Massif Central

We planned our route through France along Vosges, Autoroute du Soleil, Cevennes and then keeping the Northern side of the Pyrenees. However, looking at the map (especially a small scale map, like in school atlases will help), we immediately saw the amount of climbing to be done. That's what is called the Massif Central. A large brown area on the map. An important part is formed by the Auvergne and lots of mountains around it.

Climbing those mountains is quite a task, however with the amount of luggage we have, we thought that saving our energy for Spain and Portugal would be a more wise thing to do. Therefore we decided to take a more western route. A small circle around this brown area on the map. The nice of would be of course that we would encounter a number of French "departements" we had never been before, and would come across some rivers like the Loire, the Dordogne and the Lot.

morvan

the Morvan

train crossing

The Morvan is one of those French National Parks that was always on our wishlist of spending a holiday. We never succeeded in getting there and this time, suddenly we ended up here. As beautiful as we had envisioned it to be. We will be back here for more detailed exploration.

The Auvergne we had been 12 years ago. Also then we visited Vichy. It hadn't changed since then. Still decadent, still too many old ladies with those small dogs, still a good place for eating and drinking under the excuse of the thermal baths.

coffee

morning coffee

afternoon coffee

cafe

After this decadent intermezzo, we were again in for some beautiful nature and landscapes. Because of our route we are not following so much rivers, most of it we are crossing them. They go west, we go south. Which is particular a pity, because it means a lot of ascending and descending. The few times we can follow the river, especially downstream, well they are gorgeous.

dordogne

near the river dordogne

along the river vert

vert

Finally we reached more the regions of the wine and sunflowers. It started of for us with the environment of Cahors. A small wine area, but after trying it the same evening, an area well worth it. The landscape is also well worth it. Unfortunately too much rain and gray days for us. After that our next surprise was that we passed the region of (and village with the name) Armagnac. A liquor also worth trying :-), which again I did the same evening.

cahors wine

the grapes in the Cahors

the origin of the Armagnac