We went to the mountains

Mt Gerbier de Jonc

Yesterday, we headed to the mountains. X's parents took The Girl & I out for lunch. In the summer, the folks here head to the mountains to cool off (at one point, we had to pull out our sweaters so always go prepared). It's beautiful out there & in the summer, everything is green. You just drive past farms with cows, horses, sheeps grazing in the open & the fields all scattered with neat bundles of hay. I realised that this is a part of Ardeche that I don't go to very often. Perhaps this summer, The Girl & I would make some trips here.

Mt Gerbier de Jonc (altitude 1551m) is located in the National Park of Cevennes with the source of the Loire river nearby. If you look really closely at the first photo, you'll see hikers climbing up to the the summit and why wasn't I there, well I wasn't wearing the right shoes.

We still had a little time before our reservation so we stopped at the local market just at the foot of the mountain. Like all markets in France, it's filled with fresh local produce & I was intrigued by what this area has to offer. Let's see what we have

Honey flavored with blue berries, lavander, chestnut etc.

Mini Tarts of Wild Blueberries.
Blueberries is a specialty of the area.
You'll see more of them later.

Lots & lots of country style bread.
Great to pick some up for a picnic.

Air dried sausages which I'd talked about before.

For keeping cheese in the cellar

Looking at all that food has made us hungry & we didn't want to spoil our appetite by sampling everything at the market. So we headed to our restaurant which is in the village of Le Beage. The chef is the son of a family friend so we were keen to try this out. The restaurant serves what is typical of the food you would get around here - good hearty traditional fare. Nothing fancy but good fresh farm produce.

I forgot to take a picture of our main dish but the highlight of the meal has got to be desserts & the home made blue berry jam that they served with frommage blanc.

Assortment of the local charcuterie
- saucisson, cured ham, pate


I, who normally don't eat frommage blanc had 2 helpings.
Creamy cheese with blueberry jam - divine !!

For dessert, all 3 of us wanted more of those delicious blue berries.

We will be back.

In fact I was researching on the internet that there will be a festival of blueberries first week of August in another village in the mountains. I've already noted it down to make a trip there again.