Lavaudieu, France 🇫🇷 2023

Date: 6th July 2023

Travelled: 80 kms from Le Puy-en-Velay to Brioude  

Visited: Polignac and Lavaudieu  

Stayed: Briorde Aire CC, free, N45.29500, E03.38750  

Budget: 45 days @ €90 per day

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We spend last evening chatting about life and travels with Vivienne and Mark from blighty. Suddenly we notice it was 9 pm and no one had mentioned dinner so we said our goodbyes and made do with what was easy.

Getting out of the aire in the morning was just as complex as getting in a couple of days ago. We set the GPS for an aire in Polignac which was only 6 kms from Le Puy. Our Le Puy pass paid for a couple of days ago includes a visit to the Fortress Polignac, so why not.

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It’s a long walk up from the carpark to the village, an even longer walk up to fortress, then the spiral staircase. But the views across the valley make it worthwhile.

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So Polignac village and are fortress done. Back in the Hymer we set the GPS for Lavandieu. Less than an hour later with a coffee stop on the way, we arrive.

From our guide book the Most Beautiful Villages in France you’ll find Lavandieu on page 110. Lanvandieu stands on the River Senouire, in the Central Massif area of France.

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The village is a post card but very small. The Benedictine Monks built an abbey here in 1057. The monks left it and a group of nuns continued in the abbey until the French Revolution (1790’s) when such places fell from favour. The Église of Saint-André is all that remains.

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We’ve explored Lavandieu as best we can without spending €6 pp to look at the abbey’s cloisters. Wandering back to the Hymer we R+R for an hour before deciding to continue on to a free aire in Brioude, about 15 minutes further north.

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Michael + Pam