Aigueze, le Tarn

A minor disaster was averted by Chloe this morning: Kenji had forgotten his backpack in a museum in Lyon yesterday. This would not normally be such a big problem, except for the fact that the museum was closed to the public today and we were leaving for Saint Enimie! Happily, Chloe convinced the museum to let us come pick up the backpack though. I stayed at the hotel to pack which she and Kenji went to the museum, but from what she told us afterwards, it wasn't the most straightforward of experiences!

It was just before ten when we finally got out of Lyon, thanks to the GPS, and headed south on the autoroute. We stopped en route for some excellent (I'm not kidding!) food at the Montelimar "aire" and then exited shortly thereafter to departmental roads which took us to the ancient city of Aigueze.

I had found Aigueze on the list of the most beautiful villages of France, and Aigueze did not disappoint


From aigueze, we headed to Montclus, with its 13th century Chateau (not restored or open unfortunately)


and then headed out on the web of small and winding roads towards the Tarn. Along the way we also stopped at the stunning Chateau Des Portes overlooking steep valleys on each side




My dad had told me about a small town which they had stopped at when they drove up from Italy to Paris during his Sabattical in the late 70's. I was just a young'un at the time, so I have no memory at all of it except for some blurry images of mountain passes and an embankment of snow. Kenji, however remembered it vividly and also remembered the name of the town: Florac. As it turned out, Florac was quite close to where we were going in the Tarn, so we did a small detour and checked out the town


The drive from Florac to our final destination (Saint Enimie) is spectacular -- passing one beautiful town

after another

and a surprising number of privately owned chateaux. After another half hour of cliffside driving we arrived at the Chambre d'Hotes that I had found on the gites-de-france web site (Barbier La Jasse). It had a nice view of the old city

and a frog which periodically jumps in from the second story garden, much to my parents dismay.

After a pizza dinner, we walked around the town, cast contemptuous looks at Le Hotel les Deux Sourcesand were surprised to see schools of HUGE trout near the bridge pilings. I guess the Tarn isn't completely fished out!