Fall colors while rock climbing
Every other weekend the kids attend the church youth group. The first meeting of the month is an outing and the second consists of middle (collège) and high (lycée) groups together for fun, food, and fellowship. Since September both kids have attended the collège group. In America Z would be in the high school group, yet in France he’s considered a collège student until 10th grade. Both kids have enjoyed their English speaking sibling during youth group. In September they went ice skating and in October they enjoyed rock climbing.
This month the parents of the French lycée students have asked to move Z up from collège to lycée. Z’s maturity level is different from the boys in the collège group, who are 11-13 years old, and would fit better with the kids of the lycée group, who speak more English. He is up for the new adventure.
M had asked me to join her for the rock climbing outing after church. All the carpooling arrangements were made and lunches were packed. Since I was staying I volunteered to bring home the kids from neighboring villages. Once church was over she decided I did not need to stay with her. Hmm, now what to do for the next 3.5 hours? Randy mentioned grabbing some coffee and enjoying the day. Sounded like a great plan, especially since my lunch was already packed. One small problem, many places are closed on Sundays here. I never grabbed coffee but took to the road. Looking at my Google map pinned with surrounding areas of interest, I found some relatively near the side of town as rock climbing. So off I went driving through amazing scenery.
Just what I needed on a fall day, crisp blue skies, yellow foliage, curvy mountain roads following a meandering river, familiar music to sing to. I drove NW toward Ganges, out of Herault into the Gard district. Here I found La Cascade de la Vis.
Just past this cascade is the tiny mountain valley village, Saint-Laurent-le-Minier. Approximately 354 people live here. It was so tiny I could not figure out how to drive through it due to the narrow one way streets. A little frustration arose as I was reversing in alleyways and not understanding French directional signs.
I stopped and walked in Laroque, France, a medieval town, population of less than 2,000. http://laroque.fr/Patrimoine-Classe
This place reminded me of Montana, probably because of the wide stream running alongside the forest. It was a perfect place for a moose to saunter out for a drink.
A building along the water has housed almost 2 centuries of work, starting out as a silk factory in 1838, transforming into a lime factory with a mill 1884 to 1920, and finally restored into luxury apartments.
Lees in France 