Ales, France

Ales (Languedoc-Roussillon) Pop: 41,000

Previously, the center of a mining area, Ales is home to La Tour Vieille, a botanical garden and playground. Cathedral Saint Jean-Rural helps keep this a fairy tale place unaffected by excessive tourism.

Punky Connors Irish Pub-Features is supposed to have a brilliant lamb stew. No report in, thus far, on the Ales but we suspect the Stout might be quite good.

Attractions in and near Ales:

Nimes la Romaine, with its history and monuments

Pont du Gard (Roman Aquduct)

Uzes, a quiet town on the border of Provence, and its truffle market

Avignon, the Popes' City, and the Chateauneuf du Pape vineyards

Joyeuse, and its chestnut tree museum

Les Vans

The Cevennes

French Car Rentals

Pont de Montvert beloved of Stevenson, and a little further away

The Chan des Bondons mehirs

Florac - the Cevennes National Park

Corniche des Cevennes - the road along the ridge

St Jean du Gard, with its museum and aquarium

Anduze - the bamboo forest, the steam train and pottery

St Hippolyte du Fort : the silk trail

The Cevenol valleys, each with its rich past made up of silk, coal, chestnut trees, not forgetting the fertile history of religion and the Resistance

Castles: Portes, Rousson, Aujac, Ribaute

Underground Caves: La Cocaliere, Trabuc, Orgnac

Museums: the Mining Museum (a former coal mine), the Desert Museum (retracing the Protestant religion), the Scribe's Museum, the Pre-history Museum

Sites and entertainment, e.g. the Bamboo forest, the Cevenol Steam Train, the Pont du Gard, the pont D'Arc

Exceptional sites (day excursions): les Baux de Provence, the Tarn Gorges