Yesterday we decided to take a little tour of some of the nearby medieval towns. We have a friend visiting us from the U.S, so it was a good excuse to be tour guides for the day. Although we are in the countryside, there are some beautiful surrounding villages that have maintained their old charm. Getting up at the crack of dawn, to beat the heat, we first headed to L'Argentiere. This town is about 10 minutes away from our home. There used to be an old mine near the area, so the town was named after the metal that was procured there. Most towns in France are centered around a castle, a church, or both. In this case, L'Argentiere has an old medieval castle on the highest point in town. Each summer, the whole town participates in recreating the medieval "atmosphere" by dressing up in medieval costumes and reenacting battles.
The castle at L'Argentiere. You can see the river below it as well.
One of the plazas in the town. Restaurants were just starting to open when we got there yesterday morning.
Next we headed over to Les Vans, because we wanted to visit the shops before they closed at noon. The French love their lunch, so all stores close at noon and don't reopen until one or two. Les Vans is also another charming town, with a beautiful food market every Saturday morning.
The beautiful small streets of Les Vans.
We ended the day with a visit to Vallon Pont D'Arc, which is probably the most famous tourist attraction in the Ardèche. Over the course of time, the Ardèche river has carved through the natural rock found in the area, resulting in the making of the Vallon Pont D'Arc. We don't visit the arch often, because of the amount of tourist, it just feels crowded. My mom remembers when she was younger, that her and her family were usually the only ones swimming and camping near the river during the Summer. Times have changed, and now the river is crowded with swimmers and kayakers. We stayed for only about half an hour, but it was plenty of time to take in the beauty and snap a few pictures.
The walk down to the river, we passed vineyards and were given a great view.
Vallon Pont D'Arc. As you can see it is pretty crowded.
A quick photo, before we headed down to the river.
The heat finally got to us, and we eventually headed back home so we could hop into the pool. We love having friends over so we can show them how beautiful the Ardèche is. It gets a little crowded with the tourist, but we still love it here.
