Languedoc

The Hérault area of Languedoc is incredibly scenic and beautiful - amazing scenery - all very nice after lots of towns and villages. We went to a place called the Cirque de Navacelles, which is in the bottom of a huge crater. You drive up and up and up to get to the rim to look down to it. Basically over millions of years, the river has made an island in the bottom of the crater and the river itself has changed its course. You then drive down and down and down to have a closer look and then up and up and up to get out again - all on windy roads with huge drops and no barriers!

There's a little place called St Guilhem-le-Désert that's stretched out on the side of a ravine. The one street was so narrow that the government built another street parallel to it - you need it to cope with the tourist buses. The town developed around an abbey in the 11th century, which is in the main square along with a simply magnificent tree planted in 1855. Attached to the doors on many of the houses you see a local thistle, the cardabelle, which predicts the weather as it closes when rain's on the way. They won't be doing much for a while I suspect - it's getting pretty warm!

La Couvertoirade is a real "miniature" medieval village - lots of tiny, windy streets of churches and houses, completely enclosed in intact city walls and towers.