swiss border.

After returning to the hotel to pick up my IPhone I finally got out of Saint-Martin d'Ardeche at about 8.45 going past the single track road bridge I walked over yesterday. The first few kilometres of the walk went through mixed vine and arable countryside and as the mist cleared it was a pleasant walk.

Bridge at St Martin d'Ardeche

Vineyards to the north of St Martin d'Ardeche

Went past a war memorial on side of the road from a sister for her brother who had been killed within days of the outbreak of the first world war. The memorial amazingly had fresh flowers at it's base.

Climbing higher the countryside reverted to the scrubby evergreen oak I had been walking through yesterday. Went underneath some monumental power cables and after a while worked out that I was heading west along GR 4 variant, the GR 4 F, and saw a sign saying I was on the E4! This is the only E4 sign I have seen in France and as far as I am concerned it shouldn't be there. Ignoring the navigational inconsistency I managed to revert to my version of the E4 and was soon heading north again.

French Pylons

First French E4 sign confirms I'm on the wrong route

Saw two more wild boar on the path, they were sitting in the sun but shot off as I walked past. Didn't realise they were so stripy.

Dropping down again I was soon into fields of peaches and cherries. Cherries are starting to get past it and the peaches just need a few more days.

Peaches

Then arrived at the wonderful village of St Montan, an absolutely stunning medieval village, ancient houses all surrounding a castle perched on a hill. Would have been a lovely place to stay but so would Viviers the town on the west side of the bank of the River Rhone. Lots of Roman buildings here, including a Roman bridge you cross on the way into town.

St-Montan

Bridge before Viviers

As it was I crossed the Rhone and stayed at the Chateauneuf du Rhone, which sounds nice but is a bit of a dump. Thanks for the Trappist monk suggestion from Carole and David, sounds brilliant, unfortunately I had already committed to walking to Dieulefit with a booking there. So it's a long day tomorrow, today was also long enough, 32 kilometres and 900 metres of climb.

Crossing the Rhone

Sunday June 5th Vallons Pont D'Arc to Saint-Martin d'Ardeche

Walking alone again today as Christine has gone back to England. Great to have such a slug of time together and it has propelled me half way across France. In fact in every way I'm now well into the second half of walk. Tomorrow I should cross the Rhone and in preparation for the trip through Vercours. For the next two months I'll be working my way around and through the Alps.

Christine has been really unlucky with the weather and waterproofs have been regular wear for the last five days. We were told that the Ardeche gets five days of rain a year so this solid wet spell is exceptional.

I do need some sustained sunny weather. Current conditions make it hard to get things dry and some of my clothing is getting a bit down at heal. Apparently I carry a slight damp dog smell with me but the main culprit seems to have been my hat which hadn't been washed since Spain. My shoes however are in a bad way and have been damp/wet for days. Not pleasant room mates.

No big turnaround in the weather today. Was drizzling when I left Christine at 8.45 and a thunder storm started at 9.30 and lasted for two hours. I have a really good Berghaus waterproof jacket but the trousers are too lightweight for their own good and it wasn't for large quantities of gaffer tape would have fallen apart a long time ago. By the time the rained eased off my lower half, as usual, was damp to wet.

Maybe it was my mood but the walk felt a bit monotonous. After leaving Vallons Pont D'Arc, and rejoining the GR4 at Salavas (where there was a more convenient hotel than the one we ended up staying in last night across the river), the route took you through endless little holiday homes which were full of French people trying to work out what to do in the rain. After that it was forest of evergreen oak, nice trails but with no real views (not that you would have been able to see very far). The journey was broken by the very pretty village Labastide de Virac but after that it was into the forest again. By now it had stopped raining and I was listening to the Archers omnibus. I didn't notice that I was on the wrong GR4 variant until I had gone quite a long way south but managed to find an alternative route to the right path.

Of course the deviation might have meant that I missed some brilliant views of the Gorge d'Ardeche as the route was quite close to it for much of the time. As it was I didn't see the gorge until I got to Aigueze which is very close to Saint-Martin d'Ardeche. The cliffs must have been well over 100 feet high but you could still see the fish in the river. Could definitely make out, as a different shade of of grey, Mount Ventoux, which looks enormous, my route takes me further north so I won't have the pleasure of trudging up it.

