Road trip - day 18 - Tuesday

Chillier start this morning, only 13c & a bit cloudy with the forecast saying sunny later, 20c, no wind, no rain!

Up a bit earlier today & out to Saint Paul 3 chateaux for the market. Had a good mooch but didn't buy much apart from fruit & Epinard tarts for tea with bread & salad. The market wound through the streets of the town, taking in around 3 squares as well as the surrounding streets. Had a coffee near the centre - expensive at 7 euros for two capachinos. Also got ripped off at the nougat stall, she saw us coming & offered samples then came the soft sell. We fell for it & asked for 100g at 5 euros .... total price for the piece we picked was 11 euros. It's now in the fridge to be eaten sparingly & certainly not guzzled!!!! Town looks like a nice place to go one evening - lots of bars & restaurants.

Stopped off at the Gite to drop off the shopping before heading for Mornas. On the way we stopped at the poppy field in Bollene for G to perfect his 'poppy field & farmhouse' photo.

Had drink in a bar in Mornas, under some impressive plane trees, overlooking the Autoroute with the cliff face visible through the village. Talked about the route back next week, settled on a few days in the Loire valley if possible to book a Gite for 5 nights before moving on to Brittany. Saw our token Dutch car for the day; on average we see one Dutch car a day. The last GB car we saw was on the motorway & before that on the road to Castle de Joux.

Had a walk through Mornas, not a very pretty village although obviously very old. Took the road (extremely steep!) up to the car park for the Fortress. Parked up & walked up the VERY steep path to get to the castle on the top of the limestone cliffs. Got to the top (with rickety fencing above the sheer drop!) to find it was only accompanied visits with an actor in period dress, no unaccompanied visits. Bought a bottle of water & headed back down hill after G had explored the stone plateau on the other side of the entrance to the fortress. It was just as steep on the way down!!!

What to do next?? G had had a conversation with Blanche, the Gite owner, and remembered she had told him about a hill top town with excellent views about 12km away. In St Paul we saw signs for La Garde Adhemar & G thought it sounded right .... so we went there & it was! A lovely little village with great parking on the top of a promontory overlooking the Rhone valley. We had a wander & soon found that the bar & 2 restaurants shut on a Tuesday, however the church was open (a very simple, but effective place of worship) and also a herb garden just on the slopes with plants relating to healing powers for various ailments. We also visited a gift shop in a house that opened into a rather medieval church looking room.

Back to St Paul for a quick drink at a bar & then a trek through some small windy roads to find the edge of the land at the back of the Gite. Then home for our spinach tart & salad - a simple but tasty meal.

Skyped Laura & mum & dad then spent a while looking for potential accommodation for next week. There are a handful of gites in the Loire valley that would be ok for us, need to ring tomorrow. It is a long way back up towards St Malo!!!