Monday, October 12, 2009

Back in Montana ... oh wait...


A map of France's départements, La Lozère is in red.
Paris is the tiny one in the center of the northern half.


Last month I went with a bunch of friends in Lozère, the least populated area of France. We stayed at Julien's farm house. His parents bought a few abandoned farm houses about 30 years ago and spent most of their holidays in Lozère to rebuild the houses.

La Lozère is a rural and mountainous area which reminded me of my Montana days (big up for my Montana friends!). The mountains in the center of France called "massif central" are really old, they used to be volcanoes. Now these volcanoes are just some nicely curved (but tall) hills due to eons of erosion.

Julien's farm house is located at about 1 kilometer high. So even though it was the end of September, which is warm in the south of France, it was quite cool.



Julien's farm house and Ruben's poncho (find it!)


We took Julien's family wagon and drove straight to the south from Paris. It took about 6 hours to get to his place. Good to know that there are places saved from the chaos of modernity this close :)

The guys started to freak out when they realized they couldn't get any 3G Internet connection with their iPhones down there. Edge only! Sounds like technological Jurassic Park. That pleased me, I work all days long on the Internet, I sure as hell wanted a break from IT stuff.

When we arrived I was a bit sick because of the mountainous roads (left , right, left , right, left , right and oh left, right... x 2346346) So I grabbed a guitar (Julien's awesome Ovation acoustic godess) and played in the garden, breathed the fresh air... But Lydie started screaming at me because I wasn't helping. The others where bringing the food from the van to the kitchen.


Sancho Panza and Rick Hunter
keepers of the farm's law



Being far from any piece of civilization, I enjoyed some good old plain natural activities like drinking beer (belgium, thanks nico!), shooting cans (while sober of course) and barbecue (the sausages down there, oh my god, the sausages, oh my god!!).

We also did some sports, we went kayaking on the Tarn river (the gorges are gorgeous) twice totaling about 24Km, I went running in the morning before breakfast (ok it was only once!) and the others did a couple of hikes while I enjoyed sleeping because of a major sun burn on me face.




Paris Clem!




How sexy a Kayak can be?

Evil Cattle, don't you try you horns on meeeeee!!!


10 comments:

Ruben said...

Lol! Very funny title!

And YES, I love my poncho !

Unknown said...

Dis donc Clément, tu précises pas que le soir au moment de faire à manger tu avais aussi mal au ventre, et aussi le lundi, et aussi le mardi...Et t'es pas si sexy qye ça en kayak ;-)

Unknown said...

Je suis le plus sex du monde, point barre. Et puis j'ai préparé le petit dej et le repas du soir plusieurs fois, sans compter le nettoyage des reste du bbq et le nettoyage de la maison une fois que vous êtes partis :) J'ai fait ma part du boulot!!

nicole said...

c'est règlement de comptes à OK Corral les commentaires! enfin un bon récit à ce mettre sous la dent.Rien ne vaut un bon break dans la nature, malgré la bière et les saussices. Ca à l'air super la lozère

nicole said...

sans les fautes c'est mieux, je rectifie: "se" mettre....ça a l'air...etc

Unknown said...

ça reste gentil :)

Unknown said...

Tres belles fotos! Je voudrais visiter ce region un jour. Comment etait le kayak tout seul? Plus facile que le kayak pour deux? :P

Unknown said...

Je dois remercier Archcéna et Ruben pour les photos, c'est vrai que la Lozère c'est super joli! C'est vrai que le kayak seul c'est beaucoup plus facile :D Enfin, Lydie et Archcéna, après un début difficile, ont bien réussi avec leur canoë, par contre elles étaient deux à pagayer :P

Kluzter Benavides said...

gamste
DUUUDEEEE

You look like Dr Emett Brown in BttF3!!!

Martyyy!!!

Unknown said...

I wish I had the same awesome amp he has in BttF1 !