April 16 Chasserades to Le Bleymard (17 km 280 m)

The weather was warm and sunny. We posted a batch of cards in the Agence de Post aka a posh B&B in the centre of Chasseradès. Then we walked up past the church following the red and white stripes. By the cemetery we had good views of the viaduct and more snow sheds.

We dropped after the cemetery to walk under the viaduct and then climb on road initially along the railway. We left the railway line and climbed further. We had a last good view of the viaduct.

As happens we were putting the world to rights when we missed the turn off by a cistern, but returned after 10 minutess and found it. The path was steep and we were breathless by the time we reached the D120 on a steep short cut. The signposting in the woods could be better. We dropped down to the ruins of Serremejan in yet another valley, crossed the river and ate lunch.

Then climbed along a forest road often blocked by trees. French footpaths through forests are often wilder than their German equivalents.

We followed a lightly waymarked road past the Sources of the Lot and crossed our third valley of the day to followed the river to a ford. One of us got wet feet. She was not happy. We climbed again and reached Alpiers a hamlet near Bleymard. We followed the Chemin de Stevenson down to Bleymard and found the Logis de France Hotel Remise. As usual there was the collapse of stout party. I had no recollection of the meal, but it was up to the usual Logis standard.
We tried to use the hotel's WLAN without much success, but discovered on the next day, the Carrefour supermarket on the way into town that we passed had WLAN. You had to ask at the desk to get the mot de passe (password).

April 15 La Bastide to Chasserades (12 km 330 m)

This was our hotel of the night before.

 

We crossed the railway line past the classic French railway warning notice and climbed up  over a spur on forest roads. Weather fine sunny with cloudy periods.

From the heights we could see Mont Lozère that we were due to ascend in two days time and were glad we had gaiters to wade through the snow.

We dropped down off the heights in Chabalier, a hamlet where one seems to put dummies in the garden. They can't be scarecrows.

We found a spot to eat lunch,

 crossed a stream

 

and arrived in Chasseradès which had a curiously Northern English moorland feel about it. The railway snow sheds in the background suggests that winters are hard hereabouts.

It was a short day and we arrived early at 14:00 plus minus. We found our hotel, the Hotel Restaurant des Sources. I fell asleep and slept the sleep of the just until 16:00. I had a bad night the night before. Washing was soaked and hung out to dry before we walked round village. Judith found a copy of "Kidnapped" by RLS and disappeared. An excellent dinner: Soup, paté, beef bourgonne, cheese and apple and banana tart. We had a long discussion in English with our neighbour in the dining room – a college teacher in Toulon. He too was walking the route.

April 14 Cheylard l'Eveque to La Bastide Puy-Laurent (21 km 240 m)

 We set off through the forest at a good following the red and white stripes. We had the notes with us, just in case. Judith set off at a good pace.

Higher up we met our first real patches of snow looking rather grey, but still snow.

We stopped for a elevenses by the Lac d'Ouradou.

 

Picnic sites are rare on the route, so we took advantage of it.

 

We dropped steeply down to the castle at Luc and ate lunch. RLS visited the site as the tower in the rear had just been converted to a chapel.

A snake snoozing in the sun. I could have done with 40 winks myself. 

We walked down into Luc where we chatted with a local lady sweeping the street who insisted the water from the spring in the main street was the finest in France. Cleaning the street outside one's house is something very South German and Swiss. Odd to see it in France. We wandered on along the Allier Valley and crossed the bridge into the next departement. We walked on a D road past a pair of mining industry holiday homes which no longer seem to be in use. There had been a small area of coal mining in Alès to the south near St Jean du Gard. It was a warm day and the climb out of Laveyrune seemed to go on for ever. We turned off on a path down to a hamlet with the English sounding name of Rogleton. The path was along a stream and not nice. It was thick grass and squelchy mud. Judith was not a happy camper at this point. Matters were not improved after we crossed the D906 and the river to follow a path parallel to the railway line. After about a kilometre or so we came to a stream that was full of water. Streams are like this. This one was quite deep. The bridge at this point designed to get us across had been taken out in a storm some years ago. We could not see enough stones on the bank to build stepping stones and neither did we fancy the Norwegian technique of wading across in our boots without socks and putting the dry socks afterwards. Our notes suggested we walk back and take a detour adding at least a kilometre to our day. We were quite tired by this time and this suggestion did not go down well. We noticed that the railway builders had incorporated a tunnel in the embankment to let the stream through. There seemed to be a path across the portal behind a coated plastic net fence. We slogged up the embankment and squeezed behind the fence and a several large clumps of brush. We got across. We noticed there was a miniscule red and white stripe on the first fence post. 

We walked back into the forest and then met a pair of old ladies, probably younger than us, plus a large black dog running free. One of the ladies called out that the dog was "gentille et amicable", but we both quite worried by his tactics of jumping around us trying to nip at our hands and ankles. Fortunately nothing happened. We dropped into La Bastide, a small railway town with regular services to the rest of the world. Our hotel for the night: La Grand'Halte was near the station. Dinner was salad, trout chips and fromage blanc with chestnut puree. We are both great fans of fromage blanc which is a soft white cheese eaten with cream or a fruit sauce.

April 13 Pradelles to Le Cheylard-l'Évêque (19 km, 310 m)

The bridge in Langogne where a little girl asked RLS where he came from. The question was of great interest to the family.

