Les collines de l'Ardèche

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Though I technically lived in the department of the Drome at the Montalon’s house, my school and most of my friends were in Ardèche. Ardèche reminds me of Idaho and feels like home. It’s one of the poorer departments economically, with less infrastructure like roads and trains, and tends to be a forgotten little corner of France. Considering how often people think Idaho is in the Midwest (that’s Iowa), I understand the misunderstood and forgotten feeling. Actually, I kind of like it. While the Drome is more geographically diverse and beautiful in some respects, everybody knows it’s more diverse and beautiful. The Drome is well known to French and foreign tourists: it has Valence, it has the Vercors (Pre-Alps), it has the east bank of the Rhone and all its vineyards, and it reaches down to Provence. The Drome is gorgeous, but Ardèche is homey. I was eager to get out in it again.
While Michèle was taking such good care of my parents I took the liberty to slip away a few times to hang out with the friends I had when I lived in France five years ago. I got to meet my friends Lucas (the cartoon artist) and Sandrine for an afternoon in Tournon. One night Luc and I drove up to my friend Regis’s house and I got to see several of the guys I used to hang out with and snowboard with. It was the core group: Fabian, Regis and Luc with the addition of Jano. It was so comforting to see that nothing had changed too much. Of course, we’ve all changed, but the feeling was the same. We still sat around drinking beer and listening to or playing music. There’s always at least one or two drums and usually a guitar. Being utterly unmusical I am content to sit back, watch, listen and soak it all in.
The best night was the one I got to go camping with the guys. Every summer after one of the guy’s grandparents thresh their hay fields they let everybody come and camp a night so we can go to a club that’s out in the hills. There are a few small towns around, but it’s mostly countryside with little roads winding past farms. When we got there the field was already partly covered with tents and cars and one side had been set up with a floodlight and stereo system working off a generator. I’d guess about forty people were there already and there was a lot to eat and drink spread out on the ground under the light. A couple of the guys already knew I was coming, but it was a lot of fun to see the surprise on the faces of people whom I hadn’t seen in years.
A few hours after dark we tidied up as best we could and piled into the cars to go to the club. The building looked like an old stone and wooden farmhouse with a barn attached. Inside it had obviously been turned into a bar with a dance club in the barn part. The place specialized in uniquely brewed beers so I joined in the fine beer tasting, which was a welcome change to the wine tasting I’d been doing the past week. A typically French wild party ensued.
The next morning I got to see the field and surrounding countryside in the light of day. It was more than light out by the time I finally rolled out of the tent. While Cornas and Tournon are just under a hundred meters of elevation, the area we were camped in was over a thousand meters and the air was much fresher that high up. There were some pine forests not far from the field and the sky looked bluer. Up in the Ardèche hills there are no large towns and air pollution is practically nonexistent.
We had a decadent breakfast of cantaloupe melons and chocolaty breads before we hit the road, determined to be back in town in time for me to meet my parents and make it to the Montalon’s house for lunch. We cruised over the hills with the windows open and my head practically hanging out as I tried to get my fill of the countryside I love so much.

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Photos

Le marche de Valence
Valence is in the Drome, but it's the biggest city in the area and Michèle took my parents there for some shopping.

Lycee Gabriel Faure
Before I went out with Lucas and Sandrine Dad took a picture of my in front of my high school. Then Michèle took my parents on a tour of the school, a historical building built in 1536.

Ardèche
These are the hills Regis drove us through on the way up to where we camped.

les collines et les vignes
Ce n'est pas seulement la beaute de l'Ardèche que j'aime, mais aussi la sensation d'etre dans un coin vraiment inconnu.