Today had some serious sight seeing with a gentle drive from north to south through the Parc Natural Régional des Monts d’Ardèche. Wow. This is spectacular with rocky crags over steep, deep valleys. A little snow added even more interest. For the second day I breached the road rules by not have chains in the car for the tyres, although they were not needed. There was warm sunshine to provide relief from the cold air and, at times, close to gale force winds. I started the day with a short walk around the high town in Le Puy hoping to enjoy views of the volcanic plugs and their adornments. Mist did not help but was not all bad news. From my hotel the best access on foot was to the wrong side of the Virgin Mary but I was lucky enough to get a distant clear view from where I charged the car for the day. There are no Tesla Superchargers around here so I picked from the ChargePoint capable chargers, this one was just south of the city in an out of town shopping centre. I arrived with the two charger cables free, plugged in and of course nothing happened! While retrying Pierre arrived in his electric Mini. We discussed for a moment then I tried the other cable and voila charging began. Pierre plugged into the first cable and nothing!. He was great, a nice young man in training with Credit Agricole and after 16 minuted he was plugged in and charging himself. When I got to Alès for the next two nights I topped up without issue at a Carrefour shopping centre ready for tomorrow. I was in plenty of time to enjoy a walk around the city centre close to the hotel. Although the skies were quite threatenning the sun was warm softening the otherwise chilly air. I’ll start with a few snaps from Le Puy and the headline is one of the volcanic plugs, Rocher Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe. Mary and baby Jesus are backlit below and then from a distance. The Cathedral is quite severe standing in the high town commanding the city. Photographs cannot fully capture the majesty of the Ardèche. Here are a few pictures trying to give an impression of the scale and rugged nature. I stopped for walks in two small towns. The first was Montpezat-sous-Bauzon. A treat were the swallows whizzing up and down the main street and stopping for a rest on windowsills. Of course there is always a sizeable church. The one in my second town, Fabras, had an impressive array of bells which seemed to ring a little randomly. The run to Alès was a bit less fun being a main route with a few towns and therefore plenty of traffic. It was also a run through the vineyards of the Ardèche. The afternoon light in Alès made up for the frustration on the road. (You get spoiled with empty scenic roads) The river is the Gardon and it seems a little short of water. I’ve added a couple of humorous photos. The gentleman was walking his little dog in a slightly novel way and the parking system is interesting. These posts were programmed with allowed time. Clever as the time length can be managed remotely. This one showed the car was still there after 74 minutes and 30 seconds beyond the end of the allowed 20 minutes!