Friday, July 29, 2011

Lune de Miel ♥ Sainte-Enimie to La Malene ♥ Gorges du Tarn, France


our second day hiking along the river.



we stopped in hauterives, which can only be reached by trails, and had a picnic along the river.





the river was FULL of huge fish!



first look at la malene, down in the valley.


we stayed in a 13th century castle and i called this our "princess" bed. haha!



and of course, they had an amazing restaurant there ...



this was one of our fave dishes on the whole trip: a poached pear, on top of a piece of toast, in a pool of this fabulous blue cheese sauce, topped with bacon. perfect flavor combos! YUMMMMMM!







a very happy hiker.

all fotos by ariel & sam.


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Lune de Miel ♥ Ispagnac to Sainte-Enimie ♥ Gorges du Tarn, France


to get to the start of our next hike, it took a day of crazy traveling! we left arles very early -- took a train and then a un-identified white bus ... and then a taxi to the very small and lovely town of ispagnac, along the gorges du tarn river. we stayed at a wonderful homestay -- where we had a huge room with a loft ... and were supplied with jars of homemade jam, by our host.






there was no one in the town ... it was pretty much empty ... except for one guy who was running around picking roses from the front of people's houses, making a huge bouquet. haha!




that night we prepared our own dinner of baked potatoes, salad, pate, olives and special spring water, from the next town over, that's supposed to have special healing powers.


for dessert, since we had all this AMAZING jam (peach, vanilla/pear, & apple/peach/apricot/banana/orange/vanilla), we got some "formage blanc" because we thought it was yogurt. turns out is was SUPER rich sour cream -- which we ate 5 servings worth of ... topped with way too much jam. soooo good.



the next day we started our hike along the beautiful river!


we found some wild cherries along the trail.










and several hours later, made our way into sainte-enimie.




sainte-enimie, fighting the demon that tried to take over the town.



these flowers are native to the gorges and lots of homes have them displayed on their front doors. so pretty.

all fotos by ariel & sam.