{"id":1697,"date":"2013-04-21T19:13:04","date_gmt":"2013-04-21T18:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=1697"},"modified":"2026-05-26T04:52:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T03:52:00","slug":"not-a-straight-road-to-be-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2013\/04\/21\/not-a-straight-road-to-be-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Not A Straight Road To Be Found"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite a still swollen foot, Rodney opted to drive us on to our next destination\u2026\u2026.wherever that might be.\u00a0 The rain during the night had woken us both up, but by breakfast time it had stopped.\u00a0 Unfortunately, when we finally got around to leaving the campsite around 10:30am it had started again and the temperature had dropped to single digits.\u00a0 We took the D578 through a pretty valley full of tiny settlements and endless trees covered in white blossom; we\u2019ve been told they are cherry and almond trees.\u00a0 At Le Cheylard, after a visit to the Super U we followed the wiggly, wriggly D120 down to Privas through the lovely Valle\u00e9 des l\u2019Eyrieux.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Valee
Vallee des l’ Eyrieux<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Pont
Pont de Chervil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"On
On the road to Aubenas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Privas we joined the wider but almost as wiggly D104 and after lunch inside the van on the top of the Col de l\u2019 Ar\u00e9nier we passed over the Col de Escrinet and down to Aubenas.\u00a0 The views on this section of the road were extensive and somehow just too \u2018big\u2019 for a photo to do justice to.\u00a0 After Aubenas we crossed over the Ardeche River on a bright yellow bridge and found ourselves up on a plateau, where we suddenly noticed that most of the trees actually had green leaves on them.\u00a0 We\u2019d obviously crossed in to a more Mediterranean climate, but it was still darn cold outside today.\u00a0 We drove past Vog\u00fc\u00e9 and followed the D1 down to tonight\u2019s campsite at Domaine Chadeyron where we were greeted by a very cheery owner and we picked our spot for the night.<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, we got up fairly early and then wondered why.\u00a0 It was cold and windy with occasional showers and Rodney\u2019s foot was still not happy, so we both decided to do absolutely nothing for the day.\u00a0 And doing nothing turned out to be most enjoyable.\u00a0 We were running low on milk and bread, but just couldn\u2019t be bothered to move Eileen and we had enough food to get us through a day, so Rodney just had to cut down on his cups of tea. I sewed some applique initials on to our brown fleecy blankets and did a bit of cleaning, we watched some DVDs and did a bit of reading; surprisingly the day disappeared very quickly and we both enjoyed our \u2018lay day\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Handicrafts
Handicrafts on a lay day……<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Sunday morning we heard our first cuckoo, it must be Spring at last, so we thought we better get out amongst it again.\u00a0 After a late breakfast, we told the campsite owner that we would be out for the day, but would be back for another night. In case he was worried we were trying to do a runner, we offered to pay for the previous two nights.\u00a0 He told us there was no need, a handshake was good enough.\u00a0 What a nice chap.\u00a0 We left the campsite and discovered that we were surrounded by lavender fields and vineyards, then we drove down through a very traditional looking village, Lagorce, past our first field of bright yellow rape.\u00a0 It turned out to be a day of \u2018firsts\u2019 as we also saw irises and wisteria in full flower and cacti too.\u00a0 We continued on to Vallon Pont d\u2019 Arc, a rather nice town full of clothing shops and agents selling canoe trips down the Ard\u00e8che River. We managed to find somewhere to buy milk and water and got the day\u2019s baguette from a boulangerie.\u00a0 We then strolled about a bit, purchased a new frock and chatted to one of the canoe agents.\u00a0 Next stop was out at the Pont d\u2019Arc, a stunning place, and it has inspired us to rent a kayak tomorrow and enjoy a leisurely float down through the gorge for the day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The Pont d’Arc<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

But back to today.\u00a0 When we drove out of Vallon, thirteen Porsches drove past us on a roundabout; I think it\u2019s the first time I have ever seen so many Porsches all in one spot, apart from a showroom maybe.\u00a0 We stopped in a lovely old village, Labeaume, a \u2018Plus Beaux Villages de France\u2019.\u00a0 <\/em>It was just about warm enough for our first outdoor picnic, so we took our baguette with us down to a rock on the bank of the Beaume River facing the \u2018Village de Caract\u00e8re\u2019.\u00a0 We finished lunch with our first French ice cream and shuffled along the river\u2019s edge in the beautiful Gorges de la Beaume, before returning to Eileen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Labeaume\"
Labeaume<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We drove a little way north to another \u2018Plus Beaux Villages de France\u2019, Balazuc.\u00a0 It was a very rocky place and a wonderful warren of steep lanes and old stone buildings; it was lovely.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Balazuc
Balazuc rooftops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We finished the day with a third \u2018Plus Beaux Villages de France\u2019, Rochecolombe.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t make it all the way to the top; Rodney was feeling a bit sore and it was getting quite late by now, so we returned to the campsite and cooked up a pre-prepared cottage pie.\u00a0 Rodney noted it contained 40% beef, so as he trotted off to do the washing up he decided that the remainder must have been horse\u2026..<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Rochecolombe\"
Rochecolombe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite a still swollen foot, Rodney opted to drive us on to our next destination\u2026\u2026.wherever that might be.\u00a0 The rain during the night had woken us both up, but by breakfast time it had stopped.\u00a0 Unfortunately, when we finally got around to leaving the campsite around 10:30am it had started again and the temperature had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8416,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions\/8416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}