Cevennes - even better than we expected.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Pradelles, Auvergne, France
We left Arles fairly early to set off up to the Cevennes.      We did a trip along the Cevennes cornice from St-Jean-du-Gard when we stayed at Crespian with the caravan and then visited Mt Aigoual and back down the Herault valley.

This time we planned to go right up through, almost to the Tarn.but first we had to get around Nimes - without using the peage.       We have done this several times and the traffic is always very busy, especially going up the hill towards Ales.
Ales is not a favourite either, with its neverending ring road and roundabouts.
Ales to Florac started off with lots of industry and boring villages, but after a w hile we started to climb and went through miles of deciduous trees, mostly beech ablaze with colour in the brilliant sunlight.
    I tried to take photos but it doesn't do it justice.   We then dropped down with a gorge below us until we reached Florac, glowing in the sun, in the valley below limestone rocks.


We had considered staying at the MH Aire here but it was too early.
We then began to climb up from the valley to the Col de Montmirat at 1042m.    This road was very twisty with spectacular views, which again I can't reproduce properly - especially as the very bright afternoon su was shining right at me.

We continued on to Mende   and then on to Lac de Naussac where we planned to stay at the Aire.
The lake was a beautiful blue in the sunlight, but when we got to the Aire it had a barrier. The procedure to get in was new to us.    Apparently you have to have a French club card which is preloaded and opens the barrier. If you don't have one you have to ring a number with your credit card details and they text you back with a code to open the barrier.    This seemed like an awful lot of bother.   The Aires book said it cost 5e per night, BUT under the new system it was 5e for the first 5hrs then 1e for every subsequent hour- taken from your CC when you open the barrier to leave!!    As it was only 5pm and we wanted to stay the night ....... we quickly turned around and beat a hasty retreat!!!


We went on to Pradelles (one of the 'Most beautiful villages in France')   and as you go up the hill after leaving the village there is a Boucherie/Charcuterie with its own private MH Aire.
The Aire's book says it has room for 20 MH's on grass on the left side of the road.
We found they had expanded and now have room for 26 more MH's on hardstandings behind the shop. on the right hand side.     All pitches have unmetered electricity - you pay 2e for the key in the shop - just give the letter or number of the pitch.
This is a French Passion site - you tell them in the shop you are there and are expected to purchase something.      As well as masses of farm products they also have loads of wine from 3.50e upwards!!
We were glad we had electricity as the site is at about 1200m and it was very cold - when we woke up everything was white with frost - glittering in the sunlight ,with the valleys full of mist.
 
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