Ardèche: land of the chestnuts

Last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the region of Ardèche.

Isabelle's step-father lives in the mountains of Ardèche in very small town.  I didn't realize that we were heading out for the whole week-end until Yann asked me if my bag was packed and ready! Since I just had my big suitcase, he lent me a smaller bag and I threw a few things in for the weekend.
We got there in time for dinner, which turned out to include the regional specialty, chestnuts. The region is known for their chestnuts, which they roast and eat in the fall.

The next morning, we got up and headed out into the mountains to see the area. There aren't many that remain, but this is an example of the thatched roofs that were common in this area.

Up close, you can see how rough the materials are for the roof.

The saucissons secs that are made in the mountains are supposed to be the best in the area because of the way the cows are raised up there.

We stopped at a small boucherie to buy meat and sausage for the family. Every time Isabelle and Yann come up to Ardèche to see Claude, they stop and stock up on some of their favorites that they find in the boucherie there.

The roads in these small mountain towns are so small that in one place they had to cut out part of the wall to make a street wide enough for cars! As long as we're on the subject of the width of the roads, I must say that driving in the mountains was slightly terrifying. Claude was fond of driving very quickly around hairpin turns with rock walls on one side and a sheer drop on the other side! To make matters worse, it was mushroom season and there were lots of cars parked along the road. I survived though! :)

From there we moved on to the top of one of the mountains.  This particular mountain is the source of the Loire!

I was surprised to see that the longest river in France is so tiny at it's source. To be fair, I suppose most rivers start this way, but it's not really something you think of much since you never see them, except for when they are large and powerful.

That cool stone trough is a nice way for the Loire to start off, but this humble PVC pipe is the real origin of the river. I wonder how long it takes for this water I saw to reach the Atlantic?

There was a little shop in this old building to make the spot. The roof was one of those old stone ones. You can see on the left that there was someone fixing it while we were there. He was up there with his daughter for a while. Nothing like being up on a roof!

Inside the shop, there were many regional products for sale including this chestnut liquor. They make the chestnuts here into everything from candied chestnuts to chestnut spread for your bread.

Isabelle enjoyed our little stop at the origin of the Loire!

Behind the shop was the peak of the mountain. It is called Le Mont Gerbier de Joncs. A good number of people were climbing to the top and I would have happily scrambled up there too, but we didn't have enough time. Maybe sometime we'll go back and go all the way up!

After our excellent lunch at a little restaurant in the middle of nowhere, Isabelle and I walked around to see the farm country on the plateau.

The sky was gray and foreboding to one side and blue and cheery to the other.

I'm pretty sure we were trespassing to take this photo, but it was just so pretty that we couldn't help it...shh don't tell anyone.

On our way back home, we stopped by the ruins of a Cistercian abbey called l'Abbaye de Mazan.

Not much remains of the place since the townspeople took the stone to build houses when it was abandoned. All the same, it was possible to see how majestic it had been at one time.

I think there were big flagstones on the ground, but I believe those were all toted away by the villagers as well.

I love the trail of the airplane in the sky over this creek by the abbey. When I was little I called those trails left by airplanes  "skyscrapers" because I thought they were scraping the sky.

Can I just stay here forever?