Got to the hotel by four, 28 kilometres (you do travel faster walking alone), it was raining again by 5.30.

Saturday 4th June Les Van to Vallon Pont d'Arc

What a dreadful day.

Two things went wrong, firstly it was mis-sold as a relatively short flat day and secondly the weather continues to be bad. Shame because it's Christine's last day and she was not happy as we struggled to find the hotel at 5.45 in the pouring rain.

For some reason my schedule was about 10 kilometres out, I thought this was a 20k rather than a 30k walk and although we are no longer in the Cevennes we still managed to find over 600 metres of climb.

Went into the town centre in Les Vans to get breakfast and food for the day. It was Saturday, market day and everything was there to buy. It was also dark and sombre and after ten minutes we got our first thunder storm which we were able to watch from the comfort of a cafe. We weren't going to get such comfort later.

Le Vans Market

Pressing on we were soon out of town and dashing into a farm building to escape storm number 2 and watch a dramatic lightening show.

Seriously wet

The rain then eased off and apart from the odd bit of drizzle it looked like we had had the worse. In fact it started to get hot and humid.

After walking across causse-like countryside and through a wood, and through growing numbers of French walkers, we got our first sight of the Gorge d'Ardeche, and walked along it's edge for about a kilometre. The view was great but the smooth wet limestone slabs we were walking along on the very edge of the cliff were treacherous.

Gorge d'Ardeche

Gorge D'Ardeche

Stopped for a coffee in the village of Berrias under the illusion that we were half way and then crossed a flat arable stretch of countryside, a sudden change in the landscape.

Flat country for the first time in a month

At about two we were climbing the hills on the other side and I was telling Christine we had about 7 kilometres to go. At 3pm the lightening started and the deluge began. Although we had a bit of a climb the trail was a good one and we were walking very fast and couldn't really understand why we weren't getting there. We seemed to be going round in circles along an endless high winding trail. It wasn't until nearly 5 that we saw a sign that gave us 4 kilometres to go.

Cliffs near Pont d'Ardeche

The views by the way on that last bit, despite the weather, were great with the River Ardeche winding away below us. Not in the mood to enjoy them and struggling to find the hotel amongst thousands of sodden campers was not exactly a pleasure.

The hotel was a nice one and we had a lovely dinner and Christine forgave me for my scheduling and all was soon right in the world

Stage 10 - Walking through the Ardeche

Leaving the Cevennes National Park, Stage 10 of the E4 takes you through the southern end of the Parc Naturel Regional de Mont d'Ardeche, cut through by the famous Gorge D'Ardeche.  Over four, fairly easy days, the route takes you through some stunning limestone scenary providing a link between the Massif Central and the pre-alpine Vercors.  The plan is to go from Villefort to Chateauneuf-du-Rhone which has excellent transport links.  This involves a distance of around 115 kms, a gain of 2,500 metres and a loss of 3,000.

Day one is a 29 km walk to Berrias-Casteljau. Leaving Villefort, heading east, and walking through the high Cevennes for about 15 kms you arrive literally at the edge of the Rhone Valley (could be views across to the Alps) before heading downhill steeply to Les Vans (22 kms).  Les Vans, which is the southern gateway the Parc Naturel Regional de Mont D'Archeche, looks great and has plenty of accommodation but in the interests of pushing on I plan to go a bit further.  Shortly after Les Vans (now tracking the GR 4) you start to follow to course of the Gorge d'Ardeche  and Berrias-Casteljau is located close to it.

Gorge d'Ardeche

Day two is a short 22 km walk to Vallon Pont d'Arc .  The first 10 km is through cultivated countryside after which you climb a bit and again track the Gorge d'Ardeche.  Although you could go further, Vallon Pont d'Arc is a famous Gorge beauty spot and a good place for a leisurely afternoon.

Natural limestone "bridge" at Vallon Pont d'Arc

Slightly longer walk on day three but 35 km of fairly flat countryside so not too bad.  Again your tracking the Gorge until after about 25 km you "emerge" at Saint- Martin-D'Ardeche.  There are lots of places to stay.

It should be possible to make Chateaneuf-du-Rhone on Day 4.  It's at least 33 kms but the countryside is fairly gentle with 700 metres of climb and descent.  If time is not pressing than Saint Montan would be a great place to stay after about 20 kms.

St Montan