We are spending a few days in a very old and quaint Swiss village named Romainmotier.  The village has evolved from its origin as the oldest monastery in Switzerland, founded in the mid to late  5th century CE, and has undergone many periods of growth,  decline,  and restoration.  I have attached some links to the history of the village and the Abbey here and here.

I think it could be said that the village has survived its history,  having been affected by both the Wars of Religion in the 16th century and the revolution against the secular authorities of Bern in the 18th.  This is in the French speaking area of the country, and it seems there is some residual resentment regarding the period of German dominance.  Of course, I may be wrong since I am only repeating a rumor.

We have been relaxing,  walking,  and avoiding the rain as best we can.   We’ve taken a couple of day trips that we’ll address in another post.   As a matter of fact,  I am composing this post while e are traveling to Delemont for a special exhibition of a medieval illustrated Bible

The linked articles have some great pictures of Romainmontier, but I will nonetheless post a few of my own.

We arrived in Montpellier on Sunday,  wandered the streets for a few hours until our apartment was available for check in.   That is also what we did after we checked in,  and for the next three days,  except for Tuesday.

This monument was at the entrance of Place Royale de Peyroy.  I can’t find a reference for its context except a story that an Angel was riding a deer when the lion ate the deer and became the angels means of transport.   I have no idea where that story arose.

The Battle of Clostercamp was a defeat for the English in the Seven Year War, and although heroes were made that day,  I can not find any explanation of the role of unicorns in the victory by French.  I think perhaps this was a creative act of vandalism.

Tuesday was a clear day, and we decided it was the best last chance for Paula to swim in the Mediterranean on this trip.   A short train ride,  short bus ride,  and long walk got us to a nice beach.   I am not a beach person so I decided to take a walk.   I had a professor in graduate school who said she didn’t “do” beach.   I like that way of phrasing it.

While Paula was enjoying the beach near Sète, I was “enjoying” a steep climb to the Chapel Notre Dame dle Salette, which was built in the 19th century for fishermen to worship prior to going out to sea. The hyperlink above provides some interesting information on this site.

Wednesday was laundry day,  and since it was raining, we stayed home for the morning.   In the afternoon we went to the botanical garden.   The garden was started by King Henri IV in the sixteenth century and is the oldest botanical garden in France.

The Place de la Comedie is the place to go for drinks,  sweets, meals, and people watching.  The opera is in the background.

We are currently on a train headed towards Geneva, where we will spend a few nights visiting Paula’s friend.   We are entering the Alpes west of Grenoble

Here is a photo or two from the train.

It’s time to stop writing and to start watching the scenery. Until later…..

This will be a short post tonight.  After two days of rest (which amounted to twenty miles of walking through Nimes checking out the various high points of the city), we headed off to complete our hike of the Chemin de St Gilles.  We will catch up on the Nimes visit in the next few days.

The trail today was mostly (read almost all) on pavement.   As for me,  three was nothing of note on the trip except

1. It is the last stage of the Regordane, and
2. There was not a generator factory in Gènèrac.
3. New shoe insoles make a big difference when walking on pavement.

Paula will have a different perspective and will uploading her observations soon.

Here is today’s graphic.

If you wish to see the recap video,  the link is here.

This is the endpoint of the Chemin, Abbatiale Saint-Gilles du Gard.

Here are a couple of happy,  if not relieved, people marking their arrival at the Abbey. 

We celebrated the completion of our journey with another great meal at our hotel.

I was trying to get a photo of the scores of swallows flying around.   Here is Paula very pleased with herself for successfully photo bombing the occasion.  Yes, that is an umbrella hat, worn by all the fashion conscious pelerins.

Tomorrow, we head to Arles, which is thirteen miles away.  However,  the phrase “you can’t get there from here” is operative here.  Tomorrow is the Fete de le Ascention, which is a big deal here so there is no public transportation available.   if there was public transportation,  it would take two hours and three modes to get there.   We have been both encouraged to and dissuaded from walking there and we decided to pay 50 Euros for a taxi.

