A DAY OUT IN THE ARDENNES.

Last Sunday, OutlawDaughter and I, after a botched attempt the week before on account of atrocious weather, took to the Ardennes again for a healthy walk from Rochehaut over Frahan to Poupehan and back. Although the weather channel predicted again rain, a glance at the rainfront radar more or less convinced me that by the time we'd arrive in Rochehaut, our planned point of departure, the worst of the rain would be off to the east.

And so it turned out to be. At 2pm tops we parked our vehicle on the Rochehaut parking lot overlooking Frahan:




... and the few drips that still touched us turned out to also be the last, for the rest of the day.

So we off on a somewhat circular way that would lead us down the hill where Rochehaut (lit. High Rock) sits perched overlooking the Semois valley, to Frahan, thence along the "Crêtes de Frahan" towards Poupehan, and then back via the Roche Gilquin.




The long slope towards the Passerelle de Frahan, a foot bridge spanning the Semois, does not pose any difficulty whatsoever:



Not even 100 meters beyond Frahan's small church a path leads up and to the right towards the Crêtes de Frahan. Here we are at the very beginning of the Crêtes:



Along the well-indicated path, which follows the ridge of what is essentially a long narrow peninsula terminating in Frahan, one encounters a number of peculiar rock outcroppings:








At the base of the "peninsula" the rock formations are so numerous that they are dubbed the "Château de Montragut". This small platform is the highest in the whole complex.





And from there we continued our way to Poupehan. View from the "Chaire à Prêcher" viewpoint:




Beyond the "Chaire à prêcher" we descended gradually, coming along another POV the "Pic du Midi" (not much picky about it btw) and a good ten minutes later we were at the bank of the Semois again. We crossed it and continued our way first due north, then a little to the east, where we passed the POV "Roche Gilquin":




At 6pm we were back in Rochehaut. The twelve kloms took us exactly four hours. It's a pity the sky remained heavily overcast all during the walk, otherwise the sunrays would have revealed the full beauty of an "Eté Indien" in the woods surrounding the Semois meanders, but on the other hand we should perhaps just count ourselves lucky we did not get back soaking wet.

Nite.


MFBB.