Although many English voyagers pass very close to this delightful region as they drive south on the A7 to Provence or the Languedoc it is very surprising how few British people have visited the Drôme and are aware of the 'Hilly Drôme' and the beautiful landscapes and rural French ambience that can be found here.

Our nearest town is Hauterives, which is most famous for the Palais Ideal of the Facteur Cheval. The Facteur was the local postman at the turn of the last century, who, inspired by by the strangely shaped stones that he found upon his round, created an extraordinary Palace of Dreams in Hauterives. It is said that both Gaudi and Picasso were inspired by his work.

Hauterives is a very pretty and quintessentially French town with a market on Tuesday mornings, several bars and restaurants, a hotel, shops and a bank. There are also several local family entertainment venues. The town has a fine swimming pool and extensive sports facilities whilst just outside Hauterives there is the Labyrinthe of Hauterives which is a series of fiendish mazes set in landscaped grounds.

The Park Aventura has aerial ropeways ranging from a pleasant stroll through the tree tops to a terrifying 30m high test of stamina and courage. Teenagers love the thrill of the climbing and particularly the zip wires; I find it exciting if scary and an afternoon is quite enough time to do three or more 'runs'. The runs are graded like skiing pistes with yellow being the easiest through green, blue, red and finally black.

 

Walkers and cyclists are all very well catered for in our region with waymarked routes for walkers and VTT (Velos Toutes Terraines) or mountain bikes throughout the area. You can also follow the routes taken by the Facteur Cheval as he did his postal round and collected stones for his Palais. The routes are well marked and maps are available.

Whether you are walking, cycling or driving you will be passing through some of the most attractive countryside in France. It is undeniably hilly with heights rising to 480m above sea level and dropping to deep wooded valleys or combes which, as the area is predominantly sandy and erodes quickly tend to have vertical sides are not easy to cross. Accurate map reading is important! To an English eye the landscape looks quite familiar with the dominant tree being Oak with a good proportion of Sweet Chestnut and Ash. There are however large stands of Robinia or False Acacia which the local woodsmen encourage for fencing stakes and firewood.

The tree and shrub mix gives us quite spectacular Autumn colours with stunning butter yellows, golds and oranges giving way to deep reds and purples. Of particular note is the Persimmon or Kaki which is often found by older farm houses and in October and November the bright orange fruit hang against the deep reddish purple foliage - quite a sight.

Wine

A subject very dear to our hearts and one which became a delightful surprise very soon after we moved here. I had always liked the Côtes du Rhone wines but had not understood just how great a variety of wines existed in the area. From the more tannic  reds of the Northern end of the valley just south of Lyon to the enormously full bodied and mouth filling reds to be found around Avignon and Orange, through the minimal but still very interesting white production - particularly Condrieu, just across the Rhone from Vienne, the choice is astonishing and for wine lovers every day could become a joyous journey of degustation.

Our nearest large Appellations are Hermitage and Crozes Hermitage.We have also AOC St Joseph across the Rhone in the Ardeche.  People generally feel that the Hermitage wines made from Syrah grapes grown on the steep slopes above Tain l'Hermitage are the better but tend to be somewhat offput by the prices. Crozes has a much larger area of vinyards and therefore produces much more and less expensive wine. The quality is generally good but .....if you know the right vignerons you can find some quite astonishing wines at very reasonable prices. We propose to do tasting trips when we will drive and our visitors can taste to their hearts content.

Head about one hour South down the Rhone valley, past Valence and Montelimar and you arrive in the Côtes du Rhone Villages where such poetic sounding villages such as Gigondas, Rasteau, Cairanne and of course, Chateauneuf du Pape produce wonderful rich reds in a climate and landscape which is altogether dryer and more mediterranean in feel to our more temperate climate.