It took us both a bit of time to work out if our bodies were going to move when we woke up the next morning. But after breakfast and another hot shower, we said our farewells to the Dutch campsite owner and drove in to Vallon Pont d’ Arc. We found the post office and had another wander around the town, before settling down at the Café Leon in the Place Armond Puaux (a good chap who provided money for the town hospital in 1914). The goat’s cheese salad was huge and would have been enough for a main course, but the main course was still to come. A chicken curry with a pile of tagliatelle and floppy vegetables was a strange combination, but actually quite tasty. While we were eating, the carousel was being set up in the centre of the square and as we finished our lunch, the ice cream shop opened up next door. It looked very inviting, but as we hadn’t managed to finish our main course, there was absolutely no room for any dessert…….
We then headed back out to the Gorges de l’ Ardèche and drove along the cliff top road, stopping at almost every belvedere or look out. It really is spectacular scenery and we can’t believe there is no mention of the area in our Fodor’s travel guide book.
It was wonderful being able to look down on the river far below and we couldn’t believe that we could actually stand above our ‘accident blackspot’ of yesterday. It really was quite awful watching two single kayakers heading towards the evil rock and then seeing the first one get in to the same mess as we had; I really wanted to reach out and help them, somehow.
We finally drove past St Martin d’ Ardèche and the scenery flattened out in to the Rhone Valley. We found our way through to Mondragon and checked in to Camping Pinède en Provence, we passed on having any dinner, being still full up from the large lunch and decided that tomorrow would be another much needed rest day.
