A Walk on the Wild Side.

So, a few of my friends from Montpellier are coming up to Marvejols to visit me this weekend. In anticipation of this, I decided to scope out the hiking trails in Marvejols to keep us occupied. The town is in a valley so it is surrounded by mountains, hills really. So, I set off. I crossed the river and found what looked to be a path and commenced my adventure.

I started the slow climb up and realized the path was some sort of exercise path, meaning every few hundred feet there was an activity for the hiker to do, like lift your arms while walking, etc. I didn't participate. I winded my way up the hill until I saw this really cool stone wall at the ridge of the top of the hill. The path didn't seem to be going there, so I off-roaded a little bit and climbed my way up through the brush. And what did I find at the top of the hill??

Pretty much the coolest thing ever. I stumbled immediately into an old, abandonned stone house, complete with fire place and windows. I was incredibly proud of my discovery! I looked up and saw that the house was in front of a field that was enclosed by stone walls. I found an old farm! Well I started walking along the walls and discovered that there were many enclosed fields with many little old, abandonned houses. Too cool. As I was walking along one of the highest walls, I heard a weird scream in the distance. Picture this: me, alone, on the top of a deserted mountain, rural france, creepy scream. I looked around and there was obviously nothing. I kept on my exploring getting more and more excited with every new field and house. Everytime I heard this weird scream though, I would stop and look around. I figured it was a cow, what else could it be... a wolf??

Finally, I'm creeping around on the top of this house when I hear the scream again, I look up and about 100 feet away from me is a pack of people... coming towards me... not looking happy... the leader making the weird cow screaming noise. Suddenly it is clear. I am not welcome here, especially not by myself walking all over the walls. I run down the side of the wall and realized I had no idea how to get away, I sprinted across a field and up another stone wall. Fortunately I stumbled directly on to a path that lead me down the mountain. Needless to say, I ran until I was sure no one was following me.

Background story of why I was scared and ran: So, the French island of Corsica is located just west of Italy in the Mediterranean. It is mainly a vacation island for French people in the summer. Corsicans are an interesting sort of people. The island is always fighting for autonomy and they really don't like outsiders. When I was studying in Aix, my friends and I decided to spend a week in a small town in Corsica called Porto Vecchio. We had no problems with locals, but I've heard some horror stories! My French teacher in Aix said she was once in Corisca hiking and she was about to take a picture of a man on a horse that was leading a caravan through the mountains when the man took out a shotgun and pointed it at her! This story, and this story alone, made me run from these Lozerians. Who knew what they thought I was doing, I looked pretty weird.

Anyway, I'm bringing my friends back there tomorrow and hopefully I will be far less creeped out and no cow screaming strangers will arrive. Gotta love my Lozerian adventures.