One of the things which we have gradually discovered since we have moved out here is the undiscovered splendours of the Parc Regional de Haut Languedoc.
This is a large area of mountains and garrigues (moorlands) within about 30 minutes drive from our house which seems to have just about everything for someone who enjoys being outdoors.
I do not any longer consider Canyoning, Mountain Climbing (when it might involve ropes) or indeed Riding (when it might involve horses) as fun things to do but am partial (when persuaded) to take a canoe trip down the river or a pleasant walk in the hills.

Last week in the bookshop in Beziers we found a book of walks in our part of the Languedoc; Balades en Terres d’Orb and yesterday, Easter Monday , joined by our friend Finola who is visiting, we tried out one of these called “Raouta Saoumas”.

The title is in Occitan and I have not as yet been able to translate it, but it possibly means the route of the summits.
The walk is an old mule track around the village of Saint-Nazaire-De-Laderez, a small sleepy village about 20 mts from us.

Rooftops of Saint Nazaire

We climbed up through the village and made a fairly steep ascent until we reached a pass between two hills.

This provided us with our first bit of joy, from there the whole of the south of Languedoc was stretched out before us, right down to the Mediterranean.
We could make out the towns of Beziers and Sete which must have been about 50 klms to our south. If we had managed to remember the binoculars from the car we would have been able to recognise all the other villages of the valley below us.

The next bit of the walk was a passage through garrigue, fairly splendid in late spring with violets and grape hyacinths on the chemin, and sloe blossom and almonds flowering on the wayside.
After a fairly tough scramble down a very shaley path (Sile’s walking poles were appreciated)

we got to the prettiest part of the walk, along a wood path, shaded by chestnuts which passed an old Olive mill from the 1800’s traversed the mill race,

crossed a stream and led us gently, passed Mimosa trees, just beginning to darken to dull yellow, back into St Nazaire.
There we enjoyed a beer in the Auberge des Acacias and congratulated ourselves on a fairly long walk on what turned out to be one of the first warm days of the season.
According to the book it should take an hour and three quarters, it took us an hour more.
They grade it Moyenne in their difficulty rating, the toughest over facile and tres facile.
We reckoned it had enough challenge to make it rewarding and enough rewards to make those challenges worthwhile.