We will have more time for composing more stories  tomorrow evening

More later.

Paula will be filling in the details for the day.  I’m just going to blurt something and call it a day.

We arrived in Nimes limping and thankful for a couple recovery days to come.

Here is a photo from our air bnb that will be home until Wednesday.

We are in the historical center of Nimes, a block or so from some Roman ruins.  We’ll post on such types of things over the next few days.

Here is the graphic for today.

It was a long,  tedious day.  It was hot in the sun. But we were blessed with some high clouds that provided some occasional cover and a cooling breeze that made the hike tolerable

If you’d like to view the recap video, here is the Link.

We’ll be in touch.

We are staying in a Chambre d’hōte in Aubarne being hosted by an African couple.   Thierry was born in Algiers when it was a French department,  and Catherine was born in the Belgian Congo.   They are Frence as all get out.  They are a fun couple,  quite entertaining, and have kept is up until it’s almost bedtime.

The facility offers a very Spartan list of amenities,  among which is:

Tomorrow we walk to Nimes, which is about 18 miles.   That’s the longest section we have on this trail,  and the last section with significant elevation gain.   We are taking two rest days in Nimes because we can.

Today was a long day as well,  mostly on pavement,  through pastures, vineyards, and a few very old villages.

Here is the graphic for today.

As you can see,  I’m completely incompetent on judging what the day will bring.   It was not as easy as I expected.

If you would like to see the recap video,  the link is here.

A few of today’s sights:

This bridge crosses the river from Moussac leads to the historical Regodane.   It is a much longer hike to St Gilles,  but with a greater paucity of accommodations.

Today has been a little too much walking,  wine, and food.   It’s time for bed.

Today was a fairly easy walk.  The first five miles were on pavement,  which was good since we didn’t have to clambor over rocks and roots, but a little hard on the feet.   The waymarking was a bit shady in the afternoon, which got us off track a couple of times. Once, we ended up at an airplane landing strip and followed a trail in the right direction until we merged back with the Regodane.   The second time,  we got stuck in a barley field with no apparent way when a hedgerow crossed the trail, and we had to find a way around it.   We finally got to a road but then had to find a way across a deep ditch.

Through impressive use of our powers of observation (which had earlier lapsed,  getting us into the situation) we prevailed.  We actually ended up with a net saving of 0.5 kilometers from the official distance.

Here is today’s graphic.

The elevation profile chart looks formidable,  but it wasn’t that bad. The tracking app turned itself off a couple times, which compressed the horizontal axis a bit.   If you wish to view the recap video,  click this link.

The highlight of the day was walking through the village of Vézénobres, which is a medieval fortress city,  and was an important stop along the Regordane and the Chemin de Saint Gilles.

We took a long break at Saint Hilaire de Brethmas as we rested our weary feet.  Our bench was in the shade, right across from the town church.

The door was locked,  as have been many of the Catholic churches in the Cevennes.  I think they still don’t trust those Huguenots to not burn them down, given the chance.

We are missing the festival in Saint Hilaire that is happening today and tomorrow,  featuring the “manifestation” of the bulls.

I am sure there is no occult meaning behind this.

Later.

Someday I will remember that reality has plans of its own. Yesterday I was confident that today’s hike would be a simple matter,  featuring a nearly one thousand foot drop in elevation over a moderately long trek.   I was certainly in for a surprise.  Nested been the two end points of today’s hike was over 1500 feet in elevation gains.

Here is the graphic for today.

If you would like to view the replay,  it can be found here.

In addition to misjudging the elevation profile,  I also misjudged the accuracy of the AllTrails map.   Apparently, since the Alltrail map was generated,  the group that maintains the Grand Randanné has made significant changes  to the GR700 as it approaches the Ales metropolitan area.  While in the middle of a forest where the waymarking was a bit vague, I trusted the AllTrails map guide  to resolve an inconsistency and we ended up in an area where the we were separated from the trail by a fence, and there were no waymarkings to follow.  Fortunately, there are plenty of trails that can be located on Google Maps, so we eventually found ourselves and the official trail.  I guess it is adventures like this that keep us traveling.