Pradelles

We stocked up on fruit in the supermarket in Pradelles and wandered down through what is obviously a very old village. It strikes us as ironic that high trained town planners spend months if not years at the computer workstation designing new city centres without being able to achieve the atmosphere of a village like Pradelles. This has just grown together and new buildings canabalised from older ones.
We left the village to follow muddy paths to Langogne where there is an excellent market on Saturday mornings. There is a Carrefour supermarket, as well and the bridge where Robert Louis was questioned by a young lass looking after a flock of sheep as to where he came from. Langogne does have a number of shops. This was the last chance for any retail therapy or necessary purchases until you reach maybe Florac or St Jean du Gard.  We did not stock up on ham shanks a la RLS, but followed our instructions and the red and white stripes over the river to climb out on a minor road. We turned off the road onto a forest track by Brugeyrolles to walk through through woods and mixed open fields to St Flour de Mercoire.
Our detailed instructions told us to beware of a marshy stretch of path in the woods where one has to walk on a raft after wet weather after the village. The marshy bit has now disappeared. It has not been drained but the route has been realigned. This strikes us on of the disadvantages of following very detailed instructions. If the route is altered  then it can take some time before this information is incorporated into the notes whereas it takes only a few minutes to paint red and white stripes on trees or stones. We sauntered through lovely forests after Fouzillac.
Our hotel the Refuge de Moures in Cheylard was excellent. The hotel not only had WIFI (WLAN), but also a laptop to use to check eMails etc. The beds were comfortable and there was much to read in English and in French The hotel offered packboxes to post gear home if it was all getting too much to carry and a wide range of local jams, honeys and pickles to spice up the picnic baskets.   Dinner was charcuterie, lasagne, cheese and rhubarb tart. We ate with the young French woman we had met in Landos. She was walking the route and just following the red and white signs. We had noticed that we were following the signs as we read through our detailed instructions, so decided to depend on the stripes in future, rather than referring to the notes every few minutes.

Pradelles

Memorial plaque to a local heroine, Jeanne de Verdette who threw what looks like a paving stone at the leader of the protestant troops besieging the village during the Hundred Years War. She killed him and saved the village.

Pradelles

Pradelles

Pradelles

Leaving Pradelles

Langogne market

Agriculture underway.

Sometimes our path was blocked by fallen trees.

Rock formations were of interest to Judith

Not sad but concentrating on the route

Dropping down into Cheylard

April 12 Le Bouchet to Pradelles (20.2 km, 285 m)

Underway between Le Bouchet and Landos

The weather was v windy, cold but clear. We had the odd spot of rain. We had to take our photograph by the statue of RLS and Modestine, his donkey on the way out of the village. The route was flat across fields on a series of field tracks to the village of Landos where we visited a 8 bis huit supermarket for victuals. We met our first fellow walker who was French.  The route stayed flat to Jagonas and onto Arquerjols, where we dropped steeply to cross the valley crossed more elegantly by the railway viaduct. We ate lunch sitting on the bridge walls. There don't appear to be many places for a picnic. We climbed from 950 to 1150m with good views to south of Mont Lozère which we will be clombing shortly. The maps of the area are out of date: The forest shown on map has been clear cut. We descended to Pradelles and then climbed to reach the village and found the Hotel d'Arche easily. It is on the main road through the village. Shortly after we arrived the weather turned nasty and we had a fantastic view of the approaching fronts from our hotel room overlooking the valley. We dozed. By the time we'd woken up and had a shower the weather was cold but dry. We were directed to a local bar for goat's cheese salad, duck with Dauphin potatoes, fromage and creme brulée. The bar looked slightly disreputable, but the food was excellent. It was cold as we left and we went back to the billet.The village is historic and atmospheric, but a warm room is comfortable on a cold night.

Robert Louis Stevenson and Modestine the donkey

The railway viaduct in Arquerjols

The clear cut forest

The nasty weather moves in

April 11, Le Puy to Monastier sur Gazeille by taxi and then by foot to Le Bouchet (22 km, 460 m climbing)

On our way to Monastier the taxi driver suggested, “Vous faites du yoyo aujourd’hui!”. (A lot of up and downs today.) He was right. We had a couple of small valleys to cross and a serious drop to the Loire with a steep path uphill afterwards. We were rewarded during the latter exertions by good views of Beaufort Castle. Going downhill the path had been steep over tree routes and loose stones and so one could not spend too much time looking at the view. 
There was a stiff climb out of valley in strong sunshine. A flock of sheep caused traffic chaos on the road below. Well, there was a queue of three cars following the sheep. There is not much traffic or even people in this part of France. It was a long day with a lot of muddy paths, steep drops and climbs and a cold wind. It was early in the season. It might be better to start in Le Puy and walk to Monastier for an easier first day
We got to the hotel: l'Auberge de Courvige in  Le Bochet-Saint-Nicholas at 18:00 and were worried by notice on the restaurant door about annual holidays. However we were let in via the back door of the pub. We observed this Germany the restaurant was shut but the hotel was open. We had a good meal – a coarse paté with salad, lentils in cream with veal and mushrooms, fromage blanc and chocolate mouse.

RLS set off from here.

The path was probably better in RLS's day!

RLS stopped here!

Beaufort Castle sketched by RLS

Auberge de Courvige in Le Bouchet

April 10 Viernheim to Le Puy

We took a series of trains via Mannheim, Karlsruhe and Lyon to Le Puy. We had lunch on Lyon Part Dieu Station and noticed the sun for the first time in months. We were not the only folk being surprised the square behind the station was full of folks casting clouts. In Le Puy we followed pilgrims on the Camino into the centre and found the IBIS Styles Hotel. It is a new hotel and part of a chain, so it is lacking in quaintness but we had a pleasant room. We ate in Maitre Kanter next door, a chain restaurant but the food is normally excellent. This restaurant was no exception. We had the menu de terroir. The main course was lentils with roast pork leg. The lentils were chewy, in our opinion undercooked. The lentils in Le Puy are famous all over France. We should have had a quick cultural ramble round Le Puy but it had been an early start and a long day, so we hit the sack.