Cevennes National Park + Mercantour National Park
Cevennes National Park and Mercantour National Park Winter Exploration (Dec 2021) = No. 5 and No. 6
How did I end up visiting Cevennes National Park and Mercantour National Park?
Ever since the visit to the Pyrenees National Park in May, I have set a goal to visit all the national parks in France during my MBA study. However, summer has passed, and weather was getting colder day by day.
I once learned from a teacher in Europe, there is no such thing as bad weather, but only bad clothing for the weather. I thought perhaps by adopting this mindset, I would be able to make it to Cevennes and Mercantour during this winter.
Visit to 8 parks may not sound difficult. However, after taking into account how demanding the MBA and its assignments are, I thought I should be happy to have come this far - leaving my footprint in the 5th and 6th national parks in France.
I have copied the list of national park from Wikipedia
After several trips to the south of France, I came to realize that many of the national parks in France are located at the southern part. Due to this geography, I decided to cover 2 national parks in one trip. To make this happen, I bought a flight ticket to Montpellier, and a train ticket from Montpellier to Nice. With the tickets bought, I started to check rental cars.
The trip highlights
The 1st leg - Cevennes National Park
Arrived pretty early at Montpellier airport, I waited for about 45 minutes before calling up the Rent-A-Car company for a pick up to their car center.
After picking up the car, I decided to made a visit to the nearby Decathlon to buy a ski pant, and a pair of strap-on spiky snow shoes. Right after a quick munch of Pain Au Chocolate, I started the drive to Cevennes National Park.
However, I put Pont du Gard as the transit point in between. It is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge built in the first century AD, and a heritage that carries both the UNESCO World Heritage and Le Label Grand Site de France honor batches.
I initially thought that I would only spend half an hour at this transit. I was wrong. The transit ended up taking 2.5 hours.
After the Pont du Gard visit, I resumed my drive to Ricandels, a small village in the Cevennes National Park. After several tries and reading back the message from the host, I finally arrived at the cottage (AirBnb). Despite the communication barrier, the French speaking host was warm and kind. They offered some food after learning that I brought no food to the cottage.
The next morning, I got myself ready when the sun raised. As recommended by the host, I made it to Chaos de Nimes Le Vieux, a limestone plateau with collections of many odd shape rocks. The site is located between the Florac and Meyrueis in the Cevennes National Park.
The rock formations at this site was absolutely stunning, so stunning that I totally forgot that I needed to get back to the small town before noon as it was Sunday and shops close at 1200hours.
The 2nd leg - Mercantour National Park
To make it to Mercantour, I drove back to the Montpellier Airport and took a train from the Saint-Roch station.
The drive in the morning offered a different foggy valley view.
The train ride took close to 5 hours. After arriving at the Nice Station, I proceeded to the airport to pick up the rental car, all contactless. Before driving to the AirBnb cottage, I stopped by a grocery store to purchase my food supply for the next 2 days.
I did some research on the trails nearby the cottage, and La Gordolasque (M171) was chosen as my top pick. The trail is located about 45 minutes drive from the accommodation.
I started my drive to the trail the next morning at 0900hours. Once arrived at the starting point of the trail, I carried a small backpack with tripod and snow shoes in it to start my hike.
While there was barely any people on the trail at Cevennes, I came across several hikers in Mercantour trail. The most interesting part, wasn't the human, but the few chamois and a Landseer dog (with owner) at the beginning of the trail.
Both Cevennes and Mercantour National Parks cover huge area. The trail that I made was not even 1 percent of what the parks are offering. Nonetheless, these trails are symbolic to my goal, to visit to all the national parks in France.
My transports, accommodation, and F&B
Transport – Having a car to drive around gave me the much desired flexibility and convenience. Some of the park areas are hard to reach by public transport. I would strongly recommend the new car sharing app Liigu that offers the most affordable option to me in Nice.
From Montpellier airport - (Rent-a-Car company) Renault Twingo manual transmission, 2 days, €97 with full insurance coverage
From Nice airport - (Liigu apps) Volkswagen Golf Wagon automatic transmission, 2 days, €70 with full insurance coverage
Accommodation – I opted to stay within the national parks compound. Both of these accommodations are entire unit accommodations, small, compact, yet complete privacy.
- In the Cevennes National Park - Ricandels, Vebron, Languedoc-Roussillon Midi-Pyrénées 48400, France : 2 nights, €79
- In the Mercantour National Park - Place Gén de Gaulle Le Veseou, La Bollène-Vésubie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 06450, France : 2 nights, €90
F&B – I arrived at first accommodation in Cevennes National Park around 2000hours on Saturday. All the grocery stores and restaurant within 1 hour drive were closed by then. Fortunately, the host of the AirBnb was kind enough to spare me some food.
On the second day, I was fully indulged in the Chaos de Nimes le vieux hike I totally forgot that all grocery stores close by 1200hours. After my hike, I went on a food hunting drive and finally found a snack bar that serves steak and fish & chips. The beer and steak would definitely taste better, if the Abu Dhabi race ended fairly for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, a team sponsored by PETRONAS.
Learning a lesson from the Cevennes leg, I made sure I bought sufficient food supply once I picked up the rental car from Nice airport on the 2nd leg, i.e. the Mercantour national park part.
My 3 Plus and 2 Minus:-
3 things I like about this trip:
- I lived in 2 small cottages in village, with very poor phone reception and intermittent internet connection. I enjoyed the silence and peace from being away from civilization and busy city life. I would always trade a 5 star hotel room for this state of tranquility, far away from city.
- I was well equipped for the snow shoeing experience. With the strapped on spiky snow shoes, I was able to enjoy the sloppy trail.
- Meeting with wild Chamois, and a Landseer dog.
2 thing I would do differently if I can turn back the clock:
- Get ready some food before heading to the AirBnb in remote village. There is always a possibility that the place is so remote that we can't find any grocery store nearby.
- I was on the road for most part of this trip. Given sufficient time, I would definitely want to spend longer time in each of the 2 cottages, and immerse in the local villagers' lifestyle.
Surprise learnings of the trip
- As I hiked in the national park, I heard "pong" sound intermittently, coming from far away. I remembered the AirBnb host told me about the hunting in Cevennes. Through this info, I learned to differentiate the "pong" of an avalanche, and the "pong" of the gun shoot. If it is a gun shoot, it will be followed by dogs barking.
- Put aside the flood and tornado, there is really no such thing as bad weather. What matters more is whether we are dressed adequately for the weather. Similarly, in life, put aside tragic loss, there is no bad circumstance, what matters is whether we are ready for the circumstance and how we react to it.