Pilgrim's Progress – Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK

But I am greedy for life. I do too much of everything all the time. Suddenly one day my heart will fail. The Iron Crab will get me as it got my father. But I am not afraid of The Crab. At least I shall have died from an honourable disease. Perhaps they will put on my tombstone. ‘This Man Died from Living Too Much’.

Ian Fleming – From Russia with Love

Over breakfast, Catherine, the proprietor of La Batejade, shared some of its history. Built in the 18th century, it housed silk weavers. The whole area was a hub for silk manufacturing in the 18th century and there were still a few ancient mulberry trees in her garden.

I was joined for breakfast by 5 walkers from the Landes district of France, who had just completed the Chemin de Stevenson. Breakfast was superb. The croissants were amongst the best I have ever tasted, complemented by Catherine’s home made fig jam and lemon curd. The latter was a complete novelty for the walkers from the Landes.

Catherine showed me a short cut to rejoin the Chemin de Régordane without having to once more run the gauntlet of walking on the verge of a 4 lane highway!

The landscape had completely changed from the Cévennes. Pine clad hillsides were replaced by olive groves and vineyards. With the temperature in the low twenties and the sun high in the sky, I could feel myself being drawn towards the Mediterranean coast.

At the village of Saint Hilaire de Brethmas I passed a Protestant church and took a peek inside. It brought home to me once again that this area of France was a hotbed of resistance to the established Roman Catholic church: first with the Albigensians and Cathars in the 12th century and subsequently with the Camisards in the 17th century.

Mid morning I reached the hilltop village of Vézenobres which must qualify as one of the highlights of the Chemin de Régordane.The village’s principle street is lined with Romanesque houses, composed of dwellings dating from the 11th and 12th centuries which are unique in France.

One of the highlights was the old Hotel de Monfaucon, also known as the Adam and Eve House due to the elaborate carvings above the main doorway.

The fig is one of Vézenobres’ symbols. In the 11th century, the Saint-André fair was held, renowned throughout France for the sale, purchase and exchange of figs from all over Europe. In the fields below the village there are over 1,000 fig trees including over 250 different varieties!

I’d hoped to find a café open in Ners when I arrived there shortly before 2pm but I was out of luck. A group of villagers were sitting outside the Tabac du Midi, supping glasses of chilled beer and rosé. When I politely enquired if I could buy a beer, I was told that the café had just closed but there was a restaurant open lower down in the village. Sadly this proved to be a false trail as it also was closed!

Ners is a small village, but like many of the little villages I had passed in the Cévennes, it had a railway station. The story of the Cévenol railway line is a fascinating one.

Le Cévenol links the city of Nîmes to Clermont Ferrand in Puy de Dôme. Opened in 1870, it took six years to build and cost a staggering 520 million francs. That’s just over one billion euros!

Work commenced on Le Cévenol line in 1864 and it opened in 1870 for both goods and passengers. It’s construction involved the blood and sweat of over six thousand men – many of whom were Scots. When first opened, the voyage from Clermont-Ferrand to Nîmes took ten-and-a-quarter hours by express train and twelve hours by the regular service. The current service takes around 5 hours.

The Cévennes railway was constructed primarily for the transportation to Paris of wine from Languedoc. Languedoc was, and still is, France’s largest wine-producing region. Coal and metals from the mining district of Alès were also transported in abundance on the line.

As I headed towards Russan, my thoughts turned almost inevitably to Bond movies and From Russia with Love.

Everybody has their favourite Bond movie. For me it has to be Goldfinger with the inscrutable Korean sidekick, Oddjob. But From Russia with Love with Ernst Blofeld and the villainous Rosa Kleb with shoes with the retractable blades, also rank pretty highly.

For me there can only be one Bond – Sean Connery. After he was replaced by Roger Moore (perhaps the most overrated actor of his generation) the Bond franchise descended into farce.

The last couple of hours walking to Russan was uneventful and somewhat dull – flat featureless terrain mostly covered in vineyards or fields of recently harvested sunflowers. Judging from the plethora of grapes on the vines, it should be a good harvest!

I arrived at my gite (Gite des Figourières) in Russan shortly after 4pm. Luckily there was room available for me as I’d inadvertently booked myself in for tomorrow rather than today! The gite was immaculate and there were 2 other walkers staying for me to practice my French on. After a long day’s walk, it really was a case of ‘From Russan with Love’.