Exploring the Hidden Wonders of Ardeche, France: A Traveler's Paradise

Well, good morning from San Ramez. So we are a little bit north of Provence today in the Ardèche region. Kind of like a reminiscent of a high desert area up here. We're right next to an olive grove, and you can see it's quite a distinct feel to the Provence. So the sun is poking out a little bit, so it should be an exciting day here exploring whatever there is to see in the Ardèche-San Ramez area. First up, I don't know if I can pronounce the name of this one, but it's... and we found this in a... it was like a wild swimming France guidebook. So not sure if that means it's going to be super out into the mountains of France looking for a hidden waterfall, trying to get off the beaten path, and well, you end up on no path. On the side of a cliff looking at a raging torrent of water below you. Has that ever happened to you? If so, then you found the right channel, because that has also happened to me. Could it be I am lost once again in the mountains of France looking for another hidden waterfall? I mean, this is beautiful. It's not what I'm looking for though. Not really a clear path out of here either. Well, this is more like what I was looking for, but I still think there's something further up. Flow is raging at this one, and as you may or may not have been able to tell, I was hoping to be able to slide that, but flow is looking pretty pretty extreme right now. On a day like today when you're just randomly driving through the French countryside in circles, you hope that at some point you reach a destination that you actually are intending to get to. Oh, I got information. That must be what she meant by bottle. So we drive over there and go from there. Okay. Want to do that? Well, what are we doing here? Well, then you don't have to cross the river. See this? So we can go to the lookout. What's the, what I really can't pronounce that. I don't know. Perfect. I'm sorry. Sam's French has come a long way. She now has an authentic, totally authentic French pronunciation. I apologize. Look at these guys. It's like it's Christmas. Holly. The holly tree. That's cool. Whoa. Well, there's the Chateau in the distance. That's cool. Some kind of ruins. Trying to find a waterfall around here somewhere, but that is, that is really cool. There's the Chateau from the other side. Now we're on the other side, and now we're gonna somehow go down there and go that way. Maybe. So this is supposedly a trail, but it feels like we're trespassing on somebody's house or something. Huh? What does that say? Danger. This looks like somebody's house. It looks like the, maybe the trail's closed. The trail is closed because it says to go right. That sucks. It says chutes des matériaux. Access. Something danger chutes. Looks like, oh, well that there's, this building is like falling apart. Maybe we can go the other way. The other way? On the other side? If it feels like you're trespassing, you might just be trespassing, but there's supposed to be a path. But look at this. That's very French. I've been seeing that stuff all day. Lots of French things. The one thing I'll say about France, and it doesn't really strike you till you get here, is that it's very French. Pont de Diable. The devil's point bridge. This is an old Roman bridge. The Romans built this, and it's still standing. It's pretty crazy, and I can't tell, but it looks like they might light it up at night. Looks like there's some lights down there. And this amazing gorge here. Looks like you could probably jump this. So we're going to check out the Madeleine cave here. It's a show cave. No repelling necessary, and probably family-friendly for all ages. Several caves in this region. A lot of limestone, so interesting to see what it looks like. So the cave's tour doesn't start for another five minutes, but they have this beautiful viewpoint of the Gorge de l'Ardèche. So along the, all along this gorge, there are viewpoints, and then eventually you get to a point where the the arc is. The Pont de l'Arc. The Gorge de l'Ardèche. Wow, this is beautiful. You can tell with these massive limestone cliffs, there's going to be a ton of caves in this area. So up until now, we've been passing through a natural passage, but this section is a man-made tunnel that was blasted through that connects these two different caves. I guess the next section is technically the Madeleine cave. Amazing show cave here at Madeleine caves. 700 caves in the Ardèche valley, but only seven are open to the public. What a magnificent example of cave formations. Varied stalactites, stalagmites, columns, helictites, which are extremely rare, and just an overall awesome experience. 13 bucks a person. Includes a free audio guide and free parking. Definitely worth it. Also got epic views of the gorge. So have been increasing my French vocabulary a lot on this trip. Not only have I learned boulangerie and patisserie, now I know Belvedere is a viewpoint. So we have a nice, another Belvedere. There's several Belvederes. They probably pronounce it like Belvedere or something like that. Finally made it to the Pont du Arc here in the Ardèche gorge. One of the most famous sites in the Ardèche gorge. There's birds flying overhead. There's bats flying overhead. We saw a bat flying down near the water, so it's really a treat to see bats before it gets totally dark. Some nice little caves, water caves here. A little tunnel there. Beautiful. A little cliff jump in. Swim through the caverns there. Wow. Might have to come back here tomorrow and jump in and do a little exploring with the headlamp and these little side passages here. And looks like there's something else up there. Like, not really an arc, but maybe like a cavern that goes back a little bit. Awesome. Infamous.