Never "finished" a guidebook before. Until now!!

On Friday, March 6, my latest guest and I went out on a road trip. The farthest we drove was about 2 hours away but between here and there, we saw lots of stuff. We read the guidebook and the map and stopped whenever we saw an intriguing sign. We put off lunch, the bathroom, just to get to something else to see.

I am constantly fascinated by the terrain here but also the history. You can see the Roman ruins, sites where Templars lived, monuments from WWI and sites from the Resistance of WWII. Things are EVERYWHERE. And, once again, look at the differences in the land. This country is so interesting geographically. Compare these photos below to previous ones I've shown you.

The Devil's Bridge: dates to the Roman times, and has had some construction and repair over the centuries.









St. Guilhem le Desert: town dating to 800s. A stopping point on the Catholic pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.





Salagou Lake: Look at how the land has become so red and irony. The lake is a manmade lake that took out a town when it was created in the 60s. I'm going back in the summer as it is supposed to be a major summer attraction.



Lunch in Lozère: When driving back from the Viaduct of Millau in February, I saw this amazing church in the town on Lozère. My friend and I went back to check it out.
While I don't have any photos of the outside, the stained glass was beautiful and the sunny day was a great help. The monument is a beautiful sculpture unlike any war monument that I've ever seen in France. We think it was built more for WWI more than II based on the clothing of the women and children.





A monument on the side of the freeway: This monument is dedicated to members of the French Resistance from WWII. On August 22, 1944, a German patrol found 23 Resistants on their way back from a sabotage mission.


Another terrain change and we're in Templar country. This church, in a fortified village is one of the many Templar ruins here in the south of France. I am so intrigued by everything that is Templar too, and there are so few answers that it remains a cool mystery.

Clearly, all the photos show what an amazingly beautiful day it was: sunny and bright. It doesn't show the crazy, crazy, super crazy winds we drove through. With the winds, it was a little chillier than I would have liked. It was a great Friday. And, like the title suggests: I've actually FINISHED one of my guidebooks, this one: Montpellier and the sites around it. Not sure I'll finish the big book on France, but I'm gonna try!