In Vogue and Privas

After two cooler and cloudy days over the weekend, today we're back to warm sunshine, so that's very welcome.

We had another wander round the medieval village and shopping areas of Ruoms this morning, but I didn't really find much I didn't see yesterday and it wasn't much busier than yesterday either.

It's quite a mystery to me how these shops, bars, businesses and restaurants stay open, they always seem to be closed.

These are a few photos of Ruoms I took this morning.

This apparently is a 13th Century fresco depicting St Christopher carrying
Christ on his shoulders ! who knew he did piggybacks ?

By the time we got back to Ed, the sun came out and it was warming up quickly.

We set off for a village called Vogue on l'Ardeche river.

After all, it would be a mistake not to see what's in Vogue ! groan, I know.

It was definitely worth the detour as it is an attractive little village with a viaduct over the river, a chateau on the hill behind the village and a pretty church and square.

Some photos of Vogue

Woohoo, door of the day !

After some lunch, we set off for tonights destination of Privas.

Only about 45 minutes away, but a little further north.

Privas is capital of the Ardèche department. It is the smallest and the only department capital to be a village of any department in France, more on that later.

The motorhome aire is newly built, with immaculate facilities and scenic views of the Ardeche hills and mountains.

It's built on the site of Privas railway station which was demolished in 2001. There is a cycle track on the former railway line leading to Le Pouzin on the Rhone.

I might take a peddle down there tomorrow.

We walked into the village centre late afternoon and quite honestly, it's a small town, not a village at all. I think they're hanging onto that 'village' tag to make them unique in France.

It's not a particularly attractive place either so we didn't hang around there for long.

We had an hour or two sitting outside in the dapple shade next to Ed, enjoying the warm autumn weather.

Some photos of Privas, the best bits anyway

Tonights parkup overlooking the Ardeche hills 

Yup, they're the best bits, ah well, we've seen some great places on this trip, but sadly Privas won't make it onto the memorable highlights list.