Any interest in discovering the Kansas of France?

gagnaou · Post by **gagnaou** » 12 Jun 2015 17:14

This all started a couple of years ago when I was helping a couple of ADVriders from the UK plan a visit to the part of France where I grew up. As I was linking small towns in mapsource using very scenic backroads, I realized that I had left the place before I really got into Adventure riding and that I needed to get back to it!

Fast forward to this spring and I emailed a couple of my riding buddies and told them that this year was the year and that I was going to make it happen! By the time the dust settled RVSparky and I were the only two who committed to the trip.

In the next couple of weeks, I'll be sharing our travel, but for now a few teaser pictures

Food:

Small villages:

Small roads:

Beautiful Scenery:

Old Stone house:

Newer Stone house:

gagnaou · Post by **gagnaou** » 12 Jun 2015 17:14

A couple of weeks before our departure from the US as I was participating in the Cortez Rally, I managed to break my thumb on a small fall during the last stage of the rally.

For a while I thought I would be able to ride while on our trip, but finally reality set in and I realized that with a cast on my right hand there was no way I could safely ride a bike. I called RVsparky and we decided that we will still go on with the plan but rather than renting 2 bikes, we'll rent one bike and a car. The down side of that is that we did less exploration off road than what we would have done otherwise.

So after an overnight flight to Paris, we took the TGV (train) from Paris to Tours to rent the vehicles.

Here I am with Laurent from Ride In Tours standing in front of the 1200 GS that RVsparky was to ride.

From there we made good time to our destination, Boisseuges a little village near Chavaniac Lafayette.

Our accommodation for the week

the garage where the bike was parked every night

Chavaniac Lafayette is named after Lafayette where he was born and raised, here is a small blurb from Wilkipedia about him:

" in the U.S. often known simply as Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought for the United States in the American Revolutionary War. A close friend of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson, Lafayette was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830.

Born in Chavaniac, in the province of Auvergne in south central France, Lafayette came from a wealthy landowning family. He followed its martial tradition, and was commissioned an officer at age 13. He became convinced that the American cause in its revolutionary war was noble, and travelled to the New World seeking glory in it. There, he was made a major general, though initially the 19-year-old was not given troops to command. Wounded during the Battle of Brandywine, he still managed to organize an orderly retreat. He served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he returned home to lobby for an increase in French support. He again sailed to America in 1780, and was given senior positions in the Continental Army. In 1781, troops in Virginia under his command blocked forces led by Cornwallis until other American and French forces could position themselves for the decisive Siege of Yorktown."

gagnaou · Post by **gagnaou** » 12 Jun 2015 17:15

After a good night of rest, best night RVsparky said he had for a long time! (No wonder, we had left a day and half ago and I made him ride over 200 miles in a foreign country at speeds above 80 :evil) we went and had breakfast in a small cafe, coffee and hot chocolate hit the spot! I did not take a picture of it, but it was pretty close to this internet picture

Chatting with the waitress, we learnt that her son had spent 15 years in the North East of the US so she had quite a few stories to tell us about her and her husband travel to the US to go and see their grand kids.

After a quick grocery run, we headed to the small village of Jax and the even smaller village of Loubeyrat to enjoy the view. Unfortunately the weather was foggy so we went on to explore a forest road until we had to turn around.

We then headed to Ally to meet a couple of friends and have lunch. The village of Ally is pretty well known in the area for its windmills.

I was told that the roof entirely turn so that the wings can be oriented in the right direction facing the wind. Most of those have now fallen apart, but there are a few left and I believe they grind some wheat a few times year with them as a tourist attraction. If you are interested, one of them was refurbished as a love nest as per the sign in front of it

and is for rent :evil

not this one though

Lunch was at the Auberge Paysanne, unfortunately we were too hungry that no pictures of the food were taken there

The interesting/neat thing about this place is that it is manned and run by the local farmers. Way back in the 80s, I believe, during the pork crisis, the local farmers of the area facing declining commodity prices pulled time and resources together to create that restaurant and capture some of the value added out of their product. Food was plentiful and pretty typical of the local traditional cuisine.

Right in front of the Auberge

On the way back home, we made a small detour to go and visit the Mont Mouchet.

Because the area was so remote and rugged during world war II, there was an important resistance activity in the area. This site was the location of a battle that was pretty destructive to the locale communities. For those interested in more details, here is what wilkipedia says about it:

"The Maquis du Mont Mouchet were a group of French resistance fighters during the Second World War. Based at Mont Mouchet, its goal was to delay the convergence of German forces in the south of France with those in Normandy, in order to aid the Allies (World War II) in the reconquest of France.

The Germans, having discovered the maquis, made several attacks up until May 1944 with about 3,000 men and using aviation and armoured units. The maquisards fought back fiercely.

Little information is available on the German forces. Historians have identified some units:

The Jesser Brigade, formed from veterans of the eastern front (deployed in the Orléans-Pithiviers sector)
1,000 men from the Sicherungs Motorisierte regiment
1,000 men from the Aufklärungs Abteilung
These were reinforced from:

Regiment 2 of the 2 Ost Bataillon of the Freiwilligen Stamm:
The Volga Tatar legion stationed at Puy-en-Velay
The Azerbaidjan legion stationed at Rodez (former 804th battalion ?)
The 3rd Battalion of the SS Polizei Regiment 19
A battery of the artillery regiment 28 (189th reserve division)
Battalion of DCA 958
3 motorised response detachments of the Feldgendarmerie
An armored reconnaissance platoon originating from Paris
2 Luftwaffe squadrons from Aulnat airbase
After several days of combat, the final German attack forced the maquisards to fall back and disperse. Out of revenge for their previous losses, the Germans pillaged several of the surrounding villages, including Clavières.

