Les Vans in the Ardèche

We stayed in the Ardèche in a vacation house at the edge of Les Vans, which is a cute French town with a couple of narrow streets and old houses, the way I like it very much. 

Our vacation house was on a plateau towering above the town, while Les Vans is in a river valley lower. But we could walk the 2km in half an hour via an old goat trail descending steeply.  It's really a great walk but in 38C it wasn't something we'd climb back up on a daily basis.  So mostly we combined a visit or stop while shopping or driving by from an excursion after which we had to climb with 2-3 pin curves the road upwards to our house. 

On our way from the plateau where our house was hidden...

Our destination down

Start of the trail

A fossile on the rocks

Looking back up to the hill which hides our house up there

In town, we enjoyed some lunches, the market and a dinner. 

Look at his smile when he can have exceptionally a Coke

One restaurant we didn't test is Likoké...founded by Piet Huysentruyt and currently run by his son.  The children really wouldn't have enjoyed it and while I wondered beforehand whether our hosts would want to babysit...they volunteered to do so but once there in the heat we couldn't be bothered to go out for an expensive gastronomic dinner anymore. 

And of course each time we crossed the little town, we had to walk through it, stroll through the same streets (and apparently take exactly the same picture on different days) and watch the shops and old buildings.  That's the best part.