La Montagne et La Châteaux

Today was a national holiday here in France (as I stated in my last post) and after arriving back at the base, a group of five of us decided to hike up the mountain behind the base and see the sites. I had no idea about the history of the place I am living! I will post pictures as I go to illustrate. So we left at 4:00pm and headed up the mountainside toward the castle at the peak. First side note is that everything here seems to have a strong scent. No joke, the smells here are incredibly vivid. On the trail there are flowers and herbs that you can smell as you approach them. There is a herb called "Times" and you can literally follow your nose to the herb. On that note, we picked up some Rosemary to cook with for tomorrow as well. The trail was very pretty, especially as it rounded the top of the mountain. From the trail we could overlook the valley and see the Rhone River, which travels right through the middle of the valley, and multiple towns within our valley.




As we hiked the mountain, the trail got much steeper towards the top, but the sites got even more amazing. First, we ran into a mineshaft. This mineshaft is HUGE. One of the shafts was commercialized and turned into a fine wine cellar. So this shafts were rock quarries that took huge boulders and carried them down to the river for shipping. This is where it gets really interesting. So this valley was actually the provincial capital of the Roman territory of Gaul at the height of Roman empire. The mountain we live on is an old rock quarry that took huge square blocks and shipped them across the empire. The Rhone river which you see in the picture above goes from Lyon to the Mediterranean which provides access to any location in Italy. There's more, just wait. Here is the mineshaft that was turned into a wine cellar, which has since shutdown. As you can see, there was a large group there today (you can drive from the other side of the mountain).


After leaving the mines, we headed further up the hill. Another 2kms and we reached a place called "Troglodyte", meaning "In the Rock". Basically, it is a village built into the side of the mountain. These houses still remain very visible and you can walk throughout the entire village. It's really amazing. It was built sometime around the 1500s I am guessing, as the date on the church was from the 1600s. The village overlooks the entire valley and was actually very easy to defend if need be. Throughout the village there were spaces for gardens and down near where the base is located is where the vineyards were. Each house has a fireplace and a sink and shelves, all carved into the mountain. It's really amazing.
Here are some of the pictures of the village.





Walking even further up the mountain, we reached the peak, where a castle once stood. The castle ruins are very bad, but still recognizable and able to enter. The castle has an incredible panoramic view. Also, there are two trap doors in the castle that go straight into the mountain. Then, another shaft which we happened to find, goes horizontally through the mountain, making an easy escape route if needed. Also, it seems that the castle was hit with a cannon at one point, no idea what time period, but its very evident. I will post some more pictures of this later, as my camera died on the trip and I had to borrow a camera, which isn't here at the moment. Until then, here is the cannon hole in the wall.


So the place where I'm living is actually an incredibly historic site and this valley is extremely significant not only today, but throughout the past. It puts an interesting perspective on where I live. Next time I get up there, I'll be sure to snap pictures of the quarry from the inside, that is an amazing site as well.

Au Revoir