We had considered taking a rest day tomorrow in Alès, but we did a ChatGPT query, asking whether there is any good reason to spend a few days in Alès and Chat said, “Meh!.”  Actually, I need to correct the record, since Paula is averse to me taking license in my stories. We did not queriy ChatGPT.  We got that information from Wikipedia.  However,  we will be taking a couple days off in Nimes starting on Monday.  We understand it is a beautiful city with a rich heritage.

Here are a few photos from the day.

I would have added pictures from the time we we were wandering in the forest, but we didn’t know where we were.

Four more walking days to St. Gilles

At least for this trip.   Todaìy we reached both the halfway point on the Regodane and the last long climb before leaving the mountains.   We are now heading downhill into the Mediterranean climate zone.   Here is the updated chart.

If you would like to see the virtual trail video clip,  click this link.

The Regordane was a mercantile route for several centuries.  At one time, they hauled material using carts,  and as the roads degraded, they began using donkeys.  That practice continued until the 19th century and train lines were created.   There are a number of sections that appear to have been roads, but those sections are interspersed with rocky terrain that is sometimes nearly impassable.

I actually felt a bit sad seeing these mountains for the last time in this journey.  Tomorrow we will hike to Alès (formerly spelled Alais) as we continue to drop in elevation to near sea level.  It will be warmer and start becoming more densely populated as we approach the Mediterranean coast.

Today’s hike was fairly manageable,  for the most part.  However there were two sections that made me question either my own sanity or that of the people who chose  the route for the GR700.  These portions were extremely steep with loose rocks and basalt,  still slippery from last night’s rain.   The Alltrails app, which I have been using as a guide, indicated that some portions of those segments exceeded 50% incline (that means greater than 45 degrees). 

I have been learning more about using the AllTrails app and figured out today how to  make a hyperlink to the daily recap as a hyperlink.   The recap is a short video clip that traces the trail in something akin to a virtual reality format.   I find it pretty impressive.  As far as I can tell,  there is no way to test this link until this post is published.  I hope it works. https://www.alltrails.com/en/explore/recording/activity-may-20-2025-761b42c?i=SyFH7k83i6QwpcBXCblxpqHX9gxWT91M&utm_medium=tagalong&utm_source=alltrails_virality

I did not take very many decent photos today.

Paula has been keeping up with the day to day of our current travels, and I have been remiss.  Here is a little background on the hike we are taking.

The trail is called the Regodane, which is an old trading route dating to the Roman Empire.  The route also is a was a popular pilgrimage route,  the Chemin de Saint Gilles.  The Chemin is roughly parallel with and frequently intersects with the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail. 

The Regodone, also known as GR 700, starts in Le Puy-en-Velay and ends in Saint Gilles on the Mediterranean coast and is approximately 150 miles long.

Following is a quick summary of our hike so far,  with limited commentary and a few photos.

 

 

I am preparing this post in Villefort, which is located about where the blue dot shows in the map, approximately 60 miles from the start.

The trail begins at 2100 feet in elevation,  rises to 4000 feet, and ends at sea level.  Saint Gilles was a seaport in the middle ages and is now several kilometers from the sea.   Either they’ve moved the town or the sea level is not as high as it once was,  equally implausible options given modern ways of thinking.

This day left me drained, and I collapsed into bed as soon as we arrived at our accommodations.  I fought the urge to give up all day long.   I can’t explain this condition since I had trained for months on tougher trails at higher elevations,  carrying the same weight. 

I took a course many years ago where we examined what could be universal human experiences.   One of those was the experience of “enough.”  Enough, not in the sense of “sufficient,” but on the sense of “no more.”  One of the benefits of a a long hike is that you can reach the point where you’ve had enough physical effort, but you can not quit.  What lies beyond enough?  More lies,  possibly. 

Since that first day, we have had bigger challenges, but i did not have the fear of impending defeat as i did on day one.

We continued to gain elevation but the day was much easier.   I actually took photographs.