A week in the Ardèche: chilling at the pool and the extensive garden

After a few days of cruising through the Alsace, Bourgogne and Auvergne, we crossed the Central Massif to get from Vichy to our first vacation stay for a week in the Ardèche.   

I had not realised the relatively small stretch to get there, was via many departmental roads across the Central Massif, where I was praying to not get any traffic from opposite side.  Fortunately our itinerary seemed quite deserted.  While the boys in the car wowed many views, I just mumbled that I was watching the road and not the gorgeous views while I squeezed the wheel firmly.  To me it was at the same time stressful as nice driving, which probably beat the traffic jams on the autoroute the Soleil which would have only been stressful. 


But finally in the afternoon, after a quick lunch in Les Vans and some grocery shopping we arrived at our little piece of heaven for a week in the Ardèche.   We had rented a little vacation house made in old garden buildings from a family living in the neighbouring building, sharing their huge garden with us and their pool. The latter was in fact not sharing since they never used it while we were there, so in reality it was our own private pool. 

After being ont he road for 4 days in incredible heat, it was incredible to settle and relax in the vast amount of space and quietness.  I promised myself to not get in the car in the first couple of days, which I did.   It was just us, the garden, the pool, books, family games, fresh vegetables that the hosting family shared with us from their garden, their sweet dogs etc.  Awesome, just like I had imagined it and looked forward to it (just the green grass from the pictures had obviously disappeared entirely due to the draught and heat). 

 

A flavour of a week of pool time. 

The vacation house wasn't too big, just right, but totally prepared for outdoor living with a covered patio and an outdoor deck and an extra garden lounge set.   The hosts were very nice and we enjoyed exploring the garden with them and play in other sides of the garden such as the pétanque track or badminton set or the trampoline, ...