In the course of the battles, the French Forces of the Interior sustained severe losses: 238 killed and 180 wounded as well as about 100 hostages executed by the Nazis."

Around the monument we went for a small hike enjoying the smell and the sound of the local forest.

On that hike we saw some remnants of some structure put in place to collect rain fall water when the area was covered of prairies and used to raise livestock.

gagnaou · Post by **gagnaou** » 12 Jun 2015 17:16

The next day the plan was to follow the "Vallee du Haut Allier" and then meandered our way back home.

Our first stop was Chanteuges and its Abbaye. The earliest written pieces found about the place date from 936 so it is fair to believe that it was founded sometimes before that date.

We parked the vehicles on the main street and started walking the small street to get to the Abbaye.

Once to the top we quickly toured the buildings and enjoyed the view

RVsparky loves old doors, here is one we saw on the way up

gagnaou · Post by **gagnaou** » 12 Jun 2015 17:17

Following the valley, we then got to Saint Arcons d'Allier

In the 70s, like most of the villages in the area, after having lost so many people moving to larger cities, a lot of houses were falling apart and its future was looking pretty bleak. Under the impulsion of a few local people who wanted to turn things around, they were able to source some funds and invested a lot of time to restore the castle and buying out houses and restoring them in order to transform the village in a hotel where each room would be a small house in the village.

As RVsparky and I walked the street of the village, we saw a few signs saying that some houses were for sale so I am not quite sure what happened to that neat idea.

Fishermen in the river:

Some people did a tremendous job in transforming this old mill

gagnaou · Post by **gagnaou** » 12 Jun 2015 17:18

From there we followed the road and drove by this church in the middle of nowhere beside the river.

Then the fun begun, there were signs that the road was closed ahead but I thought that we could make it to the turn we wanted. When we got to Prades, the bridge on the Seuges river was closed. The local tried to convinced RVsparky to go on on a couple of planks but he did not want to leave his guide and we turn around to find a different way to make it to Notre Dame D'estours.

here is RVsparky looking at 2 different layers of Lava by Prades

Here he is coming back as he missed that I stopped on the side of the road to take a picture.

RVsparky scouting our way down to the church.

I have always loved coming here, it is beautiful just quiet, listening to the river down below and the riding on an enduro bike down through the river and up the other side is absolutely amazing!

Here is a picture from way back when, kind of amazing to see how the vegetation has changed...This part of France is definitely getting less farmed and more and more wooded

Can you spot the white cross accross the valley in a patch of yellow flowers

Looking down at the river

From there we headed to Saugues for some quick lunch then went through a few small towns before heading home for a small hike in the country side around the village.

Here a few pictures of that afternoon, the weather was great but it was about to change

Taking a short break

Lavoir where they used to wash clothes before running water.

gagnaou · Post by **gagnaou** » 12 Jun 2015 17:19

The next day, we decided to head out and follow the Senouire river going down hill. The first stop is in Paulhaguet. The town is barely awake and we find minimal traffic going through it.

Reliving the past, I came to that house numerous times growing up, this is where my Dad grew up and where my grand ma used to live. One of those places where you rarely go to, but that triggers lot of memories just being there again.

We pick up the main road to head down to our next stop Domeyrat. The castle is unfortunately closed so we snapped a few pictures from outside the walls. Probably a good thing it was closed as we took the small road leading to it going the wrong way :rofl

From there we head to Lavaudieu, with it small bridge over the river

Its truncated steeple dating from way back from the french revolution. If I remember right the local people to save their church went ahead and cut the steeple so that the revolution militants did not tear it down.

This village has won several awards for being a "village fleuri", too bad it was kind of grey outside as the pictures are not making it justice.

From there we rode all the way to Auzon following the Senouire and stop in this little village to buy some water.

We climbed up the mountain on a pretty small road to enjoy the view and the fresh smell of pine trees.

Next stop was the local KTM dealer as RVSparky wanted to buy some KTM gear (he is a KTM guy at heart ;-0 ).

After dodging the rain, we arrive in Boudes to go and take a look at the Vallee des Saints. I have always been fascinated by this place as it offers a very atypical landscape for Auvergne. It is some geological formations reminiscent if when Auvergne used to be under a tropical climate.

After waiting for the sheep herd to cross in front of us

We arrive at this site:

I do oblige and take a sip

This is pretty much bubling water loaded with iron. But that is only part of the interesting story about this source. This area of Auvergne has a lot of vine for wine production. At the beginning of the 19th century, the local farmer dug up this wet spot in his field and discovered that concrete formation. It had been buried by a land slide a long time ago. But the more interesting story is that at the bottom of this vasque, he found some coins showing romans emperors from the first and third century. This would suggest that this was built prior to those dates.

It was then time for a quick lunch in the small town of Saint Germain Lembron

It was good to get some food as we had a long afternoon ahead of us...

gagnaou · Post by **gagnaou** » 12 Jun 2015 17:20