Sailors away from the sea

I've long had this thought that the only place a sailor can live away from the sea is in the mountains, that and thoughts about perhaps not impending, but not too distant retirement led to us spending three weeks in a mountain village in southern France to test the theory.

The region comprises lowish mountains, ranging upwards from 250 meters above sea level, at one point the motorway reaches1120 meters (3600 feet if you don't like the metric system), not dissimilar heights to the Lake District but with sunshine and good food.

 

The idea was to see if we really might enjoy living in the mountains and perhaps the nearby rivers might be enough to satisfy the water lust, but if not the Mediterranean is only an hour a thirty minutes away. 

Ancient woodland paths abound, this one a section of what was a pilgrim way which connected Nimes to Santiago de Compostela, shaded by boxwood trees there were literally clouds of butterflies on hot days, not to mention a rather large black snake which I later identified as probably a Montpelier snake, venomous but not fatal.

The softer low hills soon give way to sheer cliffs and plateau, so a 5km hike is very different proposition to my daily walk along the Hamble river, but the views were spectacular. Below Mrs BB leads the way past some significant boulders.

 The nearest town and shop was 5 miles away and 200 meters down in elevation, so walking back from the pub was definitely a non starter. Although there were a lot of cyclists it being France, I did bicycle to a nearby village which was pretty much all uphill, nothing that an electric bicycle wouldn't solve and concluded that we'd need three cars just for redundancy to get around.

Almost every village and town had a twelfth or thirteenth century bridge, church, tower and often all three.

During the whole time we were there we only saw 6 English cars and four of those were at a not too nearby major town which is popular as a center for kayaking and rafting. What was noticeable was how friendly and welcoming everyone was. those who could would often reply to our school level French in English and those who couldn't we managed to get through with a smile and "pas problem, merci and/or bon journee.