[lagerstarfish]

we're off to the Ardeche for 3 weeks this summer 

"camping" near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc (luxury camping on a Yelloh Village site)

the 10 yr old likes top roping - my wife can belay, so I can lead stuff to get a rope on routes
any crags that you know of with easy routes that would be suitable for us (4s and 5s)?

the 8 yr old likes bouldering - Casteljau looks interesting - anyone been? - other areas?

any local guidebook recommendations for easy sport and bouldering?

also... anyone got any experience of via ferrata suitable for kids (with me supervising/belaying) in that area? guidebooks?

any other top tips for the area?

(I'll be taking fishing gear as per usual  )

cheers

 

[tomtom]

This place? 👍

Camping Naturiste les Templiers
07700 Saint-Remèze, France
https://goo.gl/maps/yiw7w4a7AMjQLq4n8

[lagerstarfish]

that was my first choice

[Oldmanmatt]

My parents lived there from 94 to 2005. Up in Burzet above Aubenas, but they moved there because we visited so often as kids. It was also a two week stop off for me every summer (along with Boux etc) as soon as I could drive.
Casteljau is great, possibly very polished now, but really interesting. The whole area is stunning and days of alternating between climbing and swimming in one of the rivers (a lot of the crags line the “Plages” of the rivers. Aside from the gorge itself, check out Pont Diable, well worth a day trip just to jump off it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pont+diable+france&rlz=1C9BKJA_enGB776GB776&oq=pont+diabl&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l3.4868j0j7&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#istate=lrl:iv&rlimm=3838607849258947167

And the market at Aubenas.

Check out the Granite crags while you’re up there. Less than an hours drive from Valon.

Frankly, there’s way to much to do, the canyoning and kayaking are stupendous; can’t even begin to detail it all. Lynx and Boar abound too, it you wander a little way off the tourist path. Valon gets a bit touristy some days, but there are plenty of quieter options within spitting distance.

Edit:

Just pulled both of my guides off the bookshelf. 1990 and 1995, probably not much good now...

[Ru]

We went there with the kids about 2 years ago, our eldest was just about 6 at the time. The Casteljau bouldering is pretty good for kids, it can be a bit polished on some problems but there is a lot to go at. The bouldering is basically a very deep limestone pavement on top of a big crag at the top of the gorge. As you approach the gorge edge, the gullys between the boulders get much deeper and the sides become route height. Some of these have been developed into cool looking easy sport routes (4s and 5s I think) but I couldn't find any information about them.

The other place that we climbed at with the kids was Baume Escure, which is a weird through-cave next to the river at Casteljau, but at the top of the cave (and the first bit you get to on the path) is a short slabby crag that we did some kids routes at, including a free standing pillar that you can go to the top of. Only about french 3 or 4 in grade, or so. Again it is a bit polished, but the pillar was ok. Mazet Plage has some great (in theory) low end sport routes suitable for sightly more capable kids, but they get regularly used by school groups and are horrendously polished. It's a bit odd as the routes in the 6c and above range seem to get climbed much more infrequently and there are some fantastic routes, probably some of the best sport 6c/7as that I've done anywhere, that are left to get dusty. Those routes are not polished.

A warning about the bolts in that area, some are very old school glue-ins made from thick 1/2 inch steel/iron bar (easy to spot, very chunky, open at the top like a hook, now dark brown in colour). They are glued in with only one leg and were part of some of the earliest large scale bolting in france (and therefore the world probably), in the mid 80s. They look totally bomber, but the glue is now 35 years old and they have been known to fail. They are being gradually replaced, but be careful if you end up using them.

I'm pretty sure there is some via ferrata around that area but we didn't do any.

As you leave Casteljau on the Pais Olive road towards Les Vans (D252) there is a parking area on the right with some marked walks  leaving from it (on Google maps it's oddly marked in german as Wanderparkplatz). One of the these (obvious on the map in the car park) takes you on a loop that takes you onto a path along a cliff ledge over the river. A bit like the catwalk at Malham, but flat and easy to walk along, about 3km long and with about a 100m drop down to the river on one side and spectacular views at some points. It would make a good walk with the kids if you can trust them not to jump off. Restaurant l'Oliver de Paiolive at the end of the same road at the Vans end was great (again on Google Maps).

[lagerstarfish]

great info

thanks guys

 

[Oldmanmatt]

Here’s a wee challenge for ye...

From the cafe at Chaulet le plage, if you walk along the gorge at river level, away from the bridge (can’t remember which way the river flows). Hidden in the undergrowth a few km along (2or3), is a little side gully leading up to the cliffs. We stumbled on it one year, just struck us as odd.
Sure enough, a little way up, as it steepened, there was iron work set into the stone. The gully ended in a high blind cave. The cave was full of old ration tins, a well built fire place, cots and graffiti, made in candle smoke and charcoal. The dates were all from 1943-45 and included pro Maquis slogans etc. Dig out the photos one day.