Day 53 Montpellier, Favars

We had arranged an early breakfast and a taxi to the station, and this all worked well. Our main concern had been the change of train at Narbonne on the Med coast where we had only five minutes between trains. On alighting there we were pleased to see that the connecting train to Montpellier left from the other side of the same platform, and that it was five minutes late. After five minutes they decided that this train would have to leave from another platform, so we carried three bags down and up, yet again. All complaints aside, it was a pleasant journey, especially the first leg.

We had originally intended to look around Montpellier for an hour or two before picking up our car. However, it took us over half an hour to find the rental car depot, which was tucked away a hundred metres past the end of the station. There was only a generic sign (symbol) for rental cars but it could certainly have been a great deal clearer, with some logos for example. In the end, since the car was ready, we decided to leave straight away. I had Google instructions for getting out of the city, but my co-driver was not up to the task of interpreting these while looking for street names. But then, signs pointing to Millau came to our rescue, as we knew this was on our route. We just followed these signs until we hit the autoroute. This was a very good road that took us through breath-taking scenery.

After an hour or so we were getting hungry and decided to deviate from the plan by taking the exit leading to Millau, intending to eat there. After a longish drive the descent to the city on the Tarn began and the view of the valley below was just stunning. We stopped at a lookout to admire the distant viaduc - the famous bridge I was keen to drive over (hunger overpowered this desire). We got into town, but parking near possible eateries was difficult, so we left again , intending to eat at the next Aire (service centre). We didn't find any before rejoining the A75. The next Aire happened to be at the same exit we had to get off at anyway. We were stunned by the sight of the old castle on the hill above Sevérac le Chateau.

I had mapped out two routes to get to R's place, but somehow we had great difficulty finding the right road to get onto from inside Sevérac. After taking one wrong route that led us south to within sight of the previous A75 exit, we returned to Sevérac and had the tourist info there set us on the right path, reaching Favars from the north. We (i.e. the navigator) spotted it from the other side of the valley. It made an impressive sight even at that distance.

On arrival we were warmly greeted by R & M. After settling in we were taken on a tour of the establishment. It is extensive and all of it had been repaired, rebuilt and renovated over a period of two years. At 5pm the three children arrived from school and all hell broke loose. Wow, have these kids got excess energy! At this point the dog also joined in, demanding its share of attention. R & M are just lovely people and they have done a superb job making this 14th century farm and 18th century main house a wonderful place to visit.