June 2023
Per our tradition, birthday boy or girl deserves a small treat in a form of a trip. For my birthday it was an amazing van-trip to Catalonia and for Xavier’s 39 years we chose a department of our region that we have never visited before – Lozère. We knew about Lozère just a few things: it’s wild, green and it has the smallest population in the country. This all was more than welcome, as our current life in Toulouse is so hectic that we would kill for some peace and wilderness.
In Lozère we had two main destinations: Aubrac and the Parc National des Cevennes. They turned to have such a different vibe (and the weather too for that matter) so I decided to split this trip into parts. Still we ended up with a huge bunch of photos for both articles, I guess this can’t be cured. :)
Morning, ladies!
This trip was also special for me as usually our main planner-organizer and simply family control freak is Xavier. However, this time he was willing to let things go their way, so it was me who was in charge of everything. Thrilling but also a bit exhausting, in the end I was quite proud of how the things went.
What came as a total surprise to us was the weather. The fear of hot southern summers is so deep that my mind switches to the state of alert in the first days of May, so the last thing I expected was freezing in the end of June. Freezing was what we did. Fortunately, Xavier insisted on us taking a warm blankets, and yet at night it was not enough.
Crazy wildlife
Aubrac
One of the things that we loved the most about this trip was the nature. Duh! I know it sounds obvious and not as a huge revelation but over these days we saw a huge quantity of wild flowers and plants, under the moving clouds they were shining with all possible colors and in our troubled times of climate catastrophy, seeing green grass, diverse flowers and bees busying themselves over the bright petals is a scene that brings some joy and peace.
Le Buron de Cap Combattut
This is definitely not the diet we are used to, and consuming Aligot – the local specialty more than once a month would be fatal to us, but it was impossible not to treat ourselves, especially on a rainy cloudy day.
La Cascade du Déroc
We need no Iceland when we have Cascade du Déroc in Aubrac! Although, we had our share of misfortunes when we ventured on its research so that we had to start it twice… Yet again, all due to our poor weather planning, poor choice of shoes and besides it took us ages to understand where the waterfall was. Trust the indications and the sound of water and you’ll be fine. :)
Checking plants on my phone
Crazy wildlife II
This waterfall was true and real, and one doesn’t necessarily expect to see a waterfall like that in France (or probably my knowledge of French waterfalls has a room for improvement). Even if I avoid comparing countries, but last time we saw such a waterfall and with basalt columns as a bonus eight years ago in Iceland! On a somewhat bigger and wetter scale but still.
Grezes
Probably my favourite picture from this trip
Another thing that strikes me every time we travel in France is that even if this country has a large population with a high urbanization level, still as soon as you leave the big cities, you realize how much space there is! The fact that Lozère is empty by definition only adds some flavour to this impression.
Le Malzieu-Ville
We keep collecting the most beautiful villages in France, and on this trip we could add some more of them in our collection. Le Malzieu-Ville is one of them. Small and a bit too perfect, it was a good start of the day – we were greeted by a beautiful mist over the valley – the best thing to see when you open your van after the night.
Les Loups du Gévaudan
One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the park Les Loups du Gévaudan – it’s a monospecious natural park where everything is about wolves. It was a very pleasant and educational moment, if you ever get there, make sure to go for a guided tour (included in the ticket), and you will never see the wolves the same way again.
He is here to stole the wolves’ food
We were super lucky to see some small wolf cubs, so fresh from the oven that they hadn’t been counted and registered yet! Although tiny, these balls of teeths knew already how to bury their pieces of meat (enormous for their size!) for later. Under the kind surveillance of their mums. As for us, we could still not digest the sausage we devoured the day before.
Marvejols
Our two last stops before entering Cévennes national park were Marvejols and Mende, the last one being the capital of Lozère. Surprisingly we had a crush with Mende. You know how sometimes you just have a good vibe with a town for no particular reason? That was the case. Also a shout-out to happy people in Lozère who managed to see some cherries this year – our nemesis in form of magpies, who had destroyed every fruit even before they riped…
Mende
Late hour is the reason for this crappy baguette from a supermarket, I swear
So, that was Aubrac. As you see, the text I’m putting now on the blog has close to zero of useful and practical information – rather my random thoughts and bits of impressions. But if you really search for some true travel-blog-style infos, check our favourite blog article about Aubrac by BestJobers. Hope you understand French though.
Let’s pass to the second part of this adventure then!
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