Day 12: Maljasset to Larche

A long day with a boring start. The first 11 km(!) are along the asphalt road. They have actually made GR5 paths  a short distance from the road near the river, but we kept losing this path so eventually we gave up and just followed the road instead. It’s not a busy road and the views are good. Near the end of the roadwalking the river runs through a dramatic gorge crossed by a stone bridge, Le Pont Châtelet. After crossing the bridge we followed the GR5 which luckily left the road, and began our climb up through the forest to reach Fouillouse.

Even though the road was boring, at least the valley was pretty...

Our plan was to have lunch there but we reached Fouillouse early so the restaurants weren’t actually open yet. Still, that meant we had time to buy cheese. After Fouillouse we climbed up through a valley to reach the Col de Vallonnet where we had our second lunch. Hiking turns us into hobbits. The terrain was rocky but the path was good. We passed the old ruins of Baraquements de Viraysse before reaching the Col de Voldemort (Mallemort). A bit further east is the Col de Sauron (Sautron) so basically this bit of France is Evil HQ.

Tête de Sauron in the shadows

From the Col it’s basically straight down to Larche. The descent was not nearly as steep as that of the previous day so all in all we were feeling quite good when we pitched our tent. Too lazy to cook, though, so we had pizza at the gîte.