Stage 7: Le Bleymar - Le Pont de Montvert

Apres une nuit de repos, nous sommes prêts à repartir sans trop de courbatures. Mauvais temps avec beaucoup de brouillard qui nous empêche de monter le Mont Lozère. On fait donc un mix entre la route et les chemins lunaires our arriver sur le Pont de Montvert, village avec un pont !!!), pas de lavomatic, donc on meurt sous nos odeurs de pieds mouillés, et des rues jonchées de crottes de chiens!!

Dommage cette petite ville est adorable.

Et on finit par retrouver les memes randonneurs😀.

Au fil de nos ballades à travers champs, nous croisons plein de vaches que Tom harangue à coup de “Bonjour Filet-Mignon”!! Ou alors “Parlez-vous Mooohhh”?  

Il y en bien un qui va être vexé et qui va le poursuivre 😂😱😂!!!

Nous attendons le repas au café du coin entre un the pour nous réchauffer et un petit verre de calva pour nous donner du courage pour l’étape de 30 km demain!! 

Stage 6: La Bastide -Le Bleymar

Sad day as our Birdy Spice girl had to go back home in UK. So we carry the flag of hikers and keep going, through the windmills as if we were on another planet. Then we stopped in a small tiny village Chasserades where we met nice people.

Puis on est passé sous un viaduc et après la forêt et une montée sans fin de 4 heures!!!

Arrivée au Gîte du Poulitou. Plus assez d’énergie pour aller manger au restaurant du coin. On fait donc un tour à la Charcuterie pour acheter des champignons à la grecque, du chou farci (!) et du pâté en route. Que de bons souvenirs!!!

Stage 7. LeBleymard to Le Pont-de-Montvert 22.94Km

Well it was a foggy misty day, we did a long slow climb along the windy D20 to the summit where we enjoyed a grand cafe au lait.

I suppose you could say that the predicted torrential rain didn’t come but just remained a drizzle.

That’s Laurence and Tom in the distance.

In the market this morning we bought some delicious fresh figs that provided much needed sustenance en route.

That would have been a view of mont lozere if not for the fog.

We passed a group of sprightly French hikers as they disappeared into the fog.

There were some amazing stones in region of terminal moraine, Chaos Boulder region.

Stage 6. La Bastide to Le Bleymard 31km

Frankly a killer day today, after a sad goodbye to birds and butterfly spice who caught the train back to the uk. We walked for 9 hours not including a couple of breaks.

The first part of the day was glorious, a long slow climb and we were face to face with windmills.

Then the inevitable downward path and we were rewarded with two medieval villages with the typical symmetrical stone houses, adorned with wooden shutters in an array of colours. The afternoon was tough, rain, wind fog, difficult terrain, but we made it.

Stage 5. Cheylard-l’Evêque to La Bastide-Puylaurant 20.37km

Last night the au refuge du moure in the little hamlet was magnifique. The food just keeps getting better, especially the cheese course every evening. There were 23 walkers staying last night, all French was except for 4 of us. 

 There is a big long distance walking culture in France, with the extensive Grande Randonnee network and gites that provide affordable comfortable clean accommodation with delicious dinner and breakfast included. Today we also ordered a packed lunch since this is the first day with no shop or cafe en route. 

Our route on the app that has proved useful at time, like today when we omitted an 8km loop, but walking along the main road was tough on our feet and legs.

There are so many beautiful stone houses in each little hamlet and village we walk through, but this one needs a little attention.

Some views from today.

Three over achievers in our group, set off  to visit the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, an additional 7km or so.

Stage 4. Brugeyrolles to Le Cherylard - l’Eveque 14.7Km

A beautiful short walk today, the terrain changed and we walked through woods and meadows. The big highlight for Deb was spotting a wild European cat. Apparently these are rare.

We haven’t spent enough time taking about the food, but it has been delicious! With an incredible cheese course everything. More details to follow. 

Stage 4: From Bougeyrolle to Cheynard-l’Eveque- 14.8 km

Great pleasant walk with a wonderful weather!!
We saw a wild cat today, a lot of butterflies and amazing houses.

We arrived at the village Cheylard-L’Évêque after a smooth hike!!

Life in the Gîte d’hôte is generally an adventure by itself. We are 23 residents tonight and we had to leave our shoes in a “buffer” room. Picture 23 pairs of hiking shoes and more vividly envision the odor of these 23 pairs of shoes after 4 days of hiking...

Then we all got busy with activities, from visiting the main and single Street of the village, to hiking a little bit, to journaling or knitting. I personally did some laundry, and as bright as I can be, I have washed my clean laundry and kept the dirty smelly one in my bag pack!! 😱😱😱 Yeah ! Yeah! I
know: I can be very inspired sometimes!! My mom can be so proud of me !

The dinner has been exceptional: 1h45 min of eating salad, lasagna, cheese and tart amandine. Step of 31 km tomorrow: we have a plan to loose these calories!!!

It is 21h50 and as we are Happy campers, we all sleep in the same room and all provide a pleasant concert of snoring every night!!