My friend Holger (who I hiked with in New Zealand) mentioned after I posted about the tolls on the way down that there were smaller highways that we could use to avoid the massive tolls, and sent a couple links to an area which looked cool, so instead of traveling back on the tollway, we decided to drive smaller roads and stop for at least a night in the Ardèche. The first part of the drive was actually ok, but the wind was really strong, then eventually the storms caught up with us and we got some massive downpours. We drove a mix of tollways and local roads, we stopped a couple times to check out the views.
Eventually we got a hotel in Alès, we actually debated getting a fancy hotel with a private hot tub, because we found a great deal on one, but opted instead to save money and get a cheap one, particularly as we spent a lot more time in town on the vacation than we originally intended. The cheap hotel was fine, but it sure was cheap. We drove into town to get food and everything was closed, even things google said would be open. The town seemed like a ghost town and seemed really creepy. The river through town was massively overflowing and there was a ton of debris floating down the river, including some sizable logs and it was clear there was had been flooding in town by the piles of leaves and branches that were left around signs, cars and anything else that would catch them.
We eventually found a place that was open that had French tacos. Don’t know what a French taco is? Neither did I! Apparently it’s like a burrito, but with assorted fillings, mostly cheese and french fries, and instead of being round like a burrito it’s square and put into a panini type grill. We got two to split, one Thai chicken with veggies and one with mushrooms and cheese. The Thai one was ok, and the first couple bites of the mushroom one was good, but all those fries… it got heavy quickly. I see potential, but I can’t say what we had was particularly great.
On the drive back from acquiring food we noticed the car was making noises… not good.
In the morning we checked out the car and found a large stick stuck on the bottom that was dragging on the ground *phew*. The weather was crap again and the forecast was for crap the day after too, so we decided to drive home instead of checking out the area, however we continued along the smaller roads even though the tollway was much faster, it was fun to drive through the little towns and get a better feel for the area. We stopped a couple times to check out the view. We came across a small cheese shop and got a couple cheeses and some milk, which of course means we had to stop and pick up some fruit and a baguette to go with our cheese. Eventually we gave in and got on the highway accepting that it will save us two extra hours of driving and that’s time we could spend relaxing at home, but at least it didn’t cost us 120 Euros this time!
It was a strange trip, not what we initially intended, but when you’re adventuring outdoors the weather always has the first say, and it’s best to listen and I think we made the best of it. Several locals we talked to said the weather was much crazier than usual this year. We learned some lessons. I definitely need better rain gear for cold weather, except for my jacket, which performed shockingly well. I knew it might snow and there was a chance of snow, but didn’t expect temperatures to be so low consistently, the forecasts in town were dramatically warmer, to a much greater extent than I’m used to (mountains are almost always colder, but the amount of difference seemed larger than in the mountains I’m used to hiking in). The Pyrenees mountains are amazingly beautiful and one of the few places in mainland Europe you can camp freely. I loved them, and I’m sure I’ll return in the future.
Here’s a link to my favorite photos from my Pyrenees trip after being able to edit them https://lightroom.adobe.com/shares/ac27caf753ac4a3dabd4a10386